SAP Advanced Available to Promise – a promise for future

Introduction :

The transition of ECC R/3 to S/4 HANA has brought along with it many innovations and advancements in the features and the functionalities. One of the most significant development was in the area of the Available to Promise functionality. Over the years, the available to promise functionality has evolved from simple ATP in ECC R/3 - to GATP in APO - to aATP (Advanced Available to Promise) in S/4 HANA. Although the basic concept and the formula of calculation of ATP Qty remains the same ( i.e., ATP quantity = Stock + Planned receipts ? planned issues ) , yet aATP provides accurate and reliable order promise dates considering the relevant stock in real-time, while protecting companies business priorities and profitability goals. The purpose of this blog is to highlight the variety of possibilities which aATP and their key benefits in the Business environment. Since this topic is very vast, I have divided this blog post in 2 parts:

Part 1 : will mainly comprise of a Brief Introduction into the topic

Part 2 : will be a deep dive into the functionalities of aATP

Evolution of aATP :

The Available to Promise functionality in ECC R/3 provides check capabilities that deliver results for basic business scenarios and has certain limitation. For example with ATP in ECC R/3 it is only possible to do a ATP check for a single location or the product substitution is only possible manually. Due to the globalization, more complex scenarios had appeared, and these scenarios required more robust capabilities to make delivery commitments that are in line with the real-world demands. Subsequently SAP introduced Global ATP ( or GATP ) functionality as a part of SAP APO module and addressed many of those limitations faced by the SAP R/3 ATP Solution. Global ATP was capable of checking the entire network ( other plants) and was able to substitute product / material substitutions based on the defined conditions. GATP had lot of additional functionalities that ATP in ECC alone could not perform. However, utilizing the GATP functionality required the availability of the SAP APO module – and APO in general was a bit complex both in terms of implementation and maintenance. When SAP introduced S4 HANA 1610 version they came up with the concept of aATP ( or Advanced available to promise ) , which can perform most of the functionalities of GATP along with many more new additions which will be discussed in this blog further. Also aATP in S/4 HANA is less complex to design and the performance is significantly faster. 

(Sujeet Acharya for SAP  via https://bit.ly/35cDFIl)

Before diving deep into the aATP capabilities and functionalities, let us find out the basic difference between ATP & aATP

Basic Available to Promise (ATP)

• Simple product availability check
• Basic allocation check
• Manual material determination
• Semi-manual plant substitution
• Material-/plant-based backorder processing for sales orders
• Simple transportation and shipment scheduling based on days (and hours)

Advanced Available to Promise (aATP)

• Backorder processing with intuitive requirement classification
• FIORI Applications for Release for Delivery
• Mass enabled fast availability check
• Use-case-driven product allocation check
• Intelligent and automated selection of best confirmation considering alternative plants and substitutable materials
• Easy-to-use and device-independent ATP explanation and simulation app
• Advanced transportation scheduling ( integration with SAP TM ).

Advanced ATP has grown over the years – with every release some or the other functionalities / capabilities have been added. Here, you can find a short synopsis on how aATP has become such a complete solution over the years.

(Sujeet Acharya for SAP  via https://bit.ly/35cDFIl)

SAP’s latest roadmap for Advanced ATP can be found in the below link :

Advanced ATP Solution in S/4 HANA :

The Advanced ATP in S/4 HANA combines the simplicity of the traditional ECC R/3 system with the sophisticated back order and product allocation checks of SAP APO using an entirely new logic, making it more flexible and more user-friendly within one system. The main benefits of aATP compared to the traditional ATP functionality are:

-         Built for high-performance mass ATP checks

-         Increased automation due to more flexible order confirmation rules and priorities

-         New requirement classification for automatic exception handling Improved accuracy due to real-time inventory information Unified and simplified data all within one system

(Sujeet Acharya for SAP  via https://bit.ly/35cDFIl)

The major goals pursued with the implementation of aATP are the improvement of time to delivery, the reduction of the number of missed business opportunities and the enhancement of revenue and profitability.

These benefits are supported by key functionality within aATP, which can be divided into the following key areas of innovations:

1. PAC - Product availability check

2. ABOP - Advance Backorder Processing

3. PAL - Product Allocation

4. RFD - Release for Delivery

5. ABC - Alternate Based Confirmation

This will be the end of the Part - 1 , and this blog will be continued in Part- 2 ( https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/sap-advanced-available-promise-features-samrat-mukhapadhyay ) where the above mentioned functionalities are discussed in more details.