Defining ATP rules
Available-to-promise (ATP) rules enable you to determine the availability of a product item for current and future demand.
This determination makes the most efficient use of inventory so that product items are not set aside for future orders when they could be used to fulfill more immediate demands. The availability of a product item is based on current and future supply, lead days, and ATP configuration. The lead days is the amount of time it takes a node to procure a product item for shipping. The processing time covers the time it takes for a product item to be received by a supplier and made ready for shipment (inbound processing) as well as shipping it from the warehouse (outbound processing).
ATP rules enable you to effectively manage orders for product items. Parameters can be set for the amount of time a product item is available for current and future orders. With a First Expiration First Out (FEFO) inventory management system, perishable product items can be sold and shipped well before their expiration dates, ensuring first expired inventory is consumed first.
ATP rules enable you to fulfill current and future customer demand as well as more effectively manage warehouse inventory and processing time for product items.
Sterling™ Order Management System Software provides a default ATP rule, called DEFAULT, that is used when no other rule has been defined.
- If you are configuring ATP rules for the Hub organization, do not alter the factory default ATP rule. Use this rule as a guideline for setting up new ATP rules.
- If you are configuring ATP rules for an Enterprise organization, view the Hub's factory default ATP rule and use it as a guideline when creating new ATP rules.