Hi Experts,

I need your help for creation of a macro to meet a requirement, stated below:

We are releasing Demand on daily bucket for a period of 3 months. We would like to maintain safety stock only for the period of 21st date fo the month to 30th day ( for each months, within the storage bucket). For doing this I need to calculate average demand of the month based on the Forecast of 20th of the month. My requirements are:

Step 1: Read the Forecast value for 20th day of the Month

Step 2: Calculate Average demand based on the Demand of 20th day

Step 3: Populate Average demand in the Safety Stock fey figure from 21st to 30th of the month. For other days safety Stock key figure value shall be populated according to the Product Master value.

I have created following Macro, but it is not serving my requirement. Could you please tell me where I am going wrong:

I have maintain special procurement key in ECC material master. It should create T-lane in APO when being transferred to APO. but it is not creating tlane in APO

In MRP 2 tab i have maintained Procurement type as F and Special procurement U, also still not able to create Tlane in APO after CIF, is thier any extra setting Req.

Hello all:

I have a general question.  I'm looking to have SNP calculate my capacity requirements using both the Production Planned orders AND the Production Confirmed orders.  I have my Production Order CIF turned on to send any confirmed Production Orders over to SNP.  I see these orders there and the Heuristic takes these into account when creating the Planned Orders.

However, when I go to the capacity planning screen, I see only the Planned Orders being taken into account for determining my capacity requirements and comparing this to my available capacity.  Since I know I already have Production Orders opened up, I would naturaly want to see these either taken into account with what available capacity I have left or have it show also as a capacity requirement with my Planned Orders.

Can anyone tell me how I can get SNP to take these confirmed orders into account to do my capacity (work center....ie, resource) analysis?

Thanks in advance.

Andrea

    Hi Guys,

I have a problem on my system, i have cvc's in XL file and when i select to upload it into MPOS. i am not able to upload it because, i am getting like, i can only upload it from Text file. How do i change the system settings to pick it from .CSV file. Please help me..

Thanks in advance.

Hello all:

I've set up all CIFs from ECC to send Routings/Boms/Work Centers/Production Versions. I have multiple production versions on materials because there can be one standard routing and also multiple alternate routings.  When the heuristic runs in SNP, it knows to use the standard routing when it generates the planned orders.  We then analyze our capacity requirement vs capacity availability.  All works fine.  The issue I'm having is when planners know more than the system and want to manually update the Planned Orders and see this impact on capacity.  While this does work, it first prompts them on each and every order bucket to pick the production version they want to use.  I would like it to default to the standard production version/routing, like it does when the Heuristic runs, and not prompt them to pick one.  Is there a config setting to make this happen when manually typing in the planned order?  I could not find it in SPRO.

We are not using PP/DS yet.

Thanks in advance.

Andrea Fuschetto

Problem Definition

Bottleneck resources are a common constraint in planning & manufacturing process in most businesses. Therefore, it is essential for supply network planners to have an accurate view of the capacity situation (Available Capacity and Capacity Consumption) on these bottleneck resources to enable them to plan efficiently in order to meet demand within a stipulated time frame.

APO has two different planning applications – Supply Network Planning or SNP for planning in the medium to long-term horizon and Production Planning & Detailed Scheduling or PP/DS for planning in the short-term horizon. The areas of responsibility between these two applications are segregated based on the horizons defined in the master data. While SNP plans outside the SNP production horizon or the short-term horizon PP/DS plans inside the PP/DS horizon or short-term horizon. Additionally, both these applications use separate set of master & transaction data. For example, SNP application uses SNP-type orders, Resources with bucket capacity and SNP-type Production Data Structure or PDS and PP/DS uses PP/DS-type orders, Resources with continuous capacity and PP/DS-type PDS.

In typical business scenarios, planning system APO is integrated either with a Legacy system or an ECC system for execution of the plan output from APO. Since plans are executed in the near-term or short-term horizon, therefore, planned or production orders transferred from either a Legacy or ECC execution system to APO system are always PP/DS-type orders and not SNP-type orders. However, during SNP planning run, APO creates SNP-type planned orders which consume bucket capacity of resources using SNP-type PDS. Similarly, during PP/DS planning run, APO creates PP/DS-type planned orders which consume time-continuous capacity of resources using PP/DS-type PDS. Therefore, while resources exist only once physically on the shop floor their capacities are represented twice as PP/DS-type time continuous capacities and SNP-type bucket capacities.

Since there is no direct link between a SNP-PDS and a PP/DS-PDS and no generally valid logic to calculate bucket consumption by PP/DS-type orders on SNP resources in standard SAP APO, therefore, there is no capacity consumption relevant for SNP by PP/DS-type orders that exist in the system.  This poses a problem for the supply planner since he does not have visibility to PP/DS-type orders already scheduled and hence consuming capacity on his physical (SNP) resources with bucket capacities in the interactive planning screen. This lack of visibility to PP/DS orders creates an inflated capacity situation on the resources in the near to medium-term during supply planning and hence can result into inaccurate capacity planning.

This inaccurate capacity planning may affect the whole supply chain planning process of business in a real scenario. To overcome this situation, SNP planning must take into account the capacity consumption of PPDS-type orders on mixed (combination of time-continuous and bucket) resources during SNP planning.

Business Implications

In order to understand business implications of the problem defined above, we need to look at two different business scenarios:

Scenario 1: APO is integrated with a Legacy execution system

When APO is integrated with a Legacy execution system, the planning output from APO to the execution system is usually integrated on a periodic basis e.g. weekly or monthly while the detailed schedule and everyday shop-floor related changes from the execution system are integrated back to APO on a more frequent basis e.g. daily. These scheduled orders or production orders from the execution system are created in APO as PP/DS-type orders that won't consume capacity on SNP bucket resources by standard. Since these orders are not consuming capacity on SNP resources, therefore, available capacity on these resources will be inflated which will lead to scheduling of SNP planned orders on these resources where no capacity actually exists unless the supply planner takes manual corrective action. This may lead to an inflated plan from APO passing back to the Legacy execution system at the end of next period e.g. week or month or a lot of additional manual effort from the supply planner in order to correct the plan.

Scenario 2: APO is integrated with ECC execution system

When APO is integrated with an ECC execution system, the transactional data between APO and ECC is usually integrated on a real-time basis i.e. whenever a change occurs in APO, the new plan is visible in ECC and vice-versa. This means that while all changes to the scheduled orders or production orders in the execution system are immediately passed to APO as new or changed PP/DS-type orders they will still not consume capacity on SNP bucket resources and hence do not impact SNP plan in reality. This implies that the supply planner will be blind to all such changes unless he uses one of the PP/DS transactions in APO to check the situation on the shop floor. This may lead to an inaccurate capacity plan immediately passing back from APO to ECC or a lot of additional manual effort from the supply planner in order to correct the plan and hence necessitate only periodic integration of the plan from APO to ECC.

In both scenarios, inaccurate capacity plan on bottleneck resources may lead to one or more of the following business consequences:

1. Products not being manufactured on time affecting customer service levels.

2. Ad-hoc adjustments to production schedule leading to excess or out-of-stock situations.

3. Inefficient planning of labor attached to bottleneck resources leading to cost overruns.

4. Skewed capacity bottleneck situation affecting capacity expansion plans.

5. Half-baked outsourcing decisions leading to financial implications.

Solution Overview

At a high level, APO is used for long-term planning, medium-term planning and short-term planning. The long-term, medium-term and short-term planning depends on planning horizon as provided by the business. For long-term and medium-term planning Supply Network Planning (SNP) is used, which is bucket-oriented planning for material and capacity requirements whereas for short-term planning Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) is used, which is time-continuous planning. In order to work with both SNP & PP/DS planning on the same resource, the resource should be Single/Multi-mixed resource type in APO. These types of resources can be managed for both time-continuous and bucket oriented planning.

For planning in APO, some basic master data such as location master, product master, resource and Production Data Structure or PDS needs to be maintained as a prerequisite. Out of these, the Production Data Structure (PDS) is one of the most important master data. This is because while planning in APO, planning engine reads Production Data Structure (PDS) to create planned orders. To work with SNP planning, SNP PDS needs to be maintained in APO and for PP/DS planning, PP/DS PDS needs to be maintained in APO.

Unlike in the ECC system, time-continuous resources and mixed resources can be defined separately in APO that can be used for only time-continuous and bucket-oriented as well as time-continuous planning respectively. Due to the fact that bucket capacities are calculated for these mixed resources even when a PPDS-type planned order is created, bucket resources are required to be maintained in Production Data Structure (PDS) as well.

Mixed resources allow SNP and PPDS to have a shared view of the resource schedule. The capacity commitment from PPDS-type orders can also be displayed for SNP on mixed resources. To enable this, the PPDS capacity commitment is converted to a bucket resource reservation.

Interactive supply network planning book and data view functionality can be leveraged for efficient planning of resources by SNP planners. The data view is the most important tool for the SNP planner. Traditionally, SNP planning books are not designed to view PP/DS orders / capacity consumption by PP/DS-type orders because SNP planning works on bucket capacity so it shows SNP orders / capacity consumption by SNP-type orders. In order to make it work for PP/DS orders some additional configuration at master planning object structure (MPOS) & planning book level is required. We will see additional configuration steps in the Solution details section.

Solution Details

·      Master data

Introduction to the PDS in APO

The Production Data Structure (PDS) is the key master data for all kinds of production planning related processes. The PDS is supported by the applications PP/DS, SNP, CTM and DP and can be used for Multi-level ATP and CTP as well. Like the PPM, the PDS corresponds to the production version on ECC side. Though both PPM and PDS are still available as alternatives, there is no further development for the PPM since SCM 4.0.

PDS-Types and Applications

The following figure provides an overview about the different PDS types. Analogous to the PPM, different PDS objects exist for the applications PP/DS, SNP and DP. As a difference to the PPM, the PDS for SNP is transferred directly from ECC and is not generated from the PP/DS master data.

Figure 1: PDS Types and Integration to ECC

• PDS for PP/DS

The PDS for PP/DS is created from the R/3-production version like the PPM. Most of the developments are focused on the PP/DS functionality of the PDS.

Note: The PP/DS PDS does not have bucket consumption, so there is no capacity consumption relevant for SNP. By SAP standard, only continuous consumption is maintained in the PP/DS PDS by the Core Interface (CIF), the bucket consumption (which is how SNP views capacity) is missing.

• PDS for SNP

Differing from the PPM for SNP, the PDS for SNP is transferred directly from ECC and is not generated from the PP/DS-PDS. The structure of the SNP-PDS is simpler than the structure of the PP/DS-PDS. The structure of the SNP-PDS is used by the applications SNP, CTM and DP.

In a production version it is possible to maintain routings for detailed and rough-cut planning. For PDS transfer from ECC to APO, it is possible to select from which routing the PDS will be generated (differing from the PPM transfer where always the routing for detailed planning was selected). This might be a modelling option for the transfer of SNP-PDS.

Note: Make sure to create a SNP-PDS by transferring through Core Interface. The reason is that while using 'show dependent objects’ option in the SNP planning book only SNP master data is checked.

• PDS for CTM

In CTM, it is possible to choose whether PP/DS or SNP master data should be used. Both cases are supported by the PDS, though in each case the structure of the SNP-PDS is used. The content of the PDS will however differ, depending on whether PP/DS or SNP master data is selected as a basis for CTM. If CTM planning is to be carried out with SNP master data, the regular PDS for SNP is used. If CTM planning is to be carried out with PP/DS, a PDS of the type CTM is generated from the PP/DS-PDS at the point in time of the transfer of the PP/DS-PDS. This CTM-PDS contains a subset of the PP/DS-PDS and uses the structure of the SNP-PDS.

Figure 2 visualizes the creation of the PDS for CTM.

SNP Planning Book and Capacity Data View

• PDS for PP/DS after BADI Implementation

Resource variable consumption populated for every operation into PP/DS Production data structure (PDS).

SNP Planning book and Capacity Data View after BADI Implementation

After Badi activation and completion of functional configuration - Available capacity, capacity consumption by PPDs-type orders and dependent object details are visible.

·      Configuration

Additional configuration as per below mentioned details is required to see order details for PP/DS orders in SNP capacity planning view:

1. a. Assign key-figure 9AFPROD to aggregates 9ARE, 9AMARE and 9AREPR in the planning area. Only then the confirmed production quantities will be shown in the second grid of the capacity view.
2. b. Assign the key-figure 9AFPROD to the planning book grid2 and make it visible via macro 'layout attributes for resource type'.
3. c. To display dependent objects details, SNP-PDS must be maintained in APO. The reason is that while using 'show dependent objects' option in the SNP planning book only SNP master data is checked.

· Enhancement/BADI

The PP/DS PDS does not have bucket consumption, so there is no capacity consumption relevant for SNP. In order to populate bucket consumption field into PP/DS Production Structure through standard CIF process we need to implement business add-in (BADI) /SAPAPO/CURTO_CREATE & method CIF_IMPORT and use the example coding of note 657185 (RTO: Sample code for calculating bucket consumptions 4.0.)

Sample Core Interface Setup

• Integration

Create integration models for the resources, PPM/PDS using the production version of the routing as shown below:

• Activate the Integration model.

Conclusion

Efficient capacity planning of bottleneck resources is one of the primary objectives of every SNP planner to effectively support supply chain planning process of their business organization. With standard SAP configuration and master data set-up of SNP and PP/DS planning applications, it is difficult to obtain a unified and accurate view of bottleneck resource capacities in the SNP capacity planning book and data view used by a supply planner, especially in the short to medium-term horizon. After reading this white paper, consultants as well as business users can gain a better understanding of the additional configuration, master data set-up and simple enhancement/BADI that can be used effectively to provide a single, combined and accurate view of bottleneck resource capacities in SNP capacity planning view to enable efficient utilization of such resources used in the manufacturing processes.Consequently, it will help users to make informed and better business decisions and enable usage of the appropriate method of capacity leveling which is best suited to meet the business requirements.

Abbreviations / Acronyms

References

• SAP Note: 657185
• SDN: www.sdn.sap.com
• SAP Help: www.help.sap.com

Hi All,

We have a need to automatically generate time streams by report in background.

Normally any change (especially holiday changes or maintenance changes) in calendar is updated first in ECC calendar which is then updated in APO calendar. This change has to be included in the generated time stream which is already created out of those calendars. At present this time stream generation is happening manually when users report any discrepancy finding that they have found in the planning results (which would have old time stream generated not having the calendar change). Sometimes it becomes late for correcting the planning situation. So we would want APO to generate these time streams through regular background job whenever the corresponding calendar has been changed.

Is there any option / alternative available to do this ?

Kindly comment.

Regards,

Durai

Hello Team,

I'm facing a weird issue. I'm trying to load data for key figure from infocube to planning area.Data in infocube is for 16 months and i have values for the keyfigure in planning area for 18 months, when I'm trying to load data to infocube 16 months values are over written but last 2 periods value remain same when checked in sdp94. Is this the way system behaves or the last two months value has to become blank ?

TIA

Santosh N

Hi all,

why and when we create aggregation for MPOS. can anybody explain.. Thans in advance..

Hi

Has any one used the functionality of Automatic cost generation?

Automatic Cost Generation - Supply Network Planning Run - SAP Library

Appreciate if any one can share your experience, how good is this functionality, any precautions or lessons learned?

Hello All,

It will be of great help if somebody can share some examples on extended Safety stock planning methods(BT,BS,AT,AS). I have tried SAP help and SCN but none of them contains the actual calculation logic. I would require the calculation logic along with some examples.

I would like to validate the numbers when I configure the system and generate the number safety stock numbers.

what is the trigger point for DP.?

I can extract demand from ECC with infoscheduler and load it in infocube and then to planning area....that is one way of doing it.

but i am not using ECC ,rather collect the demand from external world and "inject"  it into DP for demand processing .How do i inject.?

here goes the scenario :  a texas based bike dealer has many variants he is  a non sap layman but has filled up the local demand/orders from texas in EXCEL or DMS document management system or any other legacy system.  and if i want to extract those demand and fill it up in planning book linked to planning area " texas" and deliver a unconstrained demand and do MC90 and then apply constraints in SNP .and get a planned order in rrp3

in MD61 in ECC we manually fill it  what is the equivalent of it in DP  APO  --which screen does it and its t code

i may sound naive but with your help i can gain clarity

thanks

OHIO

Hi gurus,

Consumption history data is showing twice the value it is supposed be, for the month 2013 MAY in one planning area. The history data for rest of the months is correct. But for the month of may 2013 the consumption history is showing double the value. The same data is shown in the info cubes as well. In BI system the history data is shown correctly, it is shown half the value of that in info cube and planning are. What could be the possible reason? Please help me on this regard.

Thanks

Pratyush Suri

Hi,

I am testing this scenario. I have created the 2 production versions in ECC and transferred to APO. In APO 2 PDS generated based on ECC production versions.

Now I created PIR's in APO and executed the SNP Heuristics, Production version is taking consideration and creating the SNP planned orders and dependent requirements, For production version 2 SNP planned orders generating and there is no Dependent demand.

If I change the source of supply manually in SNP planning book, dependent demand is generating for production version 2 SNP planned orders.

My question is any possibility to SNP Heuristics generate SNP planned orders and dependent demand for Production version 1 & 2 without manual changes in SNP planning book, because SNP planned should not change the source of supply manually and it is time taking effort.

Regards,

Lingaiah

Hello all:

I need to create a PDS Hierarchy so that when I go in and update the orders on my product hierarchy and then disaggregate down to the product, it will pick the appropriate PDS to apply them to.  However, I cannot figure out how I can create this PDS Hierarchy.  We used to use PPMs and I see how I can create essentially a "fake PPM" to set up the hierarchy, but I do not know how to create this high level PDS which will have my lower level PDSs assigned to it.  All my PDSs are auto-created via a CIF from ECC.

Any ideas?  I have found all kinds of information saying I have to have a PDS Hierarchy, but none of it tells me to get this hierarchy created.

Thanks.

Andrea F.

Hi,

I have little knowledge in SNP and was wondering if deployment run is needed at the factory level if the factory does not use TLB? the STO from factory are created automatically by WM system (goods movements) or created manually in ECC.

In case deployment is not needed, do I still have to maintain the field "push distribution" in the product master, tab SNP2, at the product location level (factory)?

thank you in advance!

best regards,

Pilvi

Hello,

We have an incident open where some of our materials are being issued a statistical forecast for the last period of our planning horizon, but these materials do not have any sales history. In the case where materials do have a sales history, we are seeing odd numbers in the last period of our forecast. We have a 3 year sales history and a 2 year forecast horizon (5 years total). We have reached out to SAP in the form of a ticket, but they pushed back and said there is nothing systematically wrong; that this is an error on our (business) side. We have had statistical forecasting in place for almost 2 years, and this issue cropped up in December 2014. I am hopeful that you can assist in troubleshooting this issue.

Dan O'Brien

Hi

Our supply network has a DC that is sourcing from a plant. The demand at the DC is at location-product-customer level in DP. We are releasing to SNP/PPDS with location as a descriptive characteristic. So far so good.

We want to run a SNP or PPDS planning runs so that the demand from DC is carried to the plant, a planned order at the plant as needed and then deploy that stock to DC in deployment run at the customer level.

What this means is at end of the planning runs, we want deployment reqs. that are specific to each customer and not one single qty. for all customers.

Example:

We have DC1 where we have material M1 and 3 customers C1, C2 and C3

Forecast in DP:

M1, DC1, C1 has 100 CAR

M1, DC1, C2 has 150 CAR

M1, DC1, C3 has 200 CAR

The forecast is released to SNP/PPDS at the material-location-customer level.

Desired end result:

deployment req1: 100 CAR going to DC1 for M1 and C1

deployment req2: 150 CAR going to DC1 for M1 and C2

deployment req3: 200 CAR going to DC1 for M1 and C3

Is this possible in APO using either SNP or PPDS using heuristics/CTM or optimizer?

Hi

Has any one designed/used a system where there is 0 forward/backward consumption horizon?

I am talking about the consumption mode and periods that are set in MRP and that get transferred to APO location-product demand tab.

In my experience I have always seen this maintained but an interviewer asked me what if they are not maintained. I am wondering if any one has not maintained these and worked out.

Thanks in advance for your time and advise.

I have a group of articles from a particular time its forecast changes completely. Is there any way to indicate that calculates the forecast from a date. There is an option when detect the change, put a manual forecasting and from that data and subsequent data the system will calculate the new forecast. Thank you