SAP ABAP Data Element RV56SP_HLP (Method for defining combination criteria)
Hierarchy
☛ BBPCRM (Software Component) BBPCRM
   ⤷ CRM-BF (Application Component) Basic Functions
     ⤷ VTR (Package) SD R/3 transport processing
Basic Data
Data Element RV56SP_HLP
Short Description Method for defining combination criteria  
Data Type
Category of Dictionary Type D   Domain
Type of Object Referenced     No Information
Domain / Name of Reference Type CHAR01    
Data Type CHAR   Character String 
Length 1    
Decimal Places 0    
Output Length 1    
Value Table      
Further Characteristics
Search Help: Name    
Search Help: Parameters    
Parameter ID   
Default Component name    
Change document    
No Input History    
Basic direction is set to LTR    
No BIDI Filtering    
Field Label
  Length  Field Label  
Short 6 Method 
Medium 14 Method 
Long 14 Method 
Heading 0   
Documentation

Defining grouping, sort and capacity criteria for the deliveries selected

Grouping criteria

Using grouping criteria you can specify the data that deliveries must share in order to be able to be grouped into one shipment. To do this, you can select one or more of the criteria proposed on the screen or - if these do not meet your requirements - choose additional criteria from a field catalog.

The field catalog contains a large number of fields from the delivery (for example ship-to party data such as postal code and transportation zone or due date information such as delivery date, delivery priority, and so on).

For each of the criteria chosen, you can enter detail data to set up groupings for example. To do this, select the pushbutton to the right of the criterion ([->...]). The system displays a dialog box where you can set up groupings for a specific field. The system will then use the grouping to which the field belongs rather than the field itself for grouping deliveries into shipments.

Example:

You want to group deliveries from different shipping points into different shipments. This means that the shipping point is used as the grouping criterion. However, two exceptions shall be allowed:

  • Deliveries from shipping points '0001' to '0004' can be grouped into one shipment.
  • Deliveries from shipping points '0020' and '0025' can also be grouped into one shipment.

To achieve this, you select the shipping point as criterion and set up shipping point groupings on the detail screen. In our example, you would set up the following groupings:

  • 1. group: shipping points '0001' to '0004'
  • 2. group: shipping points '0020' and '0025'.
  • (x) All other values into separate groups

If you select this last option, all other shipping points will be handled separately. In our example, the system will proceed as follows when processing the grouping criteria:

  • For each delivery, the system determines to which group the shipping point belongs. To do this, the system will sequentially check all groups. If it finds an appropriate group, it will end the checking process. So if there are two overlapping groups, the first group found will take priority.
  • If the shipping point does not belong to any of the groups specified, it will be assigned a new group number of its own. If you have selected
    (x) All other values into separate groups
    the system will create a new (internal) group number for each shipping point. However, if you have selected
    (x) Group all other values into a group
    the system will assign a common group number to all shipping points that do not belong to any of the groups specified.
    With:
    (x) Omit all remaining values,
    the deliveries are not taken into account and not place into any shipment (in principle, this is an enhancement of the selection criteria).
  • The system will group all deliveries into one shipment that have the same group number (with respect to the 'shipping point' criterion). Since in our example all deliveries from shipping points '0001' to '0004' are assigned the same group number, they will be grouped into one shipment.
  • For more information on how to set up groupings select the bushbutton for help on Functioning on the detail screen for setting up groupings.

If you have specified more than one grouping criterion, these criteria will be linked by an AND operation. This means that all grouping criteria must be met.

Example:

You have specified the shipping point and the route as grouping criteria. As a result, the shipment will only include deliveries that have the same shipping point and the same route. Of course, you can also set up groupings for each of these criteria.

Note:
You can use an unlimited number of grouping criteria. However, the system displays only three user-definable grouping criteria at a time. You can use the first six pushbuttons underneath the criteria to browse through the criteria. The other two pushbuttons are used to add and delete criteria. To do this, position the cursor on a field in the user-definable criteria subsection. Use the right pushbutton to delete the criterion. Use the left pushbutton to add a new criterion before the cursor position.

Sort criteria

By specifying sort criteria you can put the deliveries assigned to a shipment in a specific order. For example, if you want to sort the deliveries by postal code in ascending order, go to the 'Sort deliveries within a shipment' subsection, choose the postal code of the ship-to party using F4 help and select the 'descending' option to the left of the criterion. As for grouping criteria you can set up groupings for sort criteria.

Note:
If you have set up groupings on the detail screen, the system will use the group number to which the postal code belongs rather than the postal code itself for sorting the deliveries. The system will only sort those postal codes in ascending or descending order that do not belong to any of the groups specified. However, if you select
(x) Group all other values into a group
choosing the sort order will have no effect (since all other postal codes will be assigned the same group number).

By setting up groups you can define rather complex delivery sequences. Using the postal code as sort criterion, for example, you may want to list all deliveries with a postal code that begins with 6 first, then all deliveries with a postal code that begins with 3, then those that begin with 7, then those that begin with 4, and so on.

To do this, you must set up the following groupings for the 'Postal code' field:

  • 1. group: 6*
  • 2. group: 3*
  • 3. group: 7*
  • 4. group: 4*
  • and so on.

You can specify multiple sort criteria. For example, you may want to sort the deliveries additionally by ship-to party number after sorting them by postal code. Similar to the grouping criteria, you can use an unlimited number of sort criteria. As described above, you can browse through the criteria or delete and add criteria.

Capacity criteria

By specifying maximum limits per shipment you can take capacity criteria into account.

For example, if you have specified a maximum weight of 30 tons, the system will proceed as follows:

  • Based on the grouping criteria previously specified, the system has grouped the deliveries into shipments. The system has also sorted the deliveries in a (more or less) specific order. For each shipment, the system will now check whether the maximum weight is exceeded. If this is the case, the shipment needs to be split.
  • To do this, the system adds up the weight of all deliveries within a shipment on a step-by-step basis. If one delivery causes the maximum weight to be exceeded, this delivery will be skipped.
  • The skipped deliveries within a shipment will be grouped into a new shipment. However, the maximum weight check is also carried out for this new shipment.
  • If you have specified a maximum volume or a maximum number of deliveries in addition to the maximum weight, the system will check all criteria specified in each of the steps above and if one criterion is not met will skip the corresponding delivery (if the maximum number of deliveries is exceeded, the system will directly create a new shipment document).
  • If you have specified minimal values for 'Weight', 'Volume' or 'Number of deliveries', then a shipment is only formed if it does not fall below these minimal values. In this way, you can ensure that the shipments created are used efficiently. All deliveries not processed are then available for a renewed planning run since they are not in any shipment. In this new run, you can then define other collection criteria.
    Example: In a first run, individual shipments are formed which always go to one goods recipient - but only if - they have a (full load) weight of at least 25 tons. The remaining deliveries are collected in a rerun of collective shipments, for example, according to their route.

Note:
If you have specified a maximum weight, the system will automatically sort the deliveries by weight (in descending order) helping to ensure that shipments are used to their full capacity (however, the system does not perform an optimization). The original sort criteria for the deliveries will not be affected as the weight is only added as an implicit sort criterion. The same applies for the maximum volume.

History
Last changed by/on SAP  20130529 
SAP Release Created in