Product Information
S/4HANA with Embedded PP/DS Functionality
SAP APO (Advanced Planning and Optimization) application has been transformed into SAP IBP (Integrated Business Planning) and S/4HANA (Business suite 4).
The below picture at a glance overall application merge with successor modules exchange IBP and S/4HANA. In this blog focused on Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) functionality with S/4HANA.
Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS)
SAP S/4HANA for Manufacturing planning and scheduling Comprehensive Plan to Produce in ONE System is a great advantage to plan production process very detailed level.
PP/DS planning and scheduling features available in SAP S/4HANA
- Constraint-based capacity planning, scheduling & optimization
- Heuristic framework
- Industry-specific features (RPM, MMP & CBP).
- Simulation versions and transactional simulation.
- Supports various manufacturing models:
- Make to Stock
- Make to Order
- Engineer to Order
One MRP
- One MRP planning runs for classical MRP planning and advanced PPDS heuristics.
- One low-level code calculation
Simplicity and Seamless Integration
- One coherent application, consistent look at feel, intuitive navigation PP/DS is an integral part of S4/HANA (not an add-on, not a side-by-side installation).
- Simplified master data and integration model maintenance.
Utilize HANA (HANA only)
- Fast MRP [ One MRP for infinite planning ]
- liveCacheis integral part of HANA, just one database to manage
PPDS mainly covers the following requirements.
- To create procurement proposals for in-house production or external procurement to cover product requirements
- To optimize and plan the resource schedule and the order dates/times in detail
You can take the resource and component availability into account here. Above all, PP/DS is used to plan critical products, such as products with long replenishment lead times or products that are produced on bottleneck resources. You can use PP/DS to create executable production plans and:
- Reduce lead times
- Increase on-time delivery performance
- Increase the throughput of products and reduce the stock costs, through better coordination of resources, production, and procurement
Basic Configuration Settings
Advanced planning function activation

- Monitor Capacity Utilization
- Production Scheduling Board
- MRP app Create Optimal Orders for Shipment
Data transfer settings
Define the transaction data that can be transferred from SAP ERP to SAP APO and vice versa. In other words, you can select for transfer those order types that should be advanced planning-relevant this includes:
Global Settings – Global Parameters
The system will only use these default values if you have not specified any values in the master data or the applications. Check the parameters delivered in the standard system or maintain your own parameters and profiles and assign them.
Set up the Model and Planning Version (Transaction /SAPAPO/MVM)
Set up the Model ‘000’ and Version ‘000’ manually and check whether they exist. The PP/DS Horizon can only be maintained at the level of planning versions in SAP S/4HANA and it is not possible at Product-Location combination.
Core Interface settings (CIF)
Access CIF integration settings and maintain as below to communicate data transfer within the same instance.
Integration via Core Interface (CIF) -> Integration -> Basis Settings for Creating the System Landscape
Name Logical System
Assign a Logical System to a Client
Set Up RFC Destination (self RFC as classic tRFC (transaction SM59)
Maintain Business System Group (For the APO part)
Assign Logical System and Queue Type
Maintain Operating Mode (ECC Part) (transaction CFC1)
Specify SAP APO Release (Transaction NDV2)
Master Data Creation and Transfer
Setup and activation of Locations
Location Type, Business Partner (1021), replaces Customer (1010) and Vendor (1011)Execute reports mentioned below create and update locations
- Create – /SAPAPO/CREATE_LOCATION for creating Business Partner location, Plant, MRP Area and Shipping Point.
- Update – /SAPAPO/UPD_LOC_SP_PL for updating Plant, MRP Area and Shipping Point
Setup and activation of Materials
SCM Product Master is integrated into the SAP S/4HANA Product Master with CDS Redirects on material master.
- Local material creation in PP/DS is not supported.
- Activate PP/DS Materials by selecting the “Advanced Planning” checkbox in the “Advanced Planning” tab of the material master.
Material master ->Advanced Planning -> Advanced Planning (Transaction MM03)
After activation of advanced planning function material PPDS product master updated automatically.
Product master (Transaction /SAPAPO/MAT1)
- Local resource creation in PP/DS is not supported.
- Enable Target-System independent Settings in CIF (Transaction CFC9) to enable “APO Resources” in Work Center Capacity: header tab. This is required to send to PP/DS different resource types and resource categories. This would be required to transfer handling unit, calendar resources etc.
- Activate PP/DS work centers by selecting the “Advanced planning” checkbox.
Work center -> Basic data -> Advanced Planning (Transaction CR03)
After activation of advanced planning fucntion in work center resource information updated in PPDS function automatically.
Resource (Transaction /SAPAPO/RES01)
In-house production:
- BOM for phantom assemblies mandatorily need production versions and need to be transferred to PP/DS using CURTOADV_CREATE.
The prerequisite to transfer PDS is to create BOM, Work center, Routing and production version.
Production data structure (Transaction /SAPAPO/CURTO_SIMU)
Here is the simple production structure.
Finished material – F-100-102
Raw material – R-100-102
External Procurement: (not focused on this blog about external procurement).
- Create the integration model for scheduling agreements, contracts, and purchasing info records which need to be integrated to PP/DS should be used using integration model maintenance and activate it
Process Execution
The first step starts with the forecast update for finished material F-100-102.
Creation of PIR (Planned independent requirements) – (Transaction MD61)
Stock requirement list (Transaction MD04)
Product view (/SAPAPO/RRP3)
Forecast automatically transfers to PPDS function and able to display forecast in production view.
Production planning run (/SAPAPO/CDPSB0)
You use the production planning run to execute planning online or in the background for selected objects. In this case, online planning is only suitable for small data quantities (for example, for test purposes), while you implement background planning for mass planning. Depending on the planning problem being solved, you use heuristics, PP/DS optimization, or Detailed Scheduling (DS) functions in the production planning run. In the production planning run, you can execute various planning tasks in several consecutive processing steps using different heuristics or functions. For example, you could first execute procurement planning for products with uncovered product requirements using a product heuristic, and then execute sequence optimization on the relevant bottleneck resources.
After planning run completed planned orders created (stock requirement list).
Heuristic run executed at multilevel and purchase requisitions created for raw material R-100-102.
The same requirements updated in product view automatically by the heuristic run.
Production detailed scheduling board
You schedule interactively with the help of the detailed scheduling planning board to solve scheduling problems at resources; for example, problems with dates and sequencing problems.The following standard heuristics are supported while working with Production Scheduling Board
- SAP001 – Schedule Sequence
- SAP002 – Remove Backlog
- SAP003 – Schedule Sequence Manually (Fiori UI pop-up supported)
- SAP004 – Minimize Runtime
- SAP005 – Schedule Operations
- SAP_DS_01 – Stable Forward Scheduling
- SAP_DS_02 – Enhanced Backward Scheduling
- SAP_DS_03 – Change Fixing/Planning Intervals
- SAP_DS_04 – Activate Seq.-Dependent Setup Activities
Production Scheduling Board Fiori Application
Monitor Capacity Utilization Fiori Application
Conclusion
This blog explained about basic configuration settings and process execution at a high-level with S/4HANA embedded PPDS.
Additional References
Lingaiah
Thank you Lingaiah for posting this Blog. It is very helpful.
But I have failed to understand why CIF is actually required still now when the PPDS is part of S4 HANA only? Could you kindly help to understand that.
Thanks for your message Ashish Jha
CIF is not required now to transfer data because PPDS embedded with S/4HAN.
Not totally true. CIF is not required for transactional data but still required for some master data objects.
CIF is still there, you don't need to generate/activate IM's. Internally the data is transferred through CIF and still the queues are generated and needs to be monitored / fixed.
Thanks lingaiah for the blog.very informative.
Thank you for your comment Ramamoorthy Balakrishnan
Thanks for your message Pravin Mandgaonkar
Thanks for sharing the information. It's really helpful.
Thank you Chandramouli!
Nice blog.
Thank you Guru!
Good blog thanks for sharing.
Thank you Ravinder!
Nice blog about PP/DS in S/4HANA.
Thank you Suresh!
Excellent blog and good information S/4HANA PPDS.
Thank you Varesh!
Hi , this is a pre-check list before you start with basic settings
Many Thanks, Pedro! This checklist is very useful.
Thank you for sharing the pre-checks.
Thanks for updating the configuration settings.
I wonder that is there an option exist for separate installation of PP/DS and/or aATP ?
Thanks,
Hi Lingaiah,
From the printscreens of the capacity utilization above, I can see there are still some overloads situations.
I understand that the advantage of planning run going from S/4 to PP/DS with MD01N is to use finite scheduling and therefore avoid resource overload.
Am I correct?
Also I can see some load in Non-working days. Is there a way to avoid that?
Thanks
Martin.
Thank you for sharing the information. Unfortunately in our system the Advanced Tab is not visible in material master. As well the tab is not existing in OMS2 for the relevant material type. Additionally I made the following checks:
Do you have an idea what could be the reason. We have the release 1909 and S4Core 104.
WE had an own master data sequence, so I had to add it from standard master data > see OMT3B screen 88
Hi Lingaiah
I will also thank you for posting this Blog.
I have a question regarding workcenter capacity in the Embedded PP/DS
In PP/DS in APO you have e.g. the possibility to maintain daily capacity limits through out a week.
How does the workcenters in S/4 PP work together with the workcenters in the Embedded PP/DS ?
Is it the same masterdata or do you still need to maintain the workcenter in both S/4 PP and in S/4 embedded PP/DS ?
Thanks
Very informative blog on Embedded S/4HANA PPDS functionality.
Vijay
Thank you Vijay!
Hi, very good and very clear.
Thanks and regards,
Fernando
Thank you Fernando.
Hello Lingaiah Vanam
Very good detailed document
Thanks
Prabakaran Kanagaraj
Thank you Prabakaran!
Hi,
If you see the Purchase Req Elements in MD04 of your screenshot. All of them are firmed. what is the reason?
Thanks,
Chandra.
Hi Chandra
The reason may the Planning Horizon. There is a slight difference regards APO definition. The SNP horizon is not part of PPDS. You need to check the PPDS and Planning Horizon of the Planning Area setup in the Customizing. By default, both are the Same. Please verify
Hello Pedro,
Thanks for your reply.
As we know that, there is no concept called planning horizon in S4 HANA. Planning horizon concept is there in ECC systems. PPDS Horizon is at the Version level in S4 systems but not at Product level.
This Firming issue is there in S4 systems. i am expecting the solution if SAP has any.
Thanks,
Chandra.
Hi Lingaiah,