A customer order line can be sourced automatically or manually. Automatic sourcing is when the system uses a sourcing rule to automatically select the most suitable source to supply the customer demand. Sourcing rules are defined as basic data. The sales part must be set up to use a sourcing rule, and a sourcing rule should be connected either to the sales part alone (inventory as well as non-inventory), the sales part and customer, or the sales part and customer address.
A sourcing rule consists of a source set and sourcing objectives. The source set is a set of all sourcing alternatives. Sourcing alternatives can be external suppliers, internal suppliers, in-house manufacturing, or company inventory. The automatic sourcing will select the best alternative from this set. The best alternative will determine the supply code and when appropriate the supplier to use on the customer order line. The sourcing objectives consist of a sequence of criteria that the automatic sourcing will use when more than one sourcing alternative is suited to supply the customer order line.
If you want to define a specific supplier for the source set, the supplier must first be entered in the Supplier window. If this supplier is an internal supplier, a site must be connected to the supplier.
A sourcing rule with its source set and sourcing objectives will be created.
Sourcing Rule
Sourcing Rule/Source Set
Sourcing Rule/Sourcing Objective