Backorder Processing

Backorder processing (BOP) is a process to change order confirmations

based on the available stock and business strategy (for prioritization). It
is carried out either interactively or through a batch process.

BOP helps to improve customer service and on-time delivery for

important sales orders or customers, resulting in higher revenue and
margin.

What Is Backorder Processing?

BOP is the process of re-performing ATP to change confirmation of
orders in business scenarios such as the following:

 High-priority customer order

 Change in availability of stock
 Change in supply situation
 Change in demand situation

In BOP, sales order items are first selected (filtered) according to

selection criteria (fields) and then prioritized (sorted) for the availability
check. The BOP segment PREMIUMCUSTOMER has been created in
with selection criteria material FGll and sold-to party 10100001 and
prioritize DELIVERYPRIORITY in the Configure BOP Segment app.
The prioritize can be set to be sorted in either ascending or descending
order.

Standard fields for selection (filter) and sorting (prioritize) for BOP in
AATP are listed in Table 10.
Configuration Basics

Most of the configuration settings for BOP in AA TP are done in SAP

Fiori apps, but there are certain prerequisite IMG configurations that
need to be taken care of for BOP on sales orders in AATP, as follows:

• The checking group must be activated for availability checks in AATP

(IMG menu path Cross-Application Components• Advanced Available-
to-Promise(AATP)•Product Availability Check (PAC)• Define Checking
Group).
• The schedule line category must be flagged for availability checks.
• The requirement class must be flagged for availability checks.
• The fixed date/quantity must not be flagged on the sales order.
SAP Fiori Applications

There are four SAP Fiori apps for BOP in AATP. Sequential steps
(process flows) for configuration of BOP have been captured in Figure

Configure BOP Segment

If the total requirements in sales orders are greater than the available
stock, then the requirements are selected (filtered) and prioritized
(sorted) to confirm the sales orders based on the business prioritization
strategy in the Configure BOP Segment app. The BOP segment can be
created, changed, or displayed in this app and then assigned to a BOP
variant, as described in the next section. The CUSTOMER_PREMIUM
BOP segment has been created in below Figure, with specific sold-to
party, material, and supplying plant selection criteria, and delivery
priority and order creation date sort attributes set in ascending order.
Configure BOP Variant

A BOP variant is created with the Configure BOP Variant app; the BOP
segment is assigned to a confirmation strategy in the BOP variant, as
shown in Figure:

Confirmation strategy is a new concept in AATP; it doesn't exist in SAP

ERP nor in GATP. In a confirmation strategy, simple business terms
eliminate the complex configurations of GATP. Confirmation strategies
have been defined with relevant business scenarios in below Table.

For BOP segments, such as BOPWINLOSE as shown in Figure 41, the

following is true:
• The assigned BOP segment must have a confirmation strategy.
• Multiple BOP segments can be assigned with a single confirmation
strategy (both BOP segments CUSTOMER_PROMOTIONEVENT and
CUSTOMER_ PREMIUM have the same confirmation strategy: win).
• There can be a maximum of five confirmation strategies (win, gain,
redistribute, fill, or lose).

BOP can also be run in the background either in simulation or direct

update with the Configure BOP Variant app. BOP segments can be
added to or deleted from a BOP variant.
Schedule BOP Run
A BOP can be run immediately (using the Start Immediately option) or
through a batch job with the Schedule BOP Run app for a specific BOP
variant (e.g., BOP Win Lose). BOP also can be run either in simulation
or direct update mode with flexible scheduling options. Figure 42 shows
various scheduling options/parameters for the BOP run.

Monitor BOP Run

The results of the BOP run can be evaluated with the Monitor BOP Run
app. Table 13 shows the scenario for confirmation of sales orders before
the BOP run.

BOP variant BOPWINLOSE, as set up in Figure 41, was run with the
Monitor BOP Run app, the result of the BOP run is displayed below:

As you can see from the BOP result, the quantity (25 ST) initially
confirmed for sales order 125 for a customer with a credit block has
been released due to the Lose confirmation strategy; that stock has been
allocated to sales orders 127 and 128 using the Win confirmation
strategy.
The win confirmation strategy requires the full confirmation of the
quantities on the requested date. If the sa les order number 127 has a
required quantity of more than 15 (say, 16), then the BOP for the win
strategy will be aborted; that is, sales order number 127 will not be
confirmed in that case.
Other strategies, like gain, redistribute, and fill, allow partial
confirmations.

Global Filter

A global filter defines the overall superset of requirements for a BOP

run. It can be used for the overall selection of regular customers for
materials with specific plants.

• BOP segment ALLOTHERCUSTOMERS as a global filter is

representing the regular customers for material FGl5 for plant 1010.
Requirements selected by the global filter (the large circle) but not
impacted by any other BOP segment (such as premium customer) is
assigned to the confirmation strategy redistribute (similar to other BOP
segment).
• Different types of customers are set with specific confirmation
strategies.
1) BOP segment ALLOTHERCUSTOMERS is created first with the
Configure BOP Segment app.
2) BOP segment ALLOTHERCUSTOMERS is then defined as a
global filter and assigned to a confirmation strategy (redistribute)
in a BOP variant with the Configure BOP Variant app.
Table 15 describes the scenario for sales order conformations with
different types of customers for all sales order created on July 26, as
listed in Table 14.
It shows that certain nonpriority sales orders have confirmed quantities,
whereas some sales orders with priority customers do not have order
confirmations.
Figure 47 shows the result of a BOP run (for the scenario in Table 15) as
displayed in the Monitor BOP Run SAP Fiori app. Sales orders with a
green checkmark in the Status column had an improvement in order
confirmation quantities (for win, gain, or redistribute confirmation
strategies) or maintained their order confirmations and sales orders.
Those with a red exclamation mark had a decrease in order confirmation
quantities (for redistribute, fill, and lose confirmation strategies).
Table 16 shows the result of a BOP run for the sales order confirmations
with different customers. It indicates the following:

• Sales orders with lose and fill strategies and a sales order with the
redistribute confirmation strategy have lost the confirmations.
• Sales orders with win and gain confirmation strategies have gained in
order confirmations.
• Sales orders with the redistribute confirmation strategy have retained
their order confirmations.
ATP and AATP can be run simultaneously, depending on the checking
group setup in the same SAP S/4HANA system. If the checking group is
activated for AATP, then AATP is called for the materials with that
checking group.
However, PAL in AATP and in Sales & Distribution (as in old SAP
ERP) can't be executed simultaneously in the same SAP S/4HANA
system. If PAL is activated in AATP in SAP S/4HANA, then it can't be
rolled back to previously used PAL functions in Sales & Distribution.

GATP can be integrated with SAP S/4HANA in a similar way as with

SAP ERP, with the same CIF interface, qRFC, and so on.