In the last blog of this series, we learned more about Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (SAP PP/DS) embedded in the SAP S/4HANA 1610 release and this mean that now, the production planning is an integral part of the logistics function in SAP S/4HANA 1610.
Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA is the next-generation product running on SAP S/4HANA. This functionality introduces in SAP S/4HANA the advanced capacity planning and heuristics for materials planning that were available in SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO). It is not however, a legal successor of the Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling component deployed as part of an SAP Supply Chain Management (SCM) Server installation or as an add-on to SAP ERP (as of SAP enhancement package 6 for SAP ERP 6.0).
You can use SAP PP/DS for SAP S/4HANA to:
• Create procurement proposals for in-house production or external procurement to cover product requirements.
• Optimize and plan the resource schedule and the order dates/times in detail.
Above all, you can use SAP PP/DS for SAP S/4HANA to plan critical products, such as products with long replenishment lead times or products that are produced on bottleneck resources.
Today, we will shed light on the technical side of SAP PP/DS and explain what is in and what is out.
SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO)
SAP APO was originally designed to run on a separated installation and to use two databases, the APO database (APODB) and SAP liveCache.
- The APODB is a regular database in which master data and transactional data are stored, as in APO transaction data is not stored in tables like SAP ECC. If you want to view / check / extract transaction data then you will have to use standard BAPI's. These BAPI's are available for different kind of data like sales orders, manufacturing orders, stocks, planned independent requirements, etc. SAP APO is available on SAP HANA since November 2012, accelerating end-to-end processes and providing synergies with APO operational analytics deployed on the same SAP HANA server.
- liveCache is a database especially designed to handle complex algorithms and calculations that were executed by SAP APO heuristics. This approach allowed SAP APO to run in parallel with SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) without disturbing the business transactions.
- For APODB, you can use normal DB like Oracle, MSSQL, DB2, MAXDB. For liveCache, there is no choice as liveCache is called memory based database (liveCache is one of the function of MAXDB).
SAP APO was always restricted to large companies due to the high costs of ownership and maintenance of the complex landscape. It means that small and midsized companies could not get the benefit of SAP APO functionalities such as finite capacity planning during the planning run or the material requirements planning (MRP) calculation in buckets smaller than days (i.e., executing MRP runs planned down to hours, minutes, and seconds of a specific date).
In the new approach done by SAP S/4HANA 1610 with embedded Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling, liveCache is integrated in the SAP HANA database, which means that liveCache is now faster, since it runs in memory on SAP HANA, and maintaining two different databases is obsolete.
In addition, the SAP PP/DS transactions are executed directly in SAP S/4HANA, which means that you no longer need a separate installation to run SAP APO PP/DS transactions. The material master and the work center creation is also synchronous, and a material or a work center that has just been created can be immediately available for planning in SAP PP/DS.
Core Interface (CIF): The connection between SAP ECC and APO
The data exchange between SAP ECC and SAP APO is done by an interface called CIF, and provides the following central functions:
- Determination of source and target systems within complex system environments
- Supply of SAP APO with the master and transaction data relevant to planning
- Transfer of changes to transaction data
- Return of planning results from SAP APO
The CIF integration occurs via remote function calls (RFCs) and inbound / outbound queues where data is processed when received or sent. In SAP ECC, data is frequently stuck on these queues, causing a disruption in the supply chain planning process.
With SAP S/4HANA, we introduced with the 1511 release a data model simplification in financials (table ACDOCA) and also in logistics (table MATDOC). This simplification in the logistics area help us to reduce the complexity of the CIF interface as we have now one material master and one resource maintenance and we can create and update the data for source of supply without queues.
It also means that you don’t need to maintain an integration model or to transfer the material master and work center through the CIF anymore.
Comprehensive Plan to Produce in ONE System
In many customer cases, unconstrained Materials and Resource Planning (MRP) is used alongside constraint-based planning and scheduling, many customers run two systems sequentially. With the embedded PP/DS in SAP S/4HANA 1610 on a single shared platform, therefore having the capability to harmonize a single MRP run. The MRP now can also plan SAP PP/DS materials together with SAP ERP materials, and there is a single report to convert planned orders, whereas in the past, we had one for the SAP APO materials and another one for the SAP ERP materials.
Other major benefits are that “material masters” and “resource maintenance” come from the same source and integration is significantly simplified.
The User interface of the MRP SAP Fiori app has been renovated, and above on Fig 1 you see the example of ‘Monitor Material Coverage’. The main enhancements are:
• With the introduction of SAP Fiori 2.0 the app title moved into the header line and the user settings are located on the left
• The self-coded filters have been replaced by the use of the generic filter bar, more filters are offered now
• The chart for Stock Availability is now configurable, you can choose a time frame from 7 days up to 26 weeks.
• Due to the use of the full screen on desk tops more columns can be displayed side by side, so the lines are smaller and the app can display more lines.
Fig 1: Renovated MRP SAP Fiori app
New User experience with SAP Fiori apps
With the embedded Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling directly in SAP S/4HANA, the benefit is that the users are working with one coherent application with a consistent look at feel, intuitive navigation. In the same way, the users have a simplified navigation across SAP PP/DS and SAP ERP and are working with one SAP Fiori based Planner launchpad for material flow and capacity.
Three new SAP Fiori app has been added with the 1610 release:
- The Production Scheduling Board app
- The Monitor Capacity Utilization app
- The MRP app, Create Optimal Orders for Shipment
Production Scheduling Board app
With this product feature, you can optimize and plan the resource schedule and the order dates and times in detail by taking resource and component availability into account.
Fig 2: New Production Scheduling Board app
Monitor Capacity Utilization app
With this app you can monitor the utilization of resources in a selected area of responsibility. The list provides you with a quick overview of which resources are already being fully utilized or have a capacity overload so you can react quickly to critical situations. Furthermore, you can easily discern which resources have a capacity underload and whose utilization is in the normal range.
The evaluation profile you choose defines which orders or operations the system takes into account as well as the utilization rate percentages it uses for calculating the capacity utilization of the resources. By selecting an evaluation horizon, you can restrict the time frame of your evaluation.
This app offers also the possibility to directly navigate to the Resource Planning Table back-end transaction and to the Production Scheduling Board app.
Fig 3: New Monitor Capacity Utilization app
Material and Production Planning: Create Optimal Orders for Shipment app
The app ‘Create Optimal Orders’ for Shipment is listing all materials which have to be ordered within the near future, depending on delivery time and goods processing time. The quantity which is needed to solve the first shortage is proposed and the Stock Availability Chart is displaying the simulated stock situation when ordering this quantity. A single material can be ordered directly or you can choose to place a combined order for one vendor.
Calculate net requirements and generate production plan to the precision of seconds for the complete product flow.
Fig 4: New Create Optimal Orders for Shipment app
Release Information Note: 2381624
Please have a look at SAP Note 2381624 – Release Information Note: Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA 1610
To be able to use Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA, you must activate Advanced Planning and Scheduling in the back-end system. In Customizing, choose Advanced Planning à Basic Settings à Activate Advanced Planning and Scheduling.
The features activated by the Advanced Planning and Scheduling switch are not part of the standard SAP S/4HANA license. A dedicated license for Advanced Planning and Scheduling is required if this switch is set to Active.
See also following SAP Notes:
2372590 Simplification List: Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA 1610
2353836 Release Information Note: Monitor Capacity Utilization app, Production Scheduling Board app on SAP FIORI FOR SAP S/4HANA 1610, Release S/4HANA 10/2016
Restrictions and Limitations
Please have also a look at SAP Note 2382787 – Implementation Recommendations for Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA 1610.
This note provides information about release recommendations for Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA 1610. When Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA 1610 was released, some restrictions still applied to the productive use of certain functions in the area of Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS). SAP wishes to inform customers of these restrictions and provide some recommendations here.
Discover the full scope and benefits of SAP S/4HANA 1610
And follow me via @SDenecken to stay on top of the latest…
Link to the previous blog 9a:
https://blogs.sap.com/2017/02/02/s4hana-1610-use-case-series-9a-production-planning-and-detailed-sch...
Link to the series:
https://blogs.sap.com/2016/11/09/s4hana-1610-use-case-series-intro/
Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA is the next-generation product running on SAP S/4HANA. This functionality introduces in SAP S/4HANA the advanced capacity planning and heuristics for materials planning that were available in SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO). It is not however, a legal successor of the Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling component deployed as part of an SAP Supply Chain Management (SCM) Server installation or as an add-on to SAP ERP (as of SAP enhancement package 6 for SAP ERP 6.0).
You can use SAP PP/DS for SAP S/4HANA to:
• Create procurement proposals for in-house production or external procurement to cover product requirements.
• Optimize and plan the resource schedule and the order dates/times in detail.
Above all, you can use SAP PP/DS for SAP S/4HANA to plan critical products, such as products with long replenishment lead times or products that are produced on bottleneck resources.
Today, we will shed light on the technical side of SAP PP/DS and explain what is in and what is out.
SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO)
SAP APO was originally designed to run on a separated installation and to use two databases, the APO database (APODB) and SAP liveCache.
- The APODB is a regular database in which master data and transactional data are stored, as in APO transaction data is not stored in tables like SAP ECC. If you want to view / check / extract transaction data then you will have to use standard BAPI's. These BAPI's are available for different kind of data like sales orders, manufacturing orders, stocks, planned independent requirements, etc. SAP APO is available on SAP HANA since November 2012, accelerating end-to-end processes and providing synergies with APO operational analytics deployed on the same SAP HANA server.
- liveCache is a database especially designed to handle complex algorithms and calculations that were executed by SAP APO heuristics. This approach allowed SAP APO to run in parallel with SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) without disturbing the business transactions.
- For APODB, you can use normal DB like Oracle, MSSQL, DB2, MAXDB. For liveCache, there is no choice as liveCache is called memory based database (liveCache is one of the function of MAXDB).
SAP APO was always restricted to large companies due to the high costs of ownership and maintenance of the complex landscape. It means that small and midsized companies could not get the benefit of SAP APO functionalities such as finite capacity planning during the planning run or the material requirements planning (MRP) calculation in buckets smaller than days (i.e., executing MRP runs planned down to hours, minutes, and seconds of a specific date).
In the new approach done by SAP S/4HANA 1610 with embedded Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling, liveCache is integrated in the SAP HANA database, which means that liveCache is now faster, since it runs in memory on SAP HANA, and maintaining two different databases is obsolete.
In addition, the SAP PP/DS transactions are executed directly in SAP S/4HANA, which means that you no longer need a separate installation to run SAP APO PP/DS transactions. The material master and the work center creation is also synchronous, and a material or a work center that has just been created can be immediately available for planning in SAP PP/DS.
Core Interface (CIF): The connection between SAP ECC and APO
The data exchange between SAP ECC and SAP APO is done by an interface called CIF, and provides the following central functions:
- Determination of source and target systems within complex system environments
- Supply of SAP APO with the master and transaction data relevant to planning
- Transfer of changes to transaction data
- Return of planning results from SAP APO
The CIF integration occurs via remote function calls (RFCs) and inbound / outbound queues where data is processed when received or sent. In SAP ECC, data is frequently stuck on these queues, causing a disruption in the supply chain planning process.
With SAP S/4HANA, we introduced with the 1511 release a data model simplification in financials (table ACDOCA) and also in logistics (table MATDOC). This simplification in the logistics area help us to reduce the complexity of the CIF interface as we have now one material master and one resource maintenance and we can create and update the data for source of supply without queues.
It also means that you don’t need to maintain an integration model or to transfer the material master and work center through the CIF anymore.
Comprehensive Plan to Produce in ONE System
In many customer cases, unconstrained Materials and Resource Planning (MRP) is used alongside constraint-based planning and scheduling, many customers run two systems sequentially. With the embedded PP/DS in SAP S/4HANA 1610 on a single shared platform, therefore having the capability to harmonize a single MRP run. The MRP now can also plan SAP PP/DS materials together with SAP ERP materials, and there is a single report to convert planned orders, whereas in the past, we had one for the SAP APO materials and another one for the SAP ERP materials.
Other major benefits are that “material masters” and “resource maintenance” come from the same source and integration is significantly simplified.
The User interface of the MRP SAP Fiori app has been renovated, and above on Fig 1 you see the example of ‘Monitor Material Coverage’. The main enhancements are:
• With the introduction of SAP Fiori 2.0 the app title moved into the header line and the user settings are located on the left
• The self-coded filters have been replaced by the use of the generic filter bar, more filters are offered now
• The chart for Stock Availability is now configurable, you can choose a time frame from 7 days up to 26 weeks.
• Due to the use of the full screen on desk tops more columns can be displayed side by side, so the lines are smaller and the app can display more lines.
Fig 1: Renovated MRP SAP Fiori app
New User experience with SAP Fiori apps
With the embedded Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling directly in SAP S/4HANA, the benefit is that the users are working with one coherent application with a consistent look at feel, intuitive navigation. In the same way, the users have a simplified navigation across SAP PP/DS and SAP ERP and are working with one SAP Fiori based Planner launchpad for material flow and capacity.
Three new SAP Fiori app has been added with the 1610 release:
- The Production Scheduling Board app
- The Monitor Capacity Utilization app
- The MRP app, Create Optimal Orders for Shipment
Production Scheduling Board app
With this product feature, you can optimize and plan the resource schedule and the order dates and times in detail by taking resource and component availability into account.
Fig 2: New Production Scheduling Board app
Monitor Capacity Utilization app
With this app you can monitor the utilization of resources in a selected area of responsibility. The list provides you with a quick overview of which resources are already being fully utilized or have a capacity overload so you can react quickly to critical situations. Furthermore, you can easily discern which resources have a capacity underload and whose utilization is in the normal range.
The evaluation profile you choose defines which orders or operations the system takes into account as well as the utilization rate percentages it uses for calculating the capacity utilization of the resources. By selecting an evaluation horizon, you can restrict the time frame of your evaluation.
This app offers also the possibility to directly navigate to the Resource Planning Table back-end transaction and to the Production Scheduling Board app.
Fig 3: New Monitor Capacity Utilization app
Material and Production Planning: Create Optimal Orders for Shipment app
The app ‘Create Optimal Orders’ for Shipment is listing all materials which have to be ordered within the near future, depending on delivery time and goods processing time. The quantity which is needed to solve the first shortage is proposed and the Stock Availability Chart is displaying the simulated stock situation when ordering this quantity. A single material can be ordered directly or you can choose to place a combined order for one vendor.
Calculate net requirements and generate production plan to the precision of seconds for the complete product flow.
Fig 4: New Create Optimal Orders for Shipment app
Release Information Note: 2381624
Please have a look at SAP Note 2381624 – Release Information Note: Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA 1610
To be able to use Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA, you must activate Advanced Planning and Scheduling in the back-end system. In Customizing, choose Advanced Planning à Basic Settings à Activate Advanced Planning and Scheduling.
The features activated by the Advanced Planning and Scheduling switch are not part of the standard SAP S/4HANA license. A dedicated license for Advanced Planning and Scheduling is required if this switch is set to Active.
See also following SAP Notes:
2372590 Simplification List: Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA 1610
2353836 Release Information Note: Monitor Capacity Utilization app, Production Scheduling Board app on SAP FIORI FOR SAP S/4HANA 1610, Release S/4HANA 10/2016
Restrictions and Limitations
Please have also a look at SAP Note 2382787 – Implementation Recommendations for Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA 1610.
This note provides information about release recommendations for Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA 1610. When Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling for SAP S/4HANA 1610 was released, some restrictions still applied to the productive use of certain functions in the area of Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS). SAP wishes to inform customers of these restrictions and provide some recommendations here.
Discover the full scope and benefits of SAP S/4HANA 1610
- SAP S/4HANA 1610 Release Highlights Brochure
- SAP S/4HANA 1610 Release Information
- Discover SAP S/4HANA
And follow me via @SDenecken to stay on top of the latest…
Link to the previous blog 9a:
https://blogs.sap.com/2017/02/02/s4hana-1610-use-case-series-9a-production-planning-and-detailed-sch...
Link to the series:
https://blogs.sap.com/2016/11/09/s4hana-1610-use-case-series-intro/
- SAP Managed Tags:
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