Supply Managers and their teams work hard everyday to guarantee all the customer orders can be delivered 'ontime'.
But there are several constrains, limitations and new variables to turn this a difficult task to accomplish!
One of the available tools to support these roles is Planning routines inside an ERP. This post will describe how the routine Available to Promise (ATP) inside Dynamics 365 Business Central can support to achieve this goal.
Available to Promise feature
Available to promise (ATP) calculates dates based on the reservation system. It performs an availability check of the unreserved quantities in inventory with regard to planned production, purchases, transfers, and sales returns. Based on this information, Business Central calculates the delivery date of the customer’s order because the items are available, either in inventory or on planned receipts.
Technically, when the end user selects Order Promising action, and then choose the Order Promising Lines action:
Codeunit 99000889 AvailabilityManagement is triggered
Function CalAvailableToPromiseLine is called
Codeunit 5790 AvailtoPromise.
In a more functional language:
AvailablibityAtDate is calculated (Onhand Inventory + Schedules Receipts - Gross Requirements)
Onhand inventory: inventory available in stock for that location without any requirements or reservations
Schedules Receipts: include quantities on purchase orders and inbound transfer orders pending to be received
Gross Requirements: include quantities on sales orders and outbound transfer orders.
To start to play/use this functionality in Business Central, the setup is minimal.
The real challenge is to maintain accurate information in transactions and pending orders.
After following the setup and maintaining all transactions and orders updated, Business Central will return as an output of the ATP routine: the earliest date that the item will be available for that location.
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