Material Availability Check for material launched in the future

Question

This is the requirement;
We are launching a product in the future. Lets use August 19th as our launch date This means that on August 19th our material can be goods issued. It cannot be shipped before then. There is no loading time etc. so our GI date usually = our material availability date
Our production & procurement activities are executed allowing us to build our stocks so we have on hand stock of the material. We are receiving customer orders. Availability check is run and it is being confirmed for dates before the GI date (As we have stock in the system). For example, a sales order is created with a requested delivery date = 19th August; Would be acceptable if there was no transit time. But what if there is a route determined with a transit time for 2 days. This brings us to a material availability date of 17th August (And therefore a GI date of 17th August) which is before our product launch date. This needs to be avoided; the earliest material availability date must be 19th August as this will then be the earliest GI date.
Therefore, the requirement is that availability is not confirmed for a date before our launch date. But is confirmed for the launch date.
For example, how do Apple launch their products (like iPads)in future dates but entertain customer orders well before the date & then confirm the future dates to end customers? At the time when they receive the orders from end customers, I am sure that they would be holding stock of sufficient iPads for future deliveries.

Answer 1

There may be more than one way you can fulfill the requirement. First is use of user exit. In enhancement ATP00001 (User exits in the availabity check), you can try using EXIT_SAPLATPC_002 (processing results of actual check). Here you can add logic that if the system date is less than Aug 19th 2011, then propse confirm date (material available date) as 19th of August 2011.
The second option would be use of Replishment time (RLT) in the material master MRP3 view. You can maintain certains days to match August 19th (of course you need to reduct one day when the days go-by). At the same time in t.code OVZ9, you need to uncheck the box check without RLT for the combination of availability check rule and availabity check group. After August 19th, you can check the box again after removing the RLT time in material master. My preference is to go with first option.
Regards,