Strategy group / Availability check

Question

Hi Gurus,
When availability check is assign during material creation in MRP3 view, by defaul SAP assign the same one in Sales: General/Plant view. I understand that this is the same field on plant level (MARC-MTVFP)
In my mind, the first one (in MRP3) will be used to determine MTO, MTS and so one.
The second one (in Sales) will be used during sales order creation for availability check.
Is there a relation between both?
Moreover which is the link between availability check and the strategy group?
I'm quick lost to know which I need to use on sales side, on production side because for a same availability check you can have more than one checking rules (one for SD order, one for PP...). Each one can be different.
A best practise could not be to have similar criteria for all checking rules of the availability check?
Thanks.
Stéphane

Answer 1

Hi,
Availability check in the MRP3 View of the Material master is nothing but checking Group.
( 01- Daily requirements ,02- Individual requirements and so on )
You allocate the checking group to the material in the material master under the availabilty check field in the MRP data screen.
If you have not maintained a checking group for a material, the material will not be checked for availability.
Checking Rule : In this step, you can define checking rule for applications:
    o   Sales and distribution
    o   MRP
    o   Production order processing
Scope of Check : Checking group and Checking rule together specify the scope of the check.
which inward goods movements and which outward goods movements are to be included in the availability check
which stocks are to be included in the availability check
whether the check should take into account the replenishment lead time.
whether the availability should always be checked at plant level.
Strategy Group:
The planning strategy represents a procedure for planning a material and is technically controlled via the requirements types. With the help of the planning strategy, the material is automatically assigned the correct requirements type in demand management and in sales order management.
o   The planning strategy represents a planning procedure for planning a  material.
It is defined by one of the following:
    -   a requirements type from demand management
    -   a requirements type from sales order management
    -   a combination of both that makes sense
o   Strategy group
    You use the strategy group to group together all the valid planning strategies. Thus, more than one planning strategy can be allowed for  a material.
In this section, you also see various control indicators for each planning strategy on the overview screen, for example:
o   consumption indicator (determines whether the requirements type in planned independent requirements and the requirements type in sales order management are consumed or whether sales orders increase the  master plan, and so on).
o   availability check (determines whether the check is to be carried out according to ATP logic or as a check with planned independent requirements).
Hope it is useful to you.
Thanks
Srinivas