Item substitution functionality allows different products to be suggested or changed for demand.

Sustainability: Minimize Warehouse Footprint

Reduce the amount of facility space utilized by increasing the amount of substitutions made in the inbound and outbound processes.
Allow for more substitutions when purchasing or selling inventory so that businesses can minimize how much space is being used by surplus items.

See Sustainability with Supply Chain Cloud for more information.

There are three main flavors of item substitution:

Always Substitute

Always Substitute

Always substitute is used if an item is being phased out.

If the old item should no longer be sold, but order takers/external systems are unaware of the new product number, this functionality bridges that gap to make sure order demand is fulfilled.

Triggered

Always substitute functionality is triggered during channel assignment. Once the channel has been determined, item substitution rules are evaluated.

Rules

Channel demand that is already partially or fully reserved is not evaluated for substitution.
Only distinct item substitution policies with substitution triggers of Always are evaluated.

Result

If the substitution action is set to Automatic, substitution occurs and channel demand for the substitute item is created in the channel that the original item was assigned to.
If the substitution action is set to With Permission, an actionable message is generated and you can accept or reject the substitution. Channel demand is created for the original item.
If no substitution takes place, channel demand is created for the original item.
Original and substituted transaction IDs are visible under the order line.

Availability Shortage

Availability Shortage

Availability shortage is used when there are comparable items that can be substituted when the ordered item does not have enough inventory to satisfy the demand.

Triggered

During the reservation processing job:

if the current item does not have enough inventory to satisfy the channel demand, substitution rules are evaluated to see if an alternate item has available inventory.
Note

Substitution rules are only evaluated if the demand is within the substitution window defined on the channel template and the reservation job has the Allow Substitution toggle turned on.
if the budget restricts the current item's available inventory, substitution rules are evaluated. The substitution policy/group has a configuration on whether budget shortages are a valid reason to substitute.

Rules

The Allow partial substitution toggle on the substitution setup determines whether substitution with an item that will not fully satisfy the demand is allowed.
Substitution with the alternate item only occurs if the alternate item provides more inventory than the current item. The first item that satisfies this requirement is used.
Reasons not to evaluate substitution for the current channel demand:
- The current item can be fully reserved.
- The channel demand is released to warehouse or planned to a load (any time a load line exists in transportation; using WHS).
- The channel demand has an output order (using WM2).
- The channel demand has been picked against the order/packing slip (using WM1).
- Channel demand has already been substituted.
- A pending substitution action item is already present for the channel demand.
Distinct substitution policies are evaluated before groups.

Result

If the substitution action is set to Automatic, substitution occurs and channel demand for the substitute item is created and reserved.
If the substitution action is set to With Permission, an actionable message is generated and you can accept or reject the substitution.
Original and substituted transaction IDs are visible under the order line.

Manual Substitution

Manual Substitution

Manual substitution is used to trigger substitution at your own discretion. It can be used in conjunction with other forms of substitution.

This allows you to evaluate substitution options when needed and select the appropriate alternate item.

Triggered

Click Global order promising > Item substitution options on the sales order line to evaluate substitution of the selected demand.

Rules

If the demand line is not assigned to channel demand, channel designation runs before proceeding. Once channel is assigned, substitution options are evaluated.
Distinct substitution policies are evaluated before groups. Results are ordered in that priority.

Result

A list of viable alternative items for the demand is presented. Valid results for both trigger types (Always substitute and Availability shortage) display in priority order.
Select the desired item and click Select option to substitute.
You are returned to the Sales Order form.

These flavors each have different triggers and rules.

Browser not supported