Product Selection

Purpose

In the standard order processing cycle, a customer requests a specific product that you then ship. In reality, however, there are situations where you want to substitute the product ordered with an alternative, for example when products are repackaged for promotional purposes (for Christmas, or with free prizes or coupons).

With the product selection functions in the R/3 System, you can flexibly manage product substitution. Based on your priorities for the customer account and restrictions imposed by the customer, you can ship a promotional item when the customer requests a standard one.

Integration

Product selection functions rely heavily on the condition technique and material determination.

Features

The standard available-to-promise (ATP) check is available to help you determine exactly what to ship. A check is carried out:

• At order entry

This ensures that sufficient quantities of the product acceptable to the customer are available to meet the requested delivery date.

• At picking

This ensures that your preferred substitute is shipped. If there is insufficient stock of the preferred item, the system fulfills the order with additional alternative items.

Product selection can be manual or automatic. Depending on how you configure your system, you can:

• Produce a list of alternative products from which the order entry person can choose
• Automatically select products according to their availability and priority

For tracking purposes, the system stores data about what the customer has ordered. You can use this information as a reference, or for printing invoices and packing lists.