Knowledge Management

Question:
Hi,
I have two manufacturing plants consuming same raw material. How can I set-up the system so that any plant can pick up and issue the raw material whenever they require without having stock-out problem?
Currently the material is maintained under separate storage location under 2 different plants; One plant is running out os stock after using it's material whereas the other plant has not used any of it's material. They manually do the stock transfer from 2nd plant to 1st plant and then do GI in the 1st plant.
Any advise?
nisha
Answer:
Hi Nisha,
I you would be working within the same plant this shouldn't be a problem. Then you would be able to work with a stock determination strategy (OSPX). There you could set up a strategy to select a default storage location until there is no stock and then switch to another storage location but..... you use two different plants and this strategy works on plant level. I think the current situation will be the best, since your MRP parameter should take care of sufficient stock in the first place...
Answer:
Depending on the buisness background of your company you may consider more elaborate R/3 solution involving a (central) replenishement plant in which the manufacturing plants source their requirements for the relevant raw materials (all of them?).
In the forehand several questions should be addressed:
a. Do the two manufacturing sites have a real physical reality or are you using an Sap R/3 gimmick within the same or close enough physical sites? How distant are they?
b. Is it conceivable to procure into a central storage space for further dispatching to production sites?
c. Is the organization mature enough to work in just-in-time mode without buffer stock at production sites?
_________________
Andrzej
akrason@excite.com

Answer:
yes. there r 2 separate manufacturing facilities one in MO and the other in NJ. They share the raw material stock which is maintained as "subcontract vendor stock" in IL.
I think, it is not viable to have JIT.
thanx for all your replies. I thought there might be some new functinality in 4.7 compared to 3.1I.
Nisha
Answer:
Hi Nisha,
Well, if you have stock at subcontractor's end for both the plants,
then ur plant 1 can use the stock of plant 2, provided you mention the consumption from plant 2 stock in the bill of material in subcontracting PO from Plant 1 on subcontractor.
hope this solves ur problem,
Manish