Defining ATP Rules

Available to promise (ATP) features are used across various modules in the Oracle E-Business Suite to determine demand/supply patterns. You can define ATP Rules and assign them as defaults at the organization, subinventory, or item level. To implement available to promise, you begin by defining your ATP rules. ATP rules let you tailor the ATP calculation to suit your business needs. Each rule is a combination of ATP computation options, time fence options, and supply and demand sources to use during an ATP inquiry. You cannot delete an ATP rule, but you can rename or redefine existing rules by updating fields.

You can define multiple ATP rules to reflect the specific needs of your organization, and then use different rules to calculate availability for different items or groups of items. Each time you run an ATP check, the rule determines how existing supply and demand are matched. You can choose one of the ATP rules you define as the default ATP rule for your organization. You can update the item attribute ATP Rule to specify a default ATP rule for each item.

Every item that is available to promise (ATP) must be assigned an ATP rule.

arrow icon   To define an ATP rule:

You can choose a variety of computation options to suit your business needs. ATP computations use the consumption and accumulate available features. Consumption resolves negative ATP after it is already determined that there is not enough available inventory. Accumulation uses excess inventory from a period to determine where new demand can be placed.

  1. Enter a unique name and a description for the ATP Rule.

  2. Select the combination of options for your business needs (main fields described):

    Field Name Description
    Consumption

    • Forward Consumption: This option determines if the ATP calculation can match existing demand to supply in future periods. If you select this option, ATP checks future periods for availability if the period supply is insufficient for an existing demand.

    • Backward Consumption: This option determines if the ATP calculation can look to previous periods to match existing demand to a supply. If you select this option, ATP checks prior periods for availability if a period has insufficient supply for existing demand. Most ATP users turn this option on and use it with Accumulate Available. With these options, ATP matches existing supply and demand period by period. If a period has insufficient supply, ATP checks prior periods, and matches demand to the excess supply of a prior period. With accumulation also turned on, ATP accumulates available quantities over multiple prior periods if necessary to meet existing demand.

    Accumulate Available If you choose to accumulate expected surplus in one ATP period to the next, you can limit this accumulation to a specific number of workdays. Oracle Inventory does not treat excess supply as available supply beyond this accumulation window. Oracle Inventory also uses this option in backward consumption calculations, preventing excess supply from a period beyond the accumulation window from covering a shortage in a future period. You can use the accumulation window to prevent the commitment of supply to satisfy demand with requirement dates far into the future. This is particularly useful if you have an item with high turnover and would likely be able to sell it quickly.
    Turning this option off may be appropriate if your items have a short shelf life, or you want to leave quantity available in each period for short lead time orders.
    Past Due Days (Demand) ATP does not include any demand orders with a due date before this time fence. ATP uses the number of manufacturing workdays you enter for this fence to back off from the current system date and determine the past due time fence. Use this time fence if you have sales orders, jobs, repetitive schedules, or other demand outstanding with past due dates that you do not plan to fill from existing or planned supply. If the due dates are before the time fence, ATP does not include these orders as demand.
    Past Due Days (Supply) ATP does not include any supply orders with a due date before this time fence. ATP uses the number of manufacturing workdays you enter for this fence to back off from the current system date and determine the past due supply fence. Use this time fence if you have purchase orders, jobs, repetitive schedules or other supply orders with past due dates that you do not want to rely on as a source of supply for your ATP calculations. If the due dates are before the time fence, ATP does not include these orders as supply.
    Infinite Supply Use this time fence to specify the end of your ATP horizon. ATP considers any demand that falls beyond this time fence as available. Use this time fence as the practical lead time you need to acquire components and build any quantity that a customer may order. You can choose from the following options to determine the infinite supply time fence:

    • Cumulative total lead time: The total lead time of an assembly plus the largest adjusted cumulative total lead time of its components.

    • Cumulative manufacturing lead time: The manufacturing lead time of an assembly. This value may also include and add to the previous lead time, the largest adjusted cumulative manufacturing lead time of its components. This condition only occurs for ATO items.

    • Total lead time: The sum of the pre-processing, processing, and post-processing lead times of the item.

    • User-defined time fence: The lead time (in days) that you enter in the Days field.

    ATP by Demand Class Indicates whether to calculate ATP based on defined demand classes. Demand classes allow you to segregate scheduled demand into user-defined groups. If you choose to calculate ATP based on defined demand classes, then the following Supply Source options are not available:

    • On-hand available

    • Inter-org transfers

    • Purchase orders

    • Internal and supplier requisitions

    Demand Sources / Supply Sources Select the Demand and Supply Sources to use in ATP calculations. When you use ATP that is based on the collected data, then supply and demand are specified in the ATP rules.
    You control which sources are selected for consideration for the availability requests. You use the On-Hand Available check box to choose whether to include the available on-hand quantity as a source of supply. Typically, make-to-order and assemble-to-order manufacturing environments do not use the available on-hand quantity as a source of supply.

  3. Combining ATP options: You can select more than one of the computation options. By combining options, you can create an ATP rule that best meets your needs. Consider the following points when selecting your ATP computation options:

    ATP Options Description
    Backward consumption only ATP calculates availability for your item period by period. If the available supply quantity for the period does not meet the existing demand for that period, ATP works backward, period by period, and checks if the available supply within each period is sufficient to meet the excess demand. ATP does not combine the available quantities from multiple periods to meet an existing demand.
    Backward consumption and accumulate available ATP accumulates the excess supply from period to period. When demand in a period exceeds supply, this accumulated quantity is dipped into and reduced. When you perform an availability check, the accumulated quantity is available for your demand.
    Forward consumption and backward consumption ATP consumes backwards first. If the available supply quantity for a period is not enough to meet the period's demand, ATP steps back period by period to try to satisfy demand. If the demand cannot be met, ATP then moves forward into future periods to check on available supply.

    Note: The ATP rule applies to existing demand and supply, and determines the quantity available on a period by period basis. Your quantity check is done against the results. ATP does not try to forward consume or backward consume your ATP check quantity.

  4. Save your work.

Other Sources