SPP Operating Parameters

Overall, the operating parameters of SPP links the stocks within the bill of distribution (BOD) with the actual demands.

(See this post if you are unfamiliar with the BOD).

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2008/09/28/spp-bill-of-distribution-bod/

The logic of SPP is if these demands can not be met within the BOD, SPP attempts to cover these demands either through external procurement or repair. This is different from SNP, because repair is not considered as part of the equation. However, in service parts networks, repairable or unserviceable products are frequently kept in the supply chain that can then be repaired by the company, or sent out for repair.

Repair vs Buy

Repair or buy functionality is well suited to high value service parts which are cheaper to repair than procure. If you activate this functionality the system checks whether enough un-serviceable products can be repaired are available. You can also setup the system to always repair. This decreases the processing time of the SPP planning runs.

A product location can have two statuses.

1. Serviceable – A location product has the serviceable status if it is either new or has been repaired
2. Un-serviceable – A location product has the un-serviceable status if it has not yet been repaired but is scheduled for repair

The system does not use any stability rules for serviceable location products in the plan submission horizon and in the limited freeze horizon. You can model subcontracting production, but you must have the subcontractor PPMs or PDS configured in PPDS.

Returns Forecast

This is determined using the requirement forecast of SPP for the location product and multiplies this requirement forecast by your entry in the Percentage of Good Quantity of Returned Products field and by your entry in the % of Good Qty of Repairable Products Field. To make a repair decision, DRP needs to know the repair cost for a location product.

The Problem

However, the issue is that the repair vs. buy functionality only has BADI screens. Notice this screen shot.

This is very strange. Any functionality in SCM always has a configuration area in addition to having related BAdIs. This is the first time I can recall running into a situation where it didn’t.

I have checked the documentation on it, and it is not clear that this functionality works. This is interesting because all of  the major service parts planning vendors (MCA Solutions, Servigistics, Baxter) can do this. Currently the one that does not appear able to is SPP. This is a problem because this is critical functionality in SPP.

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After posting this article on the SPP LinkedIn Group I received this response from Lars Sondergaard, so I thought I would post it here for everyone to see.

Lars Sondergaard • Hello Shaun,Great initiative starting this LinkedIn Group!We found your blog through searching for SPP specific topics.Now regarding the problem you describe where:„A product location can have two statuses“1. Serviceable2. Un-serviceableWe also were stugling a bit on this part, when we had to do a customer demonstation, but we found out that you need to set up EDQA – Event-Driven Quantity Assignment.Depending on the release that you are working on you can refer to the following notes:Note 1081343 – Unserviceable Stock for “Repair or Buy” (Release 5.1) Note 1081024 – TDL: Make settings in ATP and EDQA for SPP (Release 5.1) – probably the more detailedNote 1334332 – TDL: Make settings in ATP and EDQA for SPP (From Release 7.0) – This contains a BC Set I thinkNote 1440517 – stock posting does not trigger the EDQA executionNote 1421828 – Subcontracting stock is not created for SPP ATP catecoriesNote 1405470 – EDQA: SOBKZ to use in Condition Profile for stock changesNote 1378126 – Field “Activation of Process Cat.” in Customizing not copiedNo Badi‘s neededI hope this information can help you out?Best regards,The Westernacher team