Availability to promise

Short-term sales planning is sometimes supported by a demand fulfillment and available-to-promise (ATP) module. Its purpose is to match inventories and production orders with demands, if customers require reliable quotes with only short notice. 

The terms able to promise or available to promise (ATP) indicate whether a given customer, product, volume, date, or time request can be met for a potential order. ATP requests might be filled from inventory, unallocated planned production, or spare capacity (assuming additional production). When the production scheduler is content with the current plan, made up of firm orders and forecast orders, the forecast orders are removed but the planned production is left intact. This produces inventory profiles in the model that represent ATP from inventory and from unallocated planned production (Baker, 1993 Smith, 1998). 

Sales order management deals with order entry, order change, availability check and confirmations to the customer. Availability check as a concept and as part of Advanced Planning Systems (APS) is also summarized under the term Available-To-Promise (Kilger/Schneeweiss 2004 Pibemick 2005). The availability has to be checked against the sales plan as stable framework for the overall period and the physically available material at the specific point in time. 

Pibemik R (2005) Advanced available-to-promise Classification, selected methods and requirements for operations and inventory management. International Journal of Production Economics 93-94 (1) 239-252... 

Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), 250 ATC, see Apparent tardiness cost ATM (Asynchronous transfer mode), 250 ATO, see Assemble to order ATP (available to promise), 2046 Attention, limited-resource model of, 1016 AT T Laboratories, 268, 913 Attribute control charts, 1844-1851 Attribute data, 1856-1857 Attribute modeling, 2279—2280 AT T runs rules, 1863—1868 Attributes ... 

ATP Available To Promise. The uncommitted portion of inventory and planned production maintained in the master schedule. (Adapted from APICS Dictionary, 10th edition)... 

Warehouse Management System (WMS) A system that tracks and controls the movement of inventory through the warehouse, from receiving to shipping. Many WMS systems also plan transportation requirements into and out of the warehouse. The WMS allows visibility to the quantity and location of inventory, as well as the age of the inventory, to give a current and accurate picture of Available to Promise (ATP) stock. 

In recent years, leadtime quoting has been addressed in commercial applications under the heading of available to promise (ATP) and capable to promise... 

Chen, C.Y., Z.Y. Zhao, M. Ball. 2000. A Model for Batch Advanced Available-To-Promise. Working Paper, Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. 

Keywords Available to Promise (ATP), Push-Pull Framework, Order Promising and Fulfill-... 

Chen, C.-Y, Z.-Y Zhao and M. O. Ball (2002). A Model for Batch Advanced Available-to-Promise, Production and Operations Management, 11, 424-440. 

Ervolina, Tom and Brenda Dietrich (2001). Moving Toward Dynamic Available to Promise, in Saul I. Gass and Albert T. Jones, editors. Supply Chain Management Practice and Research Status and Future Directions, R. H. School of Business, University of Maryland, Manufacturing Engineering... 

Jeong, Bongju, Seung-Bae Sim, So-Sang Jeong, Si-Won Kim (2002). An Available-to-Promise System for TLT LCD Manufacturing in Supply Chain, Computers and Industrial Engineering, 43, 191-212. 

They include the user as an integral part of the supply chain control system in their research test-bed. To this end, the simulation component dynamically generates live data, such as customer orders, to the ERP and SCM components. Then, the user makes decisions about the ERP and SCM systems to manage the supply chain. The system periodically gives feedback to the user and the rest of the model. Ball et al. intend to investigate both the performance of supply chain software and human decision-making. For more information about the model and how it relates to available-to-promise (ATP) decision models, refer to chapter 11. 

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