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vijender_p
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SAP APO stands for Advanced Planner and Optimizer. SAP APO is a supply chain planning tool; that helps organizations manage their supply chain. SAP APO had primarily four modules DP (Demand Planning), SNP (Supply Network Planning),PPDS (Production Planning and Detail Scheduling), GATP (Global Available to Promise). Learning SAP APO ideally needs some domain background but not mandatory. In-case one is planning to learn SAP APO but is new to supply chain and SAP its suggested to spend time to learning basic supply chain concepts. As a tool SAP APO is very interesting and fun to learn compared to other modules offer by SAP.

Over the past few years, SAP has extended its planning footprint beyond SAP APO with the introduction of SAP Sales and Operations Planning, SAP Demand Signal Management, and SAP Enterprise Inventory and Service-Level Optimization. Based on the business drivers discussed at the beginning of this article, SAP envisions a state-of-the-art demand network that puts the customer at the centres of all processes and connects all the business partners required to fulfil the demand with the speed customers are expecting, while meeting all efficiency and profitability goals. With this new approach, SAP decided to simplify the overall planning platform with speed, customer-centricity, and responsiveness in mind. The SAP approach leverages SAP HANA technology and enables a common data model, allowing for real-time data across supply chain planning solutions Moving from an on- premise technology to a purpose-built, cloud-based technology gives customers multiple deployment options moving  forward.


The new solutions enable companies to transform their supply chains into demand networks by:

>Simplifying and coordinating the planning experience for users across functions through a new user interface with embedded collaboration technology and the option for planners to work within Microsoft Excel

>Reacting more quickly to changes in demand to capture more sales by leveraging SAP HANA to provide demand networks with real-time monitoring and a focus on short-term planning

>Enabling more frequent planning cycles by avoiding any latency due to data transfer between different planning systems

>Ensuring plans are executed in operational systems by incorporating predictive  analytics (for example, demand sensing) algorithms in combination with optimization (for example, multi-echelon inventory optimization) to translate plans into operational systems

>  Reducing complexity and time to achieve business value through deployment in SAP Cloud

Agenda :

> SAP APO/SCM overview

> Demand Planning

> Supply Network Planning

> Global ATP

> Production Planning & Detail Scheduling

1.> SAP APO/SCM Overview& Architecture:

SAP Fiori for SAP HANA Live for SAP APO

SAP Business Objects business intelligence solutions

If you want to use SAP APO data in these analytic applications, you must make it available in SAP HANA. To transfer SAP APO data to SAP HANA, you use the replication functions of the APO Analytics (SCM-APO-ANA) component.

2.>Demand Planning (DP):

The Demand Planning (DP) component of SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer (SAP APO) is a complex, high-performance, and flexible instrument that supports the sales/requirements planning process in your company. User-specific planning layouts and interactive planning books allow not only the inclusion of various departments, but also of other companies, in the forecast creation process. The configuration of demand planning is an important factor for a successful implementation of the system. This is performed, as it is also done for the Supply Network Planning component


> Info Cube and Transfer Structures BW concepts

> Transfer data from ECC

> Create CVC

> MPOS and Planning Area

> Create Planning Book

> Forecast Calculation

> Promotion Planning

> Life cycle Planning

> Error Technique

> Release /Transfer Profile

> Mass Processing

> Back ground jobs in demand planning

> Process Chains

> Macro

3.>Supply Network Planning (SNP):

SNP ensures the optimal uses of Manufacturing, Distribution and Transportation of Resources to meet forecasts and actual demand while considering all constraints in the supply chain. SNP plans production, procurement and transportation through the entire supply Supply network by using optimizing and heuristic approaches

A number of constraints are taken into account during the SNP Optimization run, including capacity constraints that have been defined for resources. You usually use the SNP Optimizer profile to specify which constraints you want the optimizer to consider during the optimization run. However, in certain circumstances, it might be necessary to define constraints that are time-based;

> An upper bound for external procurement (at product-location level)

> An upper bound for stock on hand (at product-location level)

> An upper bound for production (at product-PPM/PDS level)

> An upper bound for transportation (at product-transportation lane level)

> An upper bound and a lower bound for total receipts (at product-location level)

4. GATP:

GATP stands for Global Available to Promise. It is part of SAP SCM-APO tool.

GATP is like promising to customer demands based on some predefined availability checks on your existing stocks. It uses ATP rules to decide whether the customer demands can be confirmed against the available stocks.

It is a tool by which you try to maximize your servicing capacity to the customer by using different methods of GATP.

  1. E.g. you define if a customer asks for product A if A is not available you can give him B or C or D or ALL (Functionality product substitution); if these products are not available in asked location, system will look for other locations (Functionality product substitution).

If nothing is available, system triggers production (using Available to Promise).

In short how it helps is, by reducing customer demand loss by increasing the serviceability.

ATP versus GATP


ATP functionality is already there in R/3 but with limitations:-

1. ATP-Availability check in ERP is limited to single location.

2. Product Substitution is manual and it is limited to single material substitution.

3. Production cannot be called from ATP check for a MTS product.

4. No simulation.


Global ATP checks the entire network (other plants), product / material substitutions defined in the condition and also production from alternative location based on the advanced functionality called Rule based ATP.

> Alternative Product

> Alternative Location

> Production (Alternation PPM).

5.> Production Planning & Detail Scheduling (PP/DS):

It Determines the Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) reactions to planning-relevant events

Determines the pegging-relevant quantity of customer requirements across all applications:

Determining the reactions to planning-relevant events:

This usage is specific to PP/DS. In the PP planning procedure, for each planning-relevant event that can occur for a location product, you specify which action Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) should automatically execute when this event occurs. A planning-relevant event. SAP delivers standard planning procedures that it recommends you to use in certain scenarios. However, you can also define your own planning procedures. You should reconcile these carefully with your planning processes, because only certain event-action combinations can be used effectively within a planning procedure.

To be able to plan a product using PP/DS, you must have entered a planning procedure in the location product master. You define planning procedures in Customizing for Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS).

Determining the pegging-relevant quantity for customer requirements

You define in the planning procedure whether the desired quantity or the confirmed quantity of customer requirements is relevant for pegging. This setting is relevant for all planning applications in SAP APO.

The PP planning procedure contains the following elements:

Planning-relevant event

SAP provides a selection of events that are typical in production planning. The events can be divided into the following groups:

Changing master data in the SAP APO system (such as product, plan, or transportation lane)

Changing stock in the  OLTP system

Creating or changing requirements elements of orders (customer requirements, planned independent requirements, dependent requirements, and stock transport requirements) in PP/DS or in the  OLTP system

Creating or changing receipt elements for in-house production orders or external procurement orders in PP/DS or in the OLTP system.

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