Scheduling Agreements
Faster and error-free processing of customer requirements
Scheduling agreements give you an overview of delivery schedules and deliveries at all times. However, the simultaneous handling of numerous scheduling agreements in the SAP standard is very time-consuming. Problems often arise due to changes that are noticed too late or not made in time.
If you supply your customers with certain goods on a long-term basis, framework agreements are often concluded. These govern what quantities your customers will purchase and over what period of time. SAP systems are able to map the implementation of these agreements - with the help of scheduling agreements. You can create a scheduling agreement in your system for each material number and MRP controller. This lists all quantities called off and all deliveries.
Scheduling agreements exist in numerous industries. However, they play a special role in the automotive industry, where scheduling agreements are the standard and are usually processed via EDI messages that you use to communicate with your customers.
Problems with scheduling agreements in the SAP standard
Scheduling agreements - including those used by automotive suppliers - are a standard feature of SAP systems. They are important in order to have an up-to-date overview of the Progress figures of your customerswhich Cumulative quantities of your deliveries and the Outstanding quantities to have. A fundamental prerequisite for this is that your delivery call-offs are correctly entered into your system.
What are cumulative quantities?
Here we explain everything important about cumulative quantities and their problems in our lexicon.
Once all delivery schedules have been correctly entered into your system, problems can still arise: This mainly happens if you have to make changes or corrections, if the existing data does not fit or if a scheduling agreement has been in place for too long. Changes made by your customers are also challenging, for example when storage locations change or progress figures are reset. You need to notice such changes as quickly as possible before subsequent processes are affected.
Errors in your delivery schedules? You must expect these consequences!
SAP systems are primarily known for continuous and seamless processes. Faulty or incorrect data at one point can therefore have a major impact elsewhere.
For example, if your customer has reset their cumulative quantities for a particular product to zero and communicated this to you in their delivery call-offs, you will receive a large difference to the goods you have already delivered: You have apparently delivered much more than the customer has called off. Suddenly, your customer no longer has any demand. Production no longer has to produce anything, goods no longer have to be reordered and your deliveries are suspended - even though your customer continues to call off goods.
If this happens more often, you may have to pay penalties, your supplier rating may suffer and you may face an audit by your customer.
However, these are the very dramatic cases. As a rule, working with scheduling agreements in the SAP standard is one thing above all: time-consuming. Whether you have to copy, correct or create numerous scheduling agreements, constantly monitor whether scheduling agreements are running in and out on time, or simply have to work with scheduling agreements that have accumulated so many documents that just calling up a single scheduling agreement takes forever: all of this costs you too much time.
Whitepaper: New functions for scheduling agreement management with SAP
How to work more easily with your SAP system
Are you spending too much time on monotonous SAP tasks in your scheduling agreement management? Manual data changes, complicated scheduling agreement adjustments and time-consuming processes are a daily burden on employees. This white paper shows you various ways in which you can optimize SAP systems with practical approaches.
Do you know these challenges?
If you work with the standard delivery schedule, problems will always occur.
High urgency for adjustments
Your customers transmit zero cumulative quantities at individual points in time via delivery call-offs (sometimes retroactively), which you first have to notice as quickly as possible and then adjust in your delivery schedules.
Confusion and overlaps
Expiring scheduling agreements that are to be replaced by new scheduling agreements cause problems if there are mix-ups and overlaps.
High expenses
Long-term existing scheduling agreements influence the performance of your systems. However, creating new scheduling agreements is very time-consuming if you have to monitor many scheduling agreements at the same time.
Adjustments only possible individually
Changes in individual data affect a large number of scheduling agreements at the same time. Each scheduling agreement must be adjusted individually.
When are our add-ons the right solution for you?
You are a supplier in the automotive industry and work with several customers who expect processing via framework agreements.
Your customers include car manufacturers who are known for resetting progress figures at certain points in time (such as VW).
The dispatchers and employees in your order management department have to spend too much time manually handling delivery schedules.
The missing functions in your SAP system have already had serious consequences, for example that your open customer requirements could not be recorded correctly.
WSW Add-ons: How to speed up the handling of your delivery schedules!
Our add-ons SPEEDI and JUNIQ help you gain a better overview of your scheduling agreements, retrieve accurate and up-to-date data and improve the performance of your SAP system. Our solutions support your day-to-day work with SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA.
Our process solutions for transparent delivery schedules
Problems with the SAP standard
- Some OEM customers report zeroing of cumulative quantities received at different points in time, while the SAP standard zeros cumulative quantities every 24 months.
- As a supplier, you must adjust the zero position manually.
- There are problems especially with retroactive resets.
Functions of our solution
- Automated incorporation and correction of cumulative quantities during EDI processing.
- Individual and flexible year-end change possible for every customer
- Year-end report with analysis and subsequent correction of year-end changes possible.
- Also for scheduling agreements without EDI messages.
Advantages with WSW add-ons
- Automation of time-consuming and error-prone processes
- Easier work for your specialist department
- Avoidance of negative supplier evaluations or special trips due to incorrect progress figures
Problems with the SAP standard
- If existing material is replaced by a new one during scheduling agreement processing, customer and supplier material numbers must be replaced consistently without confusing scheduling agreements.
- You must plan correctly and replace outgoing material with incoming material. Cumulative quantities in the scheduling agreements must be transferred correctly.
Functions of our solution
- Fully automatic distribution of requirements to outbound and inbound delivery schedules
- Automatic adjustment of cumulative quantities in the start-up scheduling agreement
- Notification function (individually configurable)
- Monitor for start-up and shutdown
Advantages with WSW add-ons
- Insight into correct requirements for primary materials/parts lists at all times
- Notification functions make handling easier
- Time savings and security through transparency and automation
Problems with the SAP standard
- There are various reasons to create a new scheduling agreement (e.g. scheduling agreements that have existed for a long time accumulate a large document flow, which has a negative impact on performance), including for purchasing scheduling agreements (e.g. relocation of production or change of supplier).
- If a new scheduling agreement is created for this reason, all corrections must be made manually in the new scheduling agreement (e.g. cumulative quantities); the SAP standard does not offer a solution to carry out this process easily, quickly and without errors.
Functions of our solution
- Simple solution for creating new scheduling agreements in SAP
- Fully automatic determination of affected scheduling agreements, copy and correction deliveries
- Selective and detailed selection of sales documents to be updated
Advantages with WSW add-ons
- Error minimization
- Save time by minimizing manual activities
- Performance gain in the SAP system
Problems with the SAP standard
- Sales documents, including scheduling agreements, for example, cause problems if changes are to be made (e.g. unloading points, Incoterms, terms of payment, usage indicators, etc.).
- You have to adjust these fields manually and individually, which is particularly problematic and time-consuming if a change affects several sales documents.
Functions of our solution
- Simultaneous updating of several documents.
- Reporting with selection screen for narrowing down documents
- Changes to new values via input fields or via value lists with entries as old/new
- Optional check of receipts before posting
- Log of the update result via traffic light control
Advantages with WSW add-ons
- Increased safety through inspections and minimization of manual activities; reduction of error sources
- Automated and system-supported updating of operating documents
Problems with the SAP standard
- Price date, service creation date or document date must be adjusted again and again for various reasons (usually due to price changes, which in turn require new pricing and recalculation in all affected sales documents).
- However, the document date or a service creation date can also be affected by an adjustment.
- In the standard SAP system, all sales documents such as scheduling agreements must be called up manually at header and item level and a final costing must be carried out.
Functions of our solution
- Variable adjustment of data in a single report
- Simulation options
- Individual customization and selection
- Automated, mass processing of sales documents
Advantages with WSW add-ons
- Simple and individual way to automate your processes and reduce errors
- Fast, clear and comprehensive selection and display
- Enormous time savings with mass changes in sales documents
Whitepaper: Optimizing delivery schedules with minimal IT effort
How to simplify scheduling agreement management in SAP
Delivery schedules are the backbone of collaboration between automotive manufacturers and their suppliers. Efficient management of these scheduling agreements is crucial to ensure on-time deliveries and avoid bottlenecks. In practice, however, it often turns out that working with scheduling agreements in SAP is cumbersome and error-prone - especially if the number of scheduling agreements you monitor is too high.
How to benefit from our add-ons!
Work better with scheduling agreements in SAP with the support of our add-ons
Speed and efficiency
Your employees in order management must ensure that your customer requirements can be met. With our add-ons, they no longer lose valuable time maintaining delivery schedules.
Automation
With the add-ons from WSW Software, you can automate some tasks relating to scheduling agreements, for example by automatically determining and copying scheduling agreements with too many documents. This gives you more time for more important tasks.
Transparency
Scheduling agreements are there to keep you informed at all times about outstanding and completed deliveries. Gain certainty in determining your requirements with complete and up-to-date data in your scheduling agreements.
Fast implementation and return on investment
Our SAP-based add-ons are prepared and tried-and-tested standard solutions that you can quickly implement in your systems. With our solutions for faster and more transparent handling of scheduling agreements, you save so much time that the investment pays for itself within a very short time.
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