Automatic Sourcing

Purchasing lets you automatically source on-line requisitions with blanket purchase orders or quotations you create. You can easily assign any item with an item number to a specific blanket purchase agreement or catalog quotation you created. (You can choose only quotations with a quotation class of Catalog.) Purchasing automatically assigns the name of the supplier for the blanket purchase order and quotation to any requisition for this item.

You use the Sourcing Rule and Sourcing Rule / Bill of Distribution Assignments windows to create sourcing rules.

You use the Approved Supplier List and Supplier-Item Attributes windows to specify source document information for a particular item-supplier combination.

You can define allocation percentages when creating sourcing rules in the Sourcing Rule window. Master Scheduling/MRP uses these allocation percentages when creating planned orders, which Purchasing imports as requisitions through Requisition Import. In a group of requisitions imported from Master Scheduling/MRP, those requisitions show the percentage allocation you define. In other words, at the end of a planning period, orders--as a group--to those suppliers approximately equal the percentage split you defined. However, when you create a requisition in Purchasing, Purchasing sources to the supplier with the highest allocated percentage. The Approved Supplier List (ASL) entry for that supplier is then referenced in order to pick up source document information (from a blanket purchase agreement or catalog quotation), if source documents exist. You can also rank the suppliers in the Sourcing Rule window, so that if a percentage allocation is the same for some suppliers, Purchasing sources to the one with the highest rank.

In the Approved Supplier List and Sourcing Rule windows, you can also source at an item or commodity level. That is, you can provide sourcing information for an item at the item level, or for a category of items at the commodity level. You can also perform global or local sourcing. A sourcing rule assigned at the global level in the Sourcing Rule / Bill of Distribution Assignments window is valid for all operating units. A global ASL entry in the Approved Supplier List window is valid for all inventory organizations in an operating unit. A local sourcing rule or ASL entry is valid only for the operating unit you're in or the organization you chose.

If you define a blanket purchase agreement or quotation as the source document for your item, Purchasing provides the following sourcing information for your requisition line: Buyer, Supplier, Site, Contact, Phone, Supplier Item Number, Document Type (Blanket or Quotation) Source Document, Source Line Number, and RFQ Required (Yes or No). You can later review the sourcing information in the AutoCreate Documents window before placing the requisition line onto a purchase order.

Purchasing defaults sourcing information from the blanket purchase agreement or quotation except under the following conditions:

Note: You can also receive blanket purchase agreements and quotations electronically from your suppliers through the Purchasing Documents Open Interface. See: Receiving Price/Sales Catalog Information Electronically.

Creating Sourcing Rules and ASL Entries

If you want source document information from a blanket purchase agreement or catalog quotation to default in your requisition line for an item-supplier combination, then you need to create ASL entries in the Approved Supplier List window and create sourcing rules. If you want just a supplier and optionally a supplier site to default in your requisition line, then it is enough just to create sourcing rules for the item or commodity.

   To create sourcing rules:

   Before you define and assign sourcing rules, you should perform the following:

1. Use the Sourcing Rule window to define your sourcing rules. See: Defining Sourcing Rules.

Note: Some of the fields in the Sourcing Rule window may already be completed for you if your supplier sends you catalog information electronically.

2. Use the Sourcing Rule/Bill of Distribution Assignments window to assign your sourcing rules to particular items or organizations. See: Assigning Sourcing Rules and Bills of Distribution.

Attention: When you enter an Assignment Set name in the Sourcing Rule/Bill of Distribution Assignments window, make sure you use the same name that appears (or that you've provided) in the profile option MRP: Default Sourcing Assignment Set.


ASL Sourcing to Requisitions Setup and Usage Guide [ID 175935.1]  and ASL Sourcing Whitepaper [ID 285470.1]  may help

   To create ASL entries:

See: Defining the Supplier and Commodity/Item Combination. See: Defining the Supplier/Item Attributes.

PROCESSING OVERVIEW

Sourcing rule describes which supplier and supplier site while approved supplier list describes pricing details from document and line details of that supplier and supplier site combination.

Sourcing rule is mandatory which identifies the supplier and supplier site for the sourcing to happen. Sourcing rule and approved supplier list can be local and global. Once the sourcing rule is identified by sourcing functionality next is to find the source document for that supplier and supplier site combination.

Following flowchart explains you how the sourcing functionality works in defaulting the source document.

 

 

It first checks for the Profile option "PO: Automatic Document Sourcing".

Consider if the value is set to ‘Yes’. This enables Purchasing to default the most recent source documents automatically. If more than one source document is entered, Purchasing uses a blanket purchase agreement over contract and quotation, even if they were created more recently. If there are only blanket purchase agreements or only quotations, Purchasing uses the one that was created most recently.

If the Profile PO: Automatic Document Sourcing is set to ‘No’ then it checks for the ASL setup.

Global ASL entries are valid for all inventory organizations. Local ASL entries are specific to a single inventory organization.

If two ASL entries exist for the same item or commodity, one Global entry that applies to all organizations and one local entry that applies only to the local inventory organization, the local entry takes precedence. Also if ASL entries exist for the item and category (for which the same item is assigned), item ASL takes precedence over commodity ASL.

Below is the matrix, which shows the resulting document, created from the requisitions when it has the following source document.

Source Document

Resulting Document

Quotation 

Standard purchase order

Contract purchase order

Standard purchase order

Local BPA

Blanket release

Global BPA

Standard purchase order

One can also accomplish an automatic creation of Sourcing Rules, Sourcing Rule Assignments and Approved Supplier List entries during Blanket Agreement approval Submission. The system automatically creates the relevant entries, once the Blanket Agreement is approved.  

 

SETUP


1.Create a Sourcing Rule for the Supplier and Supplier Site combination. Mention the % allocation and Rank.

Note: Summation of % allocation against each rank should be 100%, and then only planning Check-box is enabled automatically.

 

2. Create an Assignment Set for this Organization or Item and list this Sourcing Rule in that Assignment Set (One Assignment Set can be used that will include all of the desired Assignments)

3. Set the Profile - MRP: Default Sourcing Assignment Set to the Assignment Set created in Step 2

4. Create an ASL for the item and add the Supplier and Supplier Site. The Note 285470.1 ASL Sourcing Whitepaper explains the complete setup required for sourcing rule and ASL creation.

Note: Make it Global or Local while saving the record under record details tab.

 

Matrix showing the precedence detail when multiple ASL records exists for an Item. 

Precedence

ASL entries with following combination

First

Supplier,Supplier site ,Local ASL

Second

Supplier,Supplier site ,Global ASL

Third

Supplier ,Local ASL

Fourth

Supplier ,Global ASL

 

5.Enter the following documents under attribute window i.e Blanket, Quotation and Contract

6. Enter following release generation method. The Note 175935.1 ASL Sourcing to Requisitions Setup and Usage Guide
briefly discusses about the ASL setup.

7. Now cross check the setup manually entering the item in the requisition form and tab out. If the Supplier, Supplier Site and Source details are populated then sourcing setup is working properly. Also refer the Note 187054.1 ASL Sourcing Rule Upgrade Troubleshooting which will help in understanding the setup issue.      

The Note 275828.1 - First Supplier or Supplier Site Gets Picked up When Using The Same Rank Value On Sourcing Rules -explains the limitations in core purchasing.

8. Setup to automatically create ASL and Sourcing Rules during Blanket Purchase Order approval .More details are covered in Note 273983.1 Ext/Pub Steps Required For Creating ASL and Sourcing Rules From Blanket Po's .Following are the important details to check for.

Set the following Profile and PO Approval workflow attributes.
Profile Options:

PO: Allow Auto-generate Sourcing Rules => CREATE AND UPDATE

PO: Allow Autocreation of Oracle Sourcing Documents => Yes

MRP: Default Assignment Set => Define with desired Assignment Set

PO Approval Workflow attribute setup through Workflow Builder:  

- Create Sourcing Rule Flag: "Y"
- Update Sourcing Rule Flag: "Y"
- PO SR Rule Name Prefix: "PURCH" - Default Value
- PO Assignment Type ID for SR: "3 - Item level "

Create a BPA and Submit for approval, in approval window in additional options details choose the appropriate value and submit for approval. Once BPA is approved, check whether ASL and Sourcing Rule created. 
      

DIAGNOSTICS

Following notes are helpful in diagnosing issues, since it shows both processing information and all related data and setup. 


IMPORTANT CHECKLIST 

The Note 417966.1 Auto Sourcing And Auto Create/Release Checklist, explains complete checklist for the sourcing and ASL related issues. Following are the important scenario's or the issues with the important checkpoints.

1.When Supplier and Supplier Site not defaulting in requisition, check

a. Is the Profile option “ MRP: Default Sourcing Assignment Set “ populated with Correct value?
b. What is the value populated in Assign Sourcing Rule for Item, Organization etc correct one?
c. Sourcing Effective date is valid?

2. When Source document is not defaulting in the Requisition, check

a. What is the Profile option Value set “PO: Automatic Document Sourcing”?
b. Is there an approved Global BPA and the Global BPA is enabled in the requesting operating unit?
c. Is the sysdate inside source document effective date range?

3.When Create Release program not creating Release,check

a. Is the requisition approved?
b. Is there a valid BPA assigned to the requisition line(i.e in Source detail)?
c. Is the ASL attribute “Release Generation Method” set to “Automatic Release/Review” or “Automatic Release”?

4.When CREATEPO workflow is not creating the desired resulting document, check

a. Is the Requisition Approval workflow attribute “Send PO Autocreation to Background” set to Yes and Workflow Background Process concurrent program run to process the deferred Requisition Approval workflows. or Is the Requisition Approval workflow attribute “Send PO Autocreation to Background” set to No?
b. Is the Create Documents workflow attribute “Is Automatic Creation Allowed?” set to “Yes”?
c. Is the Create Documents workflow attribute “Should Contract be used to autocreate Doc?” set to “Yes”?

5. Automatically Sourcing Rules, Assignments and ASL are not created, once the BPA is approved, check

a. Check the value for profile PO: Allow Auto-generate Sourcing Rules and ASL
b. If BPA is set as "Archive on Print", this feature cannot be used, one must select "Archive on Approve" to use this feature.
c. Process will update existing Sourcing rules only if:
-The Blanket purchase order Start and End Dates are not null.
-The blanket effective period do not overlap multiple effective periods in the Sourcing Rule.
-The process will try to create or update Approved Supplier List entries even if Sourcing Rule creation/update failed for the item
-For Exception reporting, run the Purchasing Interface Errors report with a source type of 'ASR - Automatic Sourcing Rule Builder’

6.Attributes in CREATEPO workflow for Generating Release from a BPA:

-Is Automatic Creation Allowed?
-Should Workflow Create The Release?
-Is Automatic Approval Allowed?

7.When approved requisitions are imported through Requisition Import no purchase orders created,check

-Autosource_flag value set to 'Y' in PO_REQUISITIONS_INTERFACE_ALL tables
- Is Automatic Creation Allowed? (CREATEPO attribute)

 

LOGGING

For CREATEPO related issues Wfstatus and workflow Debug file can be further analyzed to find the cause.

TRACING

For performance and data related issues, the note Note 170223.1: Trace 11i Bind Variables - Profile Option: Initialization, provides the detailed steps to get the trace with binds. Use the output to check tables and queries mentioned below for performance data and activities performed during execution.

 

DATA AND QUERIES

 Following data higlights important tables and relevant information stored in them.

Table name

Information Stored

PO_APPROVED_SUPPLIER_LIST

Stores the relationship between an item or Commodity; a supplier, ship-to organizations; and approval/certification status.

PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES

Stores all information for the supplier /item /organization relationship defined in PO_APPROVED_SUPPLIER_LIST. This information is maintained separately to allow each organization to define its own attributes.

PO_ASL_DOCUMENTS

Stores sourcing references to supply agreements,blanket agreements, and catalog quotations associated with particular suppliers and items in PO_APPROVED_SUPPLIER_LIST

PO_ASL_STATUSES

Stores the user-defined approval/certification statuses for the ASL.

MRP_SOURCING_RULES

Stores sourcing rule names and descriptions.Define Sourcing Rule form populates this table.

MRP_ASSIGNMENT_SETS and MRP_SR_ASSIGNMENTS

Stores Sourcing Assignment Sets and stores the assignment of sourcing rules respectively


The following script provides the CREATEPO workflow attributes check for relevant attributes referring to 'IMPORTANT CHECKLIST' section.

SELECT NAME, TEXT_DEFAULT,ITEM_TYPE
FROM WF_ITEM_ATTRIBUTES
WHERE NAME = 'AUTOCREATE_DOC';

The following script provides the following ASL details for a Supplier.To find out PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES.ASL_ID go to “Approved Supplier List” window,

Help->Diagnostics-> Examine
Block: ASL_SUPPLIERS
Field : ASL_ID

SELECT ALL PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES.ASL_ID, PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES.USING_ORGANIZATION_ID,
PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES.CREATION_DATE, PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES.DOCUMENT_SOURCING_METHOD,
PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES.RELEASE_GENERATION_METHOD, PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES.PURCHASING_UNIT_OF_MEASURE,
PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES.VENDOR_SITE_ID, PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES.PRICE_UPDATE_TOLERANCE,
PO_VENDORS.VENDOR_NAME, PO_APPROVED_SUPPLIER_LIST.ASL_STATUS_ID,
PO_APPROVED_SUPPLIER_LIST.DISABLE_FLAG
FROM PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES, PO_VENDORS, PO_APPROVED_SUPPLIER_LIST
WHERE PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES.ASL_ID=&ASL_ID
AND ((PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES.VENDOR_ID=PO_VENDORS.VENDOR_ID)
AND (PO_ASL_ATTRIBUTES.ASL_ID=PO_APPROVED_SUPPLIER_LIST.ASL_ID));

The following script will show the following Supplier-Item attributes for an ASL entry.Check if the document is valid and the correct source document is used.

SELECT ALL PO_ASL_DOCUMENTS.ASL_ID, PO_ASL_DOCUMENTS.USING_ORGANIZATION_ID, PO_ASL_DOCUMENTS.DOCUMENT_TYPE_CODE, PO_HEADERS_ALL.SEGMENT1, PO_LINES_ALL.LINE_NUM, PO_HEADERS_ALL.STATUS_LOOKUP_CODE FROM PO_ASL_DOCUMENTS, PO_HEADERS_ALL, PO_LINES_ALL WHERE PO_ASL_DOCUMENTS.ASL_ID=&ASL_ID AND ((PO_ASL_DOCUMENTS.DOCUMENT_HEADER_ID=PO_HEADERS_ALL.PO_HEADER_ID) AND (PO_ASL_DOCUMENTS.DOCUMENT_LINE_ID=PO_LINES_ALL.PO_LINE_ID));

For the same ASL_ID (i.e for the same Supplier and Site combination, there are two ASL entries i.e Global (USING_ORGANIZATION_ID = -1) and Local (USING_ORGANIZATION_ID = XXX). 

The following script provides the following Sourcing Rule details.Check for the sourcing effective date and sourcing status. To find out SOURCING_RULE_ID go to "Sourcing Rules" window ,

Help->Diagnostics-> Examine
Block: MRP_SOURCING_RULES
Field : SOURCING_RULE_ID

SELECT ALL MRP_SOURCING_RULES.SOURCING_RULE_ID, MRP_SOURCING_RULES.SOURCING_RULE_NAME,
MRP_SOURCING_RULES.ORGANIZATION_ID, MRP_SOURCING_RULES.DESCRIPTION,
MRP_SOURCING_RULES.STATUS, MRP_SOURCING_RULES.SOURCING_RULE_TYPE,
MRP_SR_RECEIPT_ORG.EFFECTIVE_DATE, MRP_SR_RECEIPT_ORG.DISABLE_DATE,
MRP_SR_SOURCE_ORG.SOURCE_ORGANIZATION_ID, MRP_SR_SOURCE_ORG.VENDOR_ID,
MRP_SR_SOURCE_ORG.VENDOR_SITE_ID, MRP_SR_SOURCE_ORG.SOURCE_TYPE,
MRP_SR_SOURCE_ORG.ALLOCATION_PERCENT, MRP_SR_SOURCE_ORG.RANK
FROM MRP_SOURCING_RULES, MRP_SR_RECEIPT_ORG, MRP_SR_SOURCE_ORG
WHERE MRP_SOURCING_RULES.SOURCING_RULE_ID=2
AND ((MRP_SOURCING_RULES.SOURCING_RULE_ID=MRP_SR_RECEIPT_ORG.SOURCING_RULE_ID)
AND (MRP_SR_RECEIPT_ORG.SR_RECEIPT_ID=MRP_SR_SOURCE_ORG.SR_RECEIPT_ID));  

The following script provides the details of an Assignment Set .Check if the assignment of the sourcing rule to the item is correct and the same sourcing rule is defined in the 'MRP: Default Assignement Set'.To find out ASSIGNMENT_SET_ID go to “Sourcing Rules” window,

Help->Diagnostics-> Examine
Block: ASSIGNMENT_SETS
Field : ASSIGNMENT_SET_ID

SELECT ALL MRP_ASSIGNMENT_SETS.ASSIGNMENT_SET_NAME, MRP_SR_ASSIGNMENTS.ASSIGNMENT_TYPE, MTL_SYSTEM_ITEMS_B.SEGMENT1, MTL_SYSTEM_ITEMS_B.DESCRIPTION, MRP_SR_ASSIGNMENTS.SOURCING_RULE_TYPE, MRP_SOURCING_RULES.SOURCING_RULE_NAME FROM MRP_SOURCING_RULES, MRP_SR_ASSIGNMENTS, MTL_SYSTEM_ITEMS_B, MRP_ASSIGNMENT_SETS WHERE MRP_ASSIGNMENT_SETS.ASSIGNMENT_SET_ID=21 AND ((MRP_ASSIGNMENT_SETS.ASSIGNMENT_SET_ID=MRP_SR_ASSIGNMENTS.ASSIGNMENT_SET_ID) AND (MRP_SR_ASSIGNMENTS.SOURCING_RULE_ID=MRP_SOURCING_RULES.SOURCING_RULE_ID) AND (MRP_SR_ASSIGNMENTS.INVENTORY_ITEM_ID=MTL_SYSTEM_ITEMS_B.INVENTORY_ITEM_ID) AND (MRP_SR_ASSIGNMENTS.ORGANIZATION_ID=MTL_SYSTEM_ITEMS_B.ORGANIZATION_ID));



CODE FILES

This process utilizes the following code files which can be checked for versions and later fixes;

To find patches: Visit Metalink > Patches and Updates > Advanced Search > Complete: Product / Release / Platform / Patch / Includes File [Enter file] > Click Go.

References, General Issues and Relevant Documents

 The following steps explain how this can be useful in investigating possible similar issues:


Some other common known issues and relevant notes:

DOCUMENTATION

Oracle Purchasing User’s Guide, Section-Overview of Automatic Sourcing, Page 5-30 to 5-59
Oracle Manufacturing APIs and Open Interfaces Manual, Volume 1 Release 11i

See Also

Setting Up and Implementing Sourcing Strategies

Sourcing Rules and Bills of Distribution