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Manufacturing and Supply Chain in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2011
This blog provides an overview of innovations in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2011 for Manufacturing and Supply Chain.
Here is the table of contents:
Manufacturing
Production Planning
Predictive material and resource planning (pMRP) – Material group constraints
Product Hierarchy for Production
Schedule Production
New visually harmonized apps for Production Planning
Production Operations
Event-driven kanbans and further Kanban enhancements
New visually harmonized apps for Order Confirmation
New visually harmonized apps for Shop Floor Control
New visually harmonized apps for Repetitive Manufacturing
Production Engineering
Production Resources/Tools
Manage Process Orders
Quality Management
Manual printing of outbound quality certificates for inspection lots and batches
Supply Chain
Advanced Available-to-Promise (aATP)
New ATP-check method for supply protection
Product Substitution in Sales Order Requirements
Inventory Management
Serial numbers in the inventory analytics and goods receipt process
Warehouse Management
Synchronous Goods Receipt Postings For External Procurement
Mobile Warehousing
Complete Pick of All Items in a Warehouse Request
Handling Unit Management
Handling units from LE to WM in inbound delivery
Further enhancements in Handling Unit Management
Transportation Management
Integration with TM in SAP S/4HANA on premise
Watch my video in which I present the following innovations:
- Product Substitution and Supply Protection in aATP
- New apps e.g. for Order Confirmation
- Production Resources/Tools
- Product Hierarchy to Production
The functionalities mentioned in this video are only a selection of the many innovations in the area of Manufacturing and Supply Chain. Let us start with Manufacturing.
Manufacturing
Production Planning
Predictive material and resource planning (pMRP) – Material group constraints
Predictive Material and Resource Planning (pMRP) is our simulative mid- and long-term planning tool which I have presented for the first time in my 1908 release blog.
Since then, we have enhanced the tool with every release update, such the enabling of configurable materials or the support of the external procurement scenario in pMRP simulations.
With the 2011 release, we provide flexible constraints for material groups and production lines in predictive material and resource planning.
In the Define Flexible Constraints app, you can now create constraints for multiple materials, for example materials of a material group, supplied materials or materials of a production line. In addition, a constraint that is added without saving, is available as a draft.
The figure below shows how a production planner or material planner for external procurement adds a constraint for a group of materials.
Fig.1: SAP Fiori app Define Flexible Constraints
A further enhancement in predictive MRP is the new Disregard button in the Issue List view of the Process pMRP Simulations app which allows you to disregard a capacity issue if not considered critical.
Fig.2: SAP Fiori app Process pMRP Simulations – Issue List view with Disregard option
Product Hierarchy for Production
With the 2011 release, you can use product hierarchies for production. Product hierarchies are helpful and often necessary to organize materials along multiple levels. For instance production supervisors can now display information on the product hierarchy for production in the worklist which supports them even more in their daily work.
You can use the product hierarchy for the following purposes:
- Production Planning: Used in the Monitor Material Coverage – Net Segments app
- Production Execution: Used in the Manage Production Orders app
In both apps you can add columns to display the product hierarchy and the product hierarchy node to which the material is assigned. The product hierarchy and the nodes can only be displayed if the material is assigned to a product hierarchy node of a product hierarchy with status Active or In Revision in the Manage Product Hierarchies app.
In addition, in the Assign Product Hierarchy for Production app, the product hierarchy must be assigned to the 01 Production Planning purpose to be used in the Monitor Material Coverage – Net Segments app or to the 02 Production Execution purpose to be used in the Manage Production Orders app .
The screenshot below shows the Assign Product Hierarchy for Production app when the production planner or material planner for external procurement creates a new assignment and opens the value help for selecting the purpose.
Fig.3: SAP Fiori app Assign Product Hierarchy for Production – Create new product hierarchy assignment
The screenshot below shows two new filters and four new columns highlighted in red boxes which enables production supervisors to display the product hierarchy information in the SAP Fiori app Manage Production Orders.
Fig.4: SAP Fiori app Manage Production Orders with new filters and columns to display product hierarchy information
Also the SAP Fiori app Monitor Material Coverage is enhanced with the new filters and columns to display product hierarchy information which makes the daily work of production planners and material planners for external procurement easier.
Fig.5: SAP Fiori app Monitor Material Coverage with new filters and columns to display product hierarchy information
Schedule Production
The SAP Fiori app Schedule Production allows you now to set an offset value before and after the current date in the Horizon filter based on which the dates are calculated.
The screenshot below shows the new selection ( dynamic date range ) in Horizon. The dynamic date range is based on offset values. X and Y are dynamic values.
Fig.6: SAP Fiori app Schedule Production – New Selection ( Dynamic Date Range ) in Horizon
A new icon indicates now that Variant Configuration is available. You can navigate to the Variant Configuration screen (advanced variant configuration) to view the product configuration for the production orders.
Fig.7: SAP Fiori app Schedule Production – New icon indicates that product configuration is available
New visually harmonized apps for Production Planning
In response to numerous customer requests a lot of popular apps well known from on-premise are now also available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
The following list gives you an overview of new visually harmonized apps for production planning. For those readers who are familiar with SAP S/4HANA on-premise, the corresponding transaction names are listed.
| On-premise transaction | App name | Capability | Role |
| MD19 | Firm Planned Order | Firm the procurement proposals to prevent the system from adapting them automatically during the planning run. | Production Planner |
| MD27 | Display Planning Calendar | Display the planning calendar used in material requirements planning at plant level. It defines the flexible period lengths. | Production Planner |
| MD48 | Cross-Plant Evaluation | Compare and check the planning situation for materials whose material master record is created in different plants. |
Production Planner Material Planner – External Procurement |
| MDVP | Collective Availability Check for Planned Orders | Provides a collective availability check to check whether the material components required are available for several planned orders simultaneously. |
Production Planner Material Planner – External Procurement |
In the next chapter Production Operations further visually harmonized apps are listed.
Production Operations
Event-driven kanbans and further Kanban enhancements
Create Event-Driven Kanban Containers in the Kanban Board
The event-driven kanban process is used for fluctuations in material demand and allows you to flexibly react to the current inventory situation at the production line.
For event-driven kanban control cycles it is now possible to create one or more kanban containers directly from the Kanban Board. By selecting the + Create Containers button in the Kanban Board app, the system creates one or several event-driven containers with the status “Empty”. Depending on the replenishment strategy, it also creates the appropriate replenishment elements automatically.
Fig.8: SAP Fiori app Kanban Board – Creation of event-driven kanbans
Schedule Deletion of Event-Driven Kanban Containers
Now you can leverage background jobs to increase the efficiency of production planners in lean manufacturing and follow the lean principles to reduce waste by cleaning up event-driven kanban control cycles.
The new SAP Fiori app Delete Event-Driven Kanban Containers – Job Scheduling uses the SAP job scheduling framework to automatically delete event-driven kanban containers with the statuses “Full” or “In Use” in the background. You can restrict your selection, such as by plant, age of kanban containers to be deleted, or minimum number of containers that should remain in the kanban control cycle.
Fig.9: SAP Fiori app Delete Event-Driven Kanban Containers – Job Scheduling
Withdraw Quantity from Kanban Container
In the Set Kanban Container Status SAP Fiori app you can now withdraw quantities from kanban containers which can be automated by barcode scanning. This feature enables you to withdraw a partial or the complete quantity of a material from a kanban container. You can choose one of the two processing options Change Status or Withdraw Quantity and select these options individually for each entered kanban container.
Fig.10: SAP Fiori app Set Kanban Container Status – Withdraw quantity
Finally, I want to mention in this Kanban chapter that you can now improve kanban calculation results by considering additional requirement types and quotas. For this purpose the Distribution for Kanban Calculation app enables a production planner in lean manufacturing to specify which other requirement types are to be taken into account in the kanban calculation in addition to the dependent requirements that are already assigned to a production supply area (PSA). If the material is or will be assigned to more than one PSA, you have to define a quota arrangement of the requirements to the various PSAs.
New visual harmonized apps for Order Confirmation
The following list gives you an overview of new visually harmonized apps for order confirmation.
| On-premise transaction | App name | Capability | Role |
| CORR | Collective Entry of Confirmations | Entering time ticket confirmations for operations of different process orders |
Production Operator – Discrete Manufacturing |
| CO12 | Collective Entry of Confirmations | Entering time ticket confirmations for operations of different production orders |
Production Operator – Process Manufacturing |
| CO1F | Create Progress Confirmation | Enter progress confirmations for production orders |
Production Operator – Discrete Manufacturing |
| CO1P | Predefined Confirmation Processes | Process future change records for confirmation processes |
Production Operator – Process Manufacturing |
New visually harmonized apps for Shop Floor Control
The following list gives you an overview of new visually harmonized apps for shop floor control.
| On-premise transaction | App name | Capability | Role |
| CO07 | Create Production Order without Material | Create production order without header material based on reference operation sets. | Production Supervisor – Discrete Manufacturing |
| CORO | Create Process Order without Material | Create process order without header material based on reference operation sets. | Production Supervisor – Process Manufacturing |
| CO08 | Create Production Order based on Sales Order | Create production or process order with reference to a sales order. | Production Supervisor – Discrete Manufacturing |
| CO24 | Call Up Missing Parts List | Displays a missing parts list for production or process orders. Check missing parts from reservations or from finished good. |
Production Supervisor – Discrete Manufacturing Production Supervisor – Process Manufacturing |
New visual harmonized apps for Repetitive Manufacturing
The following list gives you an overview of new visually harmonized apps for repetitive manufacturing.
| On-premise transaction | App name | Capability | Role |
| MF12 | Display Document Log (With ALV) | Display backflushing documents and reverse the backflush in case of incorrect postings | Production Operator – Repetitive Manufacturing |
| MF51 | Display Production Quantities | Production list for Repetitive Manufacturing | Production Operator – Repetitive Manufacturing |
Production Engineering
Production Resources/Tools
Our customers often asked for Production Resources/Tools (PRTs) for use in routings. With the 2011 release, we enable in a first development step miscellaneous PRTs and document PRTs in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. As an outlook for future releases, material PRTs and equipment PRTs will follow.
The video below shows the new visually harmonized apps for Production Resources/Tools (PRTs) which are well known in SAP S/4HANA on-premise as transactions CF01, CF02, CF03, CF20, and CF22.
Fig11: New apps for Production Resources/Tools
The next video shows how a Production Engineer is opening the new PRT tab strip in the Change Routing app and switching back and forth between the miscellaneous PRT and document PRT option.
Fig.12: PRTs in Change Routing app
Manage Process Orders
With the SAP Fiori app Manage Process Orders, supervisors can manage the progress of process orders. Now, this app allows users to select multiple orders and release or technically complete them. You can also choose to perform these actions immediately or schedule it for later as background job. The Integration with Application Logs app enables the user to view logs for both Release and Technically Complete actions.
Fig.13: SAP Fiori app Manage Process Orders
For further information about Process Manufacturing refer to the blog SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Process Manufacturing.
Quality Management
Manual printing of outbound quality certificates for inspection lots and batches
Quality certificates authenticate the quality of goods for a delivery item when the material is shipped to the customer.
With new SAP Fiori apps, a quality engineer can
- create quality certificates for inspection lots or batches with or without customer data,
- assign certificate profiles to quality certificates,
- send certificates by emails to the intended recipients, and
- preview and print quality certificates created for inspection lots or batches.
The figure below shows both SAP Fiori apps Print Quality Certificates for Inspection Lots and Print Quality Certificates for Batches in one illustration. The red boxes show you how you can display a certificate and how you can create a new certificate directly within the app.
Fig.14: SAP Fiori apps to Print Quality Certificates for Inspection Lots and Batches
Supply Chain
Now coming to line of business Supply Chain, starting with two highlights in Order Promising.
Advanced Available-to-Promise (aATP)
Internal sales representatives, order fulfillment managers and order fulfillment specialists require mechanisms to configure, execute and monitor availability checks and optimize the distribution of supply. This is particularly important when the availability of materials needed to confirm requirements is limited.
You can use the advanced Available-to-Promise (aATP) capabilities to confirm on which date and in which quantity a requirement can be fulfilled.
Fig.15: Intelligent Order Promising with SAP S/4HANA advanced Available-To-Promise
New ATP-check method for supply protection
In many cases companies do not want to sell their articles according to the sequence of the incoming sales orders – they want to reserve certain quantities for special groups and perhaps they also want to prioritize these groups.
The idea of supply protection (SUP) is to allow a protection of quantities and to prioritize the demand.
A good example is typically the fashion industry. Here, sales orders from wholesale customers will come very early in the season while sales orders from the own eCommerce channel will come later. However, margins are typically higher for eCommerce and for strategic reasons it might be important to always have at least a minimum quantity for every channel. At the end of the season it is no longer relevant to protect demand – at the end of a season rather a first-come, first-served principle is usual.
Supply protection can be done as core (horizontal) protection where complete groups are protected against each other or as prioritized (vertical) protection where the protection is prioritized, and every group is only protected against the demand of a lower priority. Core and prioritized protection can be combined.
The next figure shows an example for Horizontal and Vertical Protection.
A Sales Order matching with “Germany”, Distribution Channel S2 must respect the protection for France (completely) and the protection in the own Supply Protection Object which is of the same or higher priority.
In this example, only 4.000 would be left for the demand matching with Ger. S2.
Fig.16: Horizontal and Vertical Supply Protection
A protected quantity is always defined for the combination of a material with a plant and one or more characteristics. The characteristics are typically attributes of the sales order or the customer and can be assigned via a characteristics catalog.
Fig.17: SAP Fiori app Manage Supply Protection
Product Substitution in Sales Order Requirements
In addition to plant substitution, you can use Alternative-Based Confirmation (ABC) to substitute products requested in sales order requirements. For this purpose, the substitution capabilities of Alternative-Based Confirmation (ABC) in advanced Available-to-Promise (aATP) have been enhanced to enable you to replace requested products in sales orders with substitute products, also in combination with alternative delivering plants.
To use product substitution in an availability check and to enable the user to substitute one product with another suitable product, you must define a substitution strategy with substitution method Product Substitution in the Configure Substitution Strategy app.
Products can be substituted during order confirmation due to various factors like:
- Unavailability of stock
- Product is Out of Warranty
- Substitute Product is abundant in Stock
- Upgrade available
The next figure summarizes the key features of Product Substitution.
Fig.18: Product Substitution: Key Features
The key concepts in product substitutions are described with meaningful illustrations in SAP Help.
The next screenshot shows the new SAP Fiori apps which enable the Master Data Specialist – Product Data to manage the new product substitutions master data.
Fig.19: SAP Fiori apps to manage the new product substitutions master data
In the product substitution master data you can define individual product substitutions which form a product substitution graph. The alternatives are determined by traversing through the product substitution graph starting from the requested product. The system considers those substitutions that are active and relevant for aATP.
In the video below the Master Data Specialist – Product Data opens the SAP Fiori app Manage Substitutions – Products, reviews the general information and substitution chain of a product substitution with the predecessor substitutions and successor substitutions, and navigates to the Product Network Graph.
Fig.20: Display Product Network Graph with SAP Fiori app Manage Substitutions – Products
Finally, let me summarize here the relevant apps for Internal Sales Representatives and Order Fulfillment Managers in sales order processing with aATP Product Substitution:
Fig.21: Sales Order Processing with aATP Product Substitution
Inventory Management
Serial numbers in the inventory analytics and goods receipt process
As an inventory manager or warehouse clerk, you can use the new SAP Fiori app Display Serial Numbers to display a list of the serial numbers assigned to a material. The list reflects the serial numbers of the materials according to the last posted Goods Movement. You can view the serial number list at plant and storage location level as well as view which serial numbers are assigned to a stock type or batch.
With the export to spreadsheet capability, the Display Serial Numbers app allows you to download the serial numbers into excel to do checks.
You can reach the Display Serial Numbers app by navigating from the following SAP Fiori apps:
- Stock- Multiple Materials
- Stock – Single Material
- Post Goods Receipt for Purchasing Document
- Post Goods Receipt for Production Order
Watch the video in which the inventory manager opens the Stock- Multiple Materials app, navigates to the Display Serial Numbers app and export the displayed serial numbers to excel.
Fig.22: Display Serial Numbers and export to spreadsheet in goods receipt process
Warehouse Management
Synchronous Goods Receipt Postings for External Procurement
Technically warehouse management (WM) in SAP S/4HANA Cloud is based on our world-class SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) solution, tailored to cloud usage.
With the 2011 release, we do the next step for deepening the integration of WM in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Now you can post goods receipt for products arriving from external procurement in the Post Goods Movement app in inventory management and warehouse management at the same time without creating delivery and warehouse request documents.
As a result of this smooth integration additional qRFC communication within the system is no longer required as shown in the next illustration.
Fig.23: Technical architecture view of Goods Receipt Postings for purchasing documents
The following purchasing documents are supported for goods receipt to a WM managed storage location:
- Standard purchase orders
- Scheduling agreements
- Purchase orders referencing value- or quantity contracts
- Stock transfer orders (STOs)
Fig.24: Post Goods Movement app
Fig.25: Display WM document number in Post Goods Movement app and navigation to WM
Mobile Warehousing
Enhancement of API Process Warehouse Tasks to allow creation of warehouse tasks
The OData service Process Warehouse Tasks (A2X) (API_WAREHOUSE_ORDER_TASK) now allows you to create warehouse tasks for warehouse delivery documents and ad hoc warehouse tasks for products and handling units.
The API Process Warehouse Tasks (A2X) is described in SAP API Business Hub.
Fig.26: Process Warehouse Tasks (A2X) in SAP API Business Hub
The next illustration gives you an overview of APIs for mobile warehousing.
Fig.27: Overview of APIs in Cloud WM as of 2011
Complete Pick of All Items in a Warehouse Request
Before the 2011 release, it could happen that during warehouse task creation for an outbound delivery order with e.g. 3 items only warehouse tasks for 2 items were created (e.g. due to not available quantities at the time of task creation). This could result in split deliveries and/or consolidation effort later in the process.
Now with the 2011 release, the new self-service configuration UI (SSCUI) Change Warehouse Process Type Settings offers the flag completely pick warehouse request. If this flag is set, the system only creates warehouse tasks if all warehouse tasks for the outbound delivery order can be created.
With this feature, you can restrict the creation of pick warehouse tasks for warehouse process type S210 (Picking) or S201 (Stock Removal for Production Supply) to only when all items in the warehouse request can be picked completely. This feature ensures that you only pick the products if they’re all available for picking and so the full order is shipped together. This feature also ensures that you don’t block the quantities for other picking processes.
The following screenshot shows the new SSCUI Change Warehouse Process Type Settings with the flag completely pick warehouse request.
Fig.28: New SSCUI Change Warehouse Process Type Settings
The next screenshot shows the system reaction if the rule for complete pick of all items in a warehouse request is violated.
Fig.29: Error message during task creation in Run Outbound Process – Deliveries app
Handling Unit Management
Handling units from LE to WM in inbound delivery
Before the 2011 release, handling units in WM could only be created locally, e.g. in packing app.
With 2011, handling units in Logistic Execution (LE) can be created with reference to an inbound delivery (e.g. Advanced Shipping Notification – ASN). These handling units are replicated to the delivery in Cloud WM and can be used in the inbound process. Currently this process works only for one-level handling units, for nested handling units it is planned with a future release.
Fig.30: Replication of handling units from LE inbound delivery to inbound delivery in Cloud WM
Further enhancements in Handling Unit Management
HU creation enablement in Create Non-Assigned Handling Units app
The Create Non-Assigned Handling Units app supports now the creation of HUs in Cloud WM managed storage locations. This means, the Create Non-Assigned Handling Units app allows you to create handling units without reference in HU-managed and non-HU-managed inventory management storage locations. Furthermore, you can automatically pack material using packing instructions and determination records or unpack and delete existing handling units without reference.
HU movement enablement in Goods Movement – Handling Units app and Reverse Goods Movement – Handling Units app
The apps Goods Movement – Handling Units and Reverse Goods Movement – Handling Units support now movement in Cloud WM managed storage locations.
With the Goods Movement – Handling Units app, you can move handling units to different plants and to different storage locations within one plant. Furthermore, you can consume materials of a handling unit for a cost center or pick handling units for scrapping.
With the Reverse Goods Movement – Handling Units app, you can reverse goods movements previously done with the Post Goods Movement – Handling Units app.
Transportation Management
Integration with TM in SAP S/4HANA on premise
Order-Based Transportation Consolidation supports your company’s transportation planning and execution in S/4HANA Cloud. Sales order based transportation demand is built (Freight Units) considering transportation constraints and sent to a decentral Transportation Management system as the external planning system. The planning result is received in S/4HANA Cloud (Freight Order) from the decentral Transportation Management system (TMS) where it is used to trigger delivery creation.
Previously only a decentral third-party TMS could be integrated in this scenario as the external planning system.
With the 2011 release, you can now use also the on-premise SAP TM application as external planning system. For this purpose, the SAP S/4HANA cloud scope item 3EP integrates with the SAP S/4HANA scope item 4OZ.
Fig.31: Integration of scope item 3EP (cloud) with scope item 4OZ (on premise)
Thanks for reading this blog post. Stay tuned!
You will find a collection of my SAP S/4HANA Cloud release blogs here:
If you’re interested to learn more about these innovations, join our SAP Learning Hub and participate in our SAP S/4HANA Cloud Early Release Series. Read this blog to find out how you can license for the Enterprise Support Edition as a Customer / Partner and benefit from our regular release series either live or on-demand.
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud release info: http://www.sap.com/s4-cloudrelease
- Article from Oliver Betz on SAP News here
- Sven Denecken’s SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2011 Release Blog
- SAP S/4HANA Microlearning (OP/CL) – The ultimate collection blog
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud Release Blogs here
- SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here
- Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
- Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud Customer Community: register here
- SAP Activate Community here
- Feature Scope Description here
- What’s New here
- Help Portal Product Page here
- Implementation Portal here
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