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Part 3: Management and Processing of Summarized JIT Calls
Having completed the steps to maintain the master data and configure the JIT process per as described in the parts 1 and 2 of this blog series, you will be ready to process the EDI messages received from the buyer in the S/4HANA system. In this part 3, we are going to explain how to monitor incoming EDI messages and describe the main steps to process customer JIT calls.
In the first section, we focus on the planning process and explain how material planners can monitor the delivery forecast schedules received from buyers. We highlight how to identify critical demand fluctuations that could potentially disrupt material planning stability. The second section focuses on the shipping process, detailing each step from receiving the customer JIT calls (delivery orders) to posting the goods issue and creating the billing document.
1. Planning Process
1.1. Post the SOAP API for Forecast Delivery Schedule:
In general, the buyer sends the forecast delivery schedule as EDI message on weekly or daily basis to the seller. The EDIFACT standard for this message is DELDOFR. Different standards might be applied depending on the region of the customer such as VDA4984 (VDA) in Germany, 830 (ANSI X2) for the US, and DELINS (Odette) for the EU. To simulate this SOAP API message, you can download the message specification for “Delivery Schedule of Sales Scheduling Agreement” from the SAP Business Accelerator Hub https://api.sap.com/ and use any API testing tool. It is also possible to use the transaction SPROXY to simulate in the inbound EDI message if you are testing in S/4HANA Cloud, private edition system. For the master data maintained the part 1 of this blog series, the payload will be populated as the following:
Spoiler
- PurchasingSchedulingAgreementID = PO_CUST_001
- PurchasingDeliveryScheduleID = FDS0002
- PurchasingDeliveryScheduleIDOld = FDS0001
- PurchasingDeliveryScheduleCreationDate = YYYY-MM-DD
- Party PartyType="Supplier"
BuyerPartyID = BUYER001 - Party PartyType="Plant"
BuyerPartyID = WRK1 - PurchasingReceivingPlant = WRK1
- PurchasingUnloadingPoint = UNLOAD001
- BuyerProductID = FGSMJIT001_KM
1.2. Monitor the incoming message in AIF
Using the Fiori App “Message monitoring overview” you can monitor the received EDI messages and eventually analyse and fix errors raised during the message processing.
As prerequisite, the user-id must be assigned as Interface administrator in the transaction “/AIF/ALERT”
By using the Fiori App “Message monitoring overview” you will see all interfaces for which your user-id is defined as administrator. In this view, you can restrict the selection with respect to the processing date of the EDI message.
From the main view, you can navigate to detailed view for a specific interface to display the corresponding EDI messages.
In the detailed view, you can use business data such as customer plant ID, unloading point, customer material number, etc. to fine tune the selection of the EDI messages.
1.3. Manage the sales scheduling agreement
A successful processing of delivery schedule EDI message will update the corresponding sales scheduling agreement by creating new delivery schedule and inserting new schedule lines to capture the updated customer demand.
In S/4HANA, the Fiori App “Manage Sales Schedule Agreements” can be used to analyze sales schedule agreements and display the last delivery schedule received from the customer.
1.4. Monitor product demand variation
Using the Fiori App “Sales Scheduling Agreement- Product Demand” you can analyze the fluctuation in product demand for a specific product or for all products from a particular customer within a defined time frame. Additionally, the App allows you to compare the last two releases received from the customer.
2. Shipping Process
2.1. Post the SOAP API
Automotive suppliers receive daily JIT calls (or delivery orders) from their customers as EDI messages. The EDIFACT standard for this message is DELJIT. Different standards might be applied depending on the region of the customer such as VDA4986 (VDA) in Germany, 866 (ANSI X2) in the US, and CALDEL (Odette) in the EU.
To simulate this SOAP API message, you can download the message specification for “JITCallRequest_In” from the SAP Business Accelerator Hub https://api.sap.com/ and use any API testing tool. It is also possible to use the transaction SPROXY to simulate in the inbound EDI message if you are testing in S/4HANA Cloud, private edition system.
For the test data described in the part 1 of this blog series, the payload will be filled per as the following:
Spoiler
- BuyerJITCallID = EDI_TRANSMITION_0001
- PartyType = VN // BuyerPartyID = BUYER001
- PartyType = SH // BuyerPartyID = WRK1
- UnloadingPointName = UNLOAD001
- SupplyArea = PSA001
- ProcessingStatus = NEW
- BuyerComponentGroupID = DON0001
- BuyerProductID = FGSMJIT001_K
2.2. Monitor the incoming message in AIF
Similar to the EDI message for the forecast delivery schedule, it is possible to monitor the EDI JIT calls messages using the Fiori App “Message monitoring overview”. As prerequisite, your user-id must be assigned as Interface administrator in the transaction “/AIF/ALERT":
By using the App “Message monitoring overview” you will see all interfaces for which your user-id is defined as administrator. In this view, you can restrict the selection with respect to the processing date of the EDI message.
2.3. Monitor received customer JIT calls
With the “Manage Customer JIT Calls” App, you can monitor and filter customer JIT calls by various criteria and display detailed information to each item. The App also allows to edit or delete existing customer JIT calls, as well as create new ones through direct data entry or by copying from an existing JIT call.
2.4. Create JIT delivery schedule and analyze demand from customer JIT calls
In the daily operations, delivery order quantities (requested quantities in the JIT calls) sometimes deviate from the quantities requested in the customer's forecast delivery schedules. These deviations can disrupt the material and production planning. Early detection of such deviations is crucial for material planners to implement the adequate corrective actions. For this purpose, it is possible to create a JIT Delivery Schedule from the customer's JIT calls using the App "Generate JIT Delivery Schedule from Customer JIT Calls". This will update the tab "JIT delivery schedule" in the corresponding sales scheduling agreement.
To compare the forecast delivery schedule with the JIT delivery schedule, generated from the customer JIT calls, you can use the App "Demand Analysis of Customer JIT Calls"
2.5. Create outbound from customer JIT calls
In the buyer's system, JIT calls are created and sent to the seller to request the delivery of a specific product in a defined quantity and on a defined date and time. These JIT calls also include additional references to facilitate the buyer's inbound and production supply processes. Therefore, automotive suppliers should use the customer JIT call as a central object in executing the shipping process. This can be achieved by using the Fiori App “Create Outbound Delivery from Summarized JIT calls”, which allows you to select JIT calls based on various criteria and initiate the creation of the outbound delivery.
The created delivery will be marked as JIT delivery. This can be verified in the LIKP table. The “JIT_RLVNT” field will be flagged if the delivery was created in reference to JIT calls.
It is possible to navigate to the delivery from manage customer JIT calls app.
2.7. Complete JIT call processing
The final process steps in the JIT call processing are posting goods issue and creating the billing documents. These process steps are the same as for the standard order to cash process. The Fiori App "Pick Outbound Delivery" can be used to post the goods issue for the JIT outbound delivery and the App "Create Billing Documents" to creating the billing document.
With the creation of the billing document, the JIT call lifecycle status will be set to completed.
3. Summary
This blog series offers an overview of the Just-in-Time process and provides insights into configuring and executing this process within the next-generation Just-in-Time solution in SAP S/4HANA. By following this series, you gain the knowledge needed to understand, configure, and test in S/4HANA the following process in S/4HANA:
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