aATP - PAC vs ATP; Combination of PAC/ATP and PAL

[bharath_jaladi]

Hi Experts,

I have following questions wrt aATP

1. May I know if there is any difference between regular ATP and PAC(in aATP) as both are having same configuration

2. In one of the blogs of SAP it is mentioned as PAL would be executed first followed by PAC (Advanced Available-To-Promise (Aatp): How to setup Backend System ? | SAP Blogs) and in the learning hub material it is mentioned as ATP would be executed first followed by PAL (https://saplearninghub.plateau.com/icontent_e/CUSTOM_eu/sap/self-managed/Learning_Cards/S4270e_EN_Co...). Can you please help in knowing which configuration makes the system work like the first case of point 2 or second case of point 2?

[Andreas_Krause]

Hi Bharath,

Yes indeed there are differences between ATP (referred to as 'ECC ATP' or 'classic ATP') and advanced ATP (aATP). It starts with the license: ECC ATP does not require additional license in S/4HANA, aATP does require an additional license. But the main difference is the functionality itself. Comparing PAC you may have seen that the functional scope of ECC ATP is not changed compared to ECC. All new developments are done within aATP. For PAC this means that you find 'Enhanced Check Horizon', 'ATP Categories' or 'Subdaily buckets' on the roadmap.

Product Allocation (PAL) follows complete new concepts in aATP and is from functionality point of view much richer than in ECC.

You may want to explore the aATP, click here.

From a terminology point of view you refer in your question to ATP and basically mean PAC. If my understanding is correct, then I would like to bring a slightly different view to it. ATP can be seen as an umbrella term for different functionality like PAC, PAL, ABC, SBC, ... I know that ATP and PAC is often used as synonyms, but this might lead to confusion in the discussion. Like in this one.

Let us assume you have a requirement you want to check ATP, then you can have multiple basic methods be executed. This is for instance Sales PAL -> PAC -> Capacity PAL. To answer your question: You can in aATP have two PAL checks, one before and one after PAC. You may want to have a look to a blog I published - Product Allocation in advanced Available-to-Promise.

Regards,
Andreas

[bharath_jaladi]

Hi Andreas,

I have two followup questions.

1. How can I achieve the following functionality, assuming I have the aATP license? Reason for asking this question is as both ATP(ECC) and PAC(aATP) are having the same set of configuration

A product allocation check can act as a secondary check against the quantity requested in the sales order. First, a basic ATP check can be performed against stock and receipts, possibly resulting in a lower confirmed quantity due to insufficient stock. This confirmed quantity can be checked against the product allocation quota, possibly further reducing the confirmed quantity.

2. I have gone through your blog where you have mentioned that PAL can be executed twice once via Sales Sequence and other via Capacity sequence but I haven't seen the usage of PAC (Apologies if I have missed).

[Andreas_Krause]

Hi Bharath,

to distinguish between ECC ATP and aATP you need to decide for a checking group (and hence material/plant) which ATP you want to use. To be able to use aATP you open transaction ovz2 and activate aATP for your checking group. Once done you ensure you have PAL activated. Please be aware, if you activate the product allocation function in aATP, you cannot revert to the previously used product allocation function in Sales and Distribution.

After these steps you can use the respective apps for Product Allocation to configure you object and planning data. When configuring Manage Product Allocation Sequence you can set up Sales PAL and/or Capacity PAL.

Let us have a small example: A request of 100pc is checked ATP. This means in this example that we do Sales PAL, PAC and Capa PAL.
Sales PAL is checked. The 100pc requested turns out to exceed the allocation for that customer and hence is reduced to 80pc. Those 80pc are then PAC check and it turns out that we only have 50pc on stock. Now those 50pc are input to Capacity PAL where we find a transport capacity for that material that limits further to 40pc. Finally we have a confirmation over 40pc.

To your second question: Indeed you can from the screenshot not derive if PAC check was executed or not. The Sales PAL limit the request of 500pc to 40pc and those 40pc are taken for capacity PAL. This means either there was no PAC check which means there is full confirmation over the 40pc or there is enough stock available which also lead to a full confirmation from PAC side over 40pc. These 40pc are then input to Capacity PAL and further restricted. I obviously have not added a screenshot of the intermediate result graph. There we would be able to see if PAC was executed or not.

Regards,
Andreas