Use the Sourcing Rules windows to default a supplier and optionally a supplier site on your requisition or purchase order line. Use the Approved Supplier List or the PO: Automatic Document Sourcing profile if you also want to default source document information from a purchase agreement or quotation on your requisition or purchase order line for an item-supplier combination.
By defining and assigning sourcing rules, Purchasing actively defaults the appropriate supplier onto your document as soon as you enter an item or commodity.
To default the supplier, site, and source document information:
Set the profile option PO: Automatic Document Sourcing.
Setting this profile option to Yes means that Purchasing automatically searches for the most current purchase agreement or quotation for an item-supplier combination, and defaults the information from this document onto a newly created document line. This method is useful if you do not want to maintain the most current source documents in the Approved Supplier List, particularly if you receive these documents regularly from your suppliers through the Purchasing Documents Open Interface. If you set this profile option to Yes, you do not have to specify source documents in the Approved Supplier List.
Note that if an item on a requisition is associated with both a purchase agreement, a global agreement, and a quotation, Purchasing uses the purchase agreement, then the global agreement, and then the quotation even if the global agreement or quotation were created more recently.
Setting this profile option to No means that Purchasing defaults sourcing information onto a newly created requisition or purchase order line only from those documents you have specified in the Approved Supplier List. This method is useful if you prefer to maintain and update the Approved Supplier List with documents that you choose.
Note: If Oracle Services Procurement is implemented, for services lines the automatic sourcing logic always acts as though this profile is set to Yes. No automatic sourcing is performed for fixed price services.
If you set the profile option in the previous step to No, create a source document (a purchase agreement or quotation) and then tie the document to an Approved Supplier List entry.
See: Defining the Supplier and Commodity/Item Combination. Then see: Defining the Supplier/Item Attributes.
If you set the profile option in the previous step to Yes, you do not have to perform this step, although you can if you want to. Purchasing still uses the source documents in the Approved Supplier List if they are the most current, and uses documents outside the Approved Supplier List if they are not.
Note: When Use Approved Supplier is checked for an item in the Master Items window, you cannot approve the source document until the supplier is in the Approved Supplier List. Therefore, if Use Approved Supplier is checked for an item, create the Approved Supplier List entry and source document in the following order:
Create an Approved Supplier List entry (this is the approved supplier you are enforcing for the item).
Create and save a source document.
If the PO: Automatic Document Sourcing profile is No, return to the Approved Supplier List window and tie the source document to the supplier.
Define and assign sourcing rules as described in To default just the supplier and the supplier site below.
To default just the supplier and the supplier site:
Make sure you have satisfied the prerequisites for defining and assigning sourcing rules:
Define items. See: Defining Items.
Create suppliers and supplier sites in the Suppliers window. See: Suppliers.
Set the profile options MRP: Sourcing Rule Category Set and MRP: Default Sourcing Assignment Set. See: Purchasing Profile Options.
Use the Sourcing Rule window to define sourcing rules. See: Defining Sourcing Rules, Oracle Master Scheduling/MRP and Supply Chain Planning User's Guide
Note: Some of the fields in the Sourcing Rule window may already be completed for you if your supplier sends you catalog information electronically. See: Receiving Price/Sales Catalog Information Electronically.
Use the Sourcing Rule/Bill of Distribution Assignments window to assign your sourcing rules to particular items or organizations. See: Assigning Sourcing Rules and Bills of Distribution, Oracle Master Scheduling/MRP and Supply Chain Planning User's Guide.
Attention: When you enter an Assignment Set name in the Sourcing Rule/Bill of Distribution Assignments window, note that Purchasing can use only one assignment set-the one that is specified in the profile option MRP: Default Sourcing Assignment Set. (Note that the User level for the profile option takes precedence.)
Although creating and assigning a sourcing rule in the Sourcing Rule windows is all you need to do to default a supplier and supplier site onto your documents, you can still also create approved suppliers in the Approved Supplier List window. For example, if you checked Use Approved Supplier in the Master Items window when defining an item, you must define the supplier in the Approved Supplier List window.
If you want to verify the sourcing rule, create a requisition for the item to verify that the Supplier and Site default. If the sourcing rule is local, make sure the Organization field on the requisition is the organization in which the sourcing rule was created.
If you encounter any problems with automatic sourcing after you set it up, the following solutions may help.
Make sure that you have done both of the following:
Assigned the sourcing rules to an assignment set in the Sourcing Rule/Bill of Distribution Assignments window.
Made sure that the Assignment Set name in this window matches the assignment set name in the profile option MRP: Default Sourcing Assignment Set.
Purchasing can use only one assignment set at a time, so if Purchasing is not using your sourcing rules, they may belong to another assignment set. For the MRP: Default Sourcing Assignment Set profile option, choose the assignment set name to which your sourcing rules are assigned in the Sourcing Rule/Bill of Distribution Assignments window.
Also make sure that the profile option MRP: Default Sourcing Assignment Set isn't also set at the User level. The User value for profile options takes precedence over System Administrator level values. If you believe that Purchasing is not using the correct Assignment Set, check if the profile option is also set at the User level.
Assuming you have defined and assigned sourcing rules, the problem could be one of the following:
Make sure you have followed the instructions in the following two sections: Defining the Supplier and Commodity/Item Combination and Defining the Supplier/Item Attributes. Make sure that, for the item, the supplier and site in the Approved Supplier List matches the supplier and site in the sourcing rule.
The Approved Supplier List entry may be local. In the Approved Supplier List window, choose the Record Details tabbed region and note the Global field. If the Global field is set to No, then the sourcing information specified for the item is used only locally, by your organization or the organization that originally created the Approved Supplier List entry, and other organizations will not receive the source document information. Likewise, if there are two Approved Supplier List entries for an item, and one is local and the other is global, the local entry takes precedence for your organization.
Sometimes you may see just one, Global entry in the Approved Supplier List window, but local versions of that entry are visible only in the Supplier-Item Attributes window. Recall that a local entry takes precedence over a global one and is used only by the organization in which it was created. In the Approved Supplier List window, choose the Attributes button. If local entries exist, the Create Local button will be dimmed.