Release Customer Schedule, Manually

Explanation

There are two distinct types of information in customer schedules: planning information and shipping information. For a customer agreement, users define which type of schedule, either plan or call-off or both, is considered as an authorization for shipment. The remaining plan data (if not used for shipment) is either passed to MRP for planning purposes or used only in tolerance checking. The agreement setting for Delivery Authorization controls this behavior.
Note: This planning information will not be seen by MRP if the demand has been imported by the master schedule, even if the master schedule line has been deleted.

Like the reconciliation process, the releasing process must align the schedules with the previous shipment information so that the final picture does not skip or double any quantities. While automation is the goal, any discrepancy during the automatic release process will result in an error message thus requiring manual intervention for release. Due to the dependency between schedule versions, no new schedule can be processed until previous schedules are approved.

Schedules that are to be used as shipping authorization are written as customer order releases to the order established for the customer agreement. An important thing to recognize is that, when a new schedule arrives, it could override the previous shipment information established on the order. Thus, any customer release still at a status prior to Picked is canceled and replaced with new information. The schedule and shipment information is always fluctuating.

When a customer schedule is released, it creates customer order lines for confirmed demands and consuming forecast demands. Also, it activates automatic shipment in the customer order release process. Automatic shipment is made possible by using create on demand orders, which will create new orders and add order lines to them, when the schedule is released. As part of the schedule release process, the orders created on demand will also be released. Thus, creating a shipment and automatically connecting the order lines to it.

The schedule release function can either be run as a background process or executed online. In order to run the process automatically this must be indicated on the customer schedule agreement.

Note: A customer schedule can be released even if the approver is blocked for use.

Prerequisites

• The customer schedule must have been successfully approved.
• The release function should not be automatically run. This is stated on the customer schedule agreement.

System Effects

• If a previous schedule plan or call-off is overlapped by this new schedule the previous data will be overruled by the new schedule.
• If the schedule line is converted into a customer order line and already reserved and delivered to the customer, the schedule line will receive Release Exception status and will need manual intervention.
• If the schedule line is converted into a customer order but not yet reserved, the previous customer order line will be canceled and replaced by a new one that states the current quantity.
• If the PO Information Use option is set to Use, and the purchase order number stated in the schedule line does not match the purchase order number stated in the customer order connected to the customer schedule agreement part, the customer schedule will receive Release Exception status.

Window

Release Customer Schedule
Customer Schedule
Customer Schedules

Related Window Descriptions

Release Customer Schedule
Customer Schedule
Customer Schedules

Procedure

From the Release Customer Schedule window:

1. If you wish to run a release process of all existing schedules, leave all fields blank. Note that you can only execute schedules that have been reconciled and approved by yourself.
2. If you wish to run the process for a specific customer or schedule, indicate the data in the appropriate field.
3. To execute the process, click OK.

From the Customer Schedule or the Customer Schedules windows:

1. Query for the desired schedule.
2. To release the schedule manually, right-click and then click Release.