Product Information
Manufacturing in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2111
This blog provides an overview of innovations in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2111 for Manufacturing.
The SAP S/4HANA Cloud Manufacturing & Supply Chain blog series, collects the links to the release blogs for Manufacturing and Supply Chain. Supply Chain innovations are described in the separate blog Supply Chain in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2111 to shorten the reading time per blog and thus increase their clarity.
First, this blog post starts with the table of contents for ease of reference and allows you to navigate directly to the topic you are interested in by clicking on a specific entry:
Production Engineering
Equipment Production Resource Tools (PRTs)
Manage Routings and Master Recipes
Managed Engineering Change Process with PLM Change Record
Production Planning
Time-Dependent Stock Levels
Supplier Collaboration with MRP Change Requests
Capacity Planning
Extended Production Planning & Scheduling
Calculation of Kanban Control Cycles based on pMRP simulations
Production Operations
Kanban
Confirm Production Operation
Manage Production Operations
Area of Responsibility
Prohibition of Cross-Plant Accounting
Segregation of Duties for Manufacturing Order
Quality Management
Production Part Approval Process
Manage Inspection Plans
Record Inspection Results
Automatic Usage Decisions for Production
Output Management in Quality Certificate Apps
Check out my video highlighting the following manufacturing release highlights:
- Maintain Time-Dependent Stock Levels
- Managed Engineering Change Process with PLM Change Record
- Calculation of Kanban Control Cycles Based on Simulative Forecast Data
Video 1: Highlights for Manufacturing in the 2111 release
Production Engineering
Equipment Production Resource Tools (PRTs)
With the 2111 release, we are closing a functional gap in Production Engineering. In the past releases we made Material, Document, and Miscellaneous PRTs available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud (see my 2102 blog and 2011 blog).
Thanks to the development colleagues from Asset Management, now a Maintenance Planner can create a Equipment with Category ‘P’ which means Equipment PRT.
Fig. 1: SAP Fiori app ‘Create Technical Object’ offers new Equipment Category ‘P’ for creating Equipment Production Resource Tools (PRTs)
Equipment PRTs can now be used in Production. The new app Display Equipment PRT Usage enables the Production Engineer to view the usage of Equipment PRT in Production Orders.
Fig. 2: ‘Display Equipment PRT Usage – In Production Orders’ app
Manage Routings and Manage Master Recipes
With the 2105 release, we have introduced the SAP Fiori apps Manage Routings and Manage Master Recipes (see my 2105 blog). Now, both apps support additional filter options such as Product and Key Date to search through existing routings respectively master recipes. You can also view the product details from the Assigned Products column.
Fig. 3: SAP Fiori app ‘Manage Master Recipes’ with additional filter options and product details
Output Management for Master Recipe
In addition, printing of master recipes is now possible from the ‘Display Master Recipe’ app with following sections:
- Header
- Description
- Material Assignment
- Operation
- Phase
- Secondary resources
- Component allocation
- Relationship
Fig. 4: Print of master recipe from the ‘Display Master Recipe’ app
Managed Engineering Change Process with PLM Change Record
Now, we come to one of the top highlights of this blog, the integration of Production Engineering with the Change Record capabilities from Product Lifecycle Management.
In general, with Change Record, you can initiate, manage, and track changes to your products. Managing engineering change processes with Change Record ensure Production with approved master data which is an important requirement in process industries.
To enable approved production for process orders, you need to make configuration settings for the required approval. You can configure change record types according to your needs with master recipe and BOM. New change rules allow you to define that a change record is required to change the master recipe.
For instance, if you create and approve changes to production master data in the change record, the Process order is automatically approved. Material list can no longer be changed. Release is not possible without approval.
In the next video I show you in the system how to use the change record for engineering change of material BOM and master recipe and production with approved master data.
Video 2: Use the change record for engineering change of material BOM and master recipe and production with approved master data
Production Planning
Time-Dependent Stock Levels
Let us continue directly with the next top highlight, the enablement of time-dependent stock level in material requirements planning (MRP) where stock levels are captured by date either via API or manual maintenance. With the 2105 release, we have introduced the field MRP Safety Stock Method in the Manage Product Master Data app which enables you to specify the safety stock method. So far, two options were available to select static or time-dependent safety stock. The ODATA API API_PROD_TIMEDPDNTSTCK_SRV enables you to create, read and update the time dependent stock levels (see my 2105 blog).
With the 2111 release, you can use a new safety-stock method: time-dependent days of supply. It enables the use of dynamic, time-dependent stock levels to cover material requirements taking into account a minimum safety buffer level and a target safety buffer level. Buffer levels for safety days of supply and target days of supply are calculated on a daily basis within a specific time period. Procurement or production is triggered automatically to make stock levels available continuously for material coverage.
In addition, the new app Maintain Time-Dependent Stock Levels enables you as a production planner to display, create, and update time-dependent stock levels for the safety stock that you want to hold for specific materials. This is how it works: By defining safety stock levels based on validity intervals, you can dynamically react to varying demands – for example if you expect a higher demand for a material during certain time periods – and immediately reduce the risk of shortfalls by ensuring a sufficient stocking of products in order to meet the demand over specific periods of time.
In the next video my colleague Markus Oertelt shows you in the system the new MRP Safety Stock Method: Time-Dependent Days of Supply.
Video 3: New MRP Safety Stock Method: Time-Dependent Days of Supply
Supplier Collaboration with MRP Change Requests
With 2111, we enhance the integration scenario and made the whole scenario extensible. As a key user, you can now create custom fields for MRP change requests and enable the exchange of custom field data between SAP S/4HANA Cloud and external systems used by suppliers. The next figure shows the detailed process flow. The red boxes with yellow text indicates which process steps support now extensibility.
Fig. 6: MRP Change Request Integration Scenario (SAP_COM_0667) – Extensibility
Furthermore the red boxes show the Time Zone enhancement of the SOAP services which is relevant for material planner and supplier collaborating from different time zones (difference > 12 hours) to avoid the differences in the requested / proposed date for change request. The conversion is based on a 3-step approach:
- Step 1. Delivery address time zone (if available)
- Step 2. Customer BAdI to derive time zone if delivery address does not contain time zone
- Step 3. Fall back system time zone
The following example explains the conversion of the requested date for the change request. As the material planner is working in time zone UTC+10 whereas the supplier is working in time UTC-6 the requested dates for the change request are different for both:
Fig. 7: MRP Change Request Integration Scenario – Example with different time zones
In addition, a new SSC-UI (self service configuration UI) allows you to Define Times to Respond for Change Requests Priorities.
The new SAP Fiori app Schedule Processing of MRP Change Requests enables you to schedule jobs to automatically process change requests when no response has been received from suppliers. You can apply or discard such change requests based on your configuration settings and the parameters that you specify for the job.
Fig. 8: ‘Schedule Processing of MRP Change Requests’ app
Capacity Planning
Mass Maintenance of Work Center Capacities
With 2108 release, we have introduced the SAP Fiori app Mass Maintenance of Work Center Capacities which allows a production planner to perform a mass create of interval for selected work center capacities (see my 2108 blog).
This app now supports the Production Planner to perform a mass edit of the capacity header fields such as Utilization, and the number of capacities. Planner can now edit the details of an individual capacity in the object page and preview the weekly and monthly impact to the capacities before submitting them.
In the next demo video my colleague Markus Oertelt shows you the enhancements of the app:
Video 4: Enhancements of SAP Fiori app ‘Mass Maintenance of Work Center Capacities‘: e.g. perform mass edit of capacity header fields such as utilization and the number of capacities
Capacity Scheduling Board
You can now assign work center groups from the Area of Responsibility control under App Settings.
Extended Production Planning & Scheduling
Calculation of Kanban Control Cycles based on pMRP simulations
Now, you can select non-MRP Materials and non-MRP Kanban Materials for the simulation in predictive material and resource planning (pMRP), to create planned independent requirements (PIR). Then the exported PIRs are used to size Kanban control cycles also for non-MRP relevant materials.
This new feature helps you to optimize your Kanban control cycles based on forecast data, even for materials that are not planned during MRP. Watch the following video in which my colleague Markus Oertelt demonstrates the calculation of Kanban Control Cycle based on pMRP simulation.
Remark:
In this video at 2:40 min, Markus opens the ‘Schedule pMRP Simulation Creation’ app.
At 3:00 min, he fills the parameter ‘Additional MRP Type’ for ‘Object Selection’ with the value ‘No planning – pMRP (YP)’ which was predefined via SSCUI in the test system. This approach works fine in the test system. But in a productive environment with high volume data I recommend you to configure additional customer specific MRP types for better performance. Because if the pMRP simulation has to consider all ND-Materials in addition to the non-MRP Kanban materials, the runtime of the simulation could increase due to the high amount of data.
Video 5: Calculation of Kanban Control Cycles Based on Simulative Forecast Data
Production Operations (Execution and Control)
Kanban
The chapter before is the perfect transition to further enhancements in the area of Kanban which allows you now to use field extensibility to display additional storage location data.
An administrator can now enable fields from the product storage location master data to be used in the Kanban Board and for Kanban cards and Kanban control cycle printouts. The next figure shows how you can add additional fields via the Custom Fields and Logic app.
Fig. 9: Add additional fields from product storage location master data to the Kanban Board
You can use the added data also for printing Kanban cards as shown in the next figure.
Fig. 10: Kanban Card with additional fields from product storage location master data
Confirm Production Operation
With the Confirm Production Operation app, you can partially or completely confirm production operations. This app has been enhanced to support you even more in your daily work as a production operator.
The following enhancements have been made to the app:
- In the Activities section, you can now enter the Personnel Number of the person confirming an operation.
- In the Note section, you can now enter texts longer than 40 characters as note. You can display the long text in the Display Production Order Confirmation app.
- For underdelivery and overdelivery, the app now displays warning messages as well in addition to the already shown error messages if configured.
Fig. 11: ‘Confirm Production Operations’ app – Enhancements are shown in the red and yellow boxes
Manage Production Operations
The following enhancements for the Manage Production Operations apps support you even more in your daily work as a production supervisor:
- The Order filter and the Material filter are now standard filters in the filter bar.
Fig. 12: ‘Manage Production Operations’ app with added default filters ‘Order‘ and ‘Material‘
- The Sales Order filter has been added. You have to be aware that the filter only shows sales orders of sales document category C – Order. Use the Define Conditions tab to filter for other sales orders.
Fig. 13: ‘Manage Production Operations’ app with additional ‘Sales Order‘ filter and column
- The improvements that have been made to the handling of the Area of Responsibility settings are described in the next chapter.
Area of Responsibility
Significant performance improvements allow us to improve the handling of the Area of Responsibility settings. When adding supervisors or work centers, you can now use a Select All button to select all supervisors or work centers available. In the header, the popup shows how many supervisors or work centers are available in total. These improvements for the Area of Responsibility settings are available in the Manage Production Operations app as well in the Manage Production Orders app.
Fig. 14: ‘Area of Responsibility’ with ‘Select All‘ button in the ‘App Settings’ of the ‘Manage Production Operations’ and ‘Manage Production Orders’ apps
Prohibition of Cross-Plant Accounting
If a production or process order contains plants that are assigned to different company codes, you are now prevented from saving the order.
Fig. 15: ‘Create Process Order’ app – Prohibition of Cross-Plant Accounting
Hint:
Instead of using production across plants in different company codes, please complete production within one company code and then use stock transfers to transfer them to other company codes.
Segregation of Duties for Manufacturing Order
Due to legal requirement the authorization for changing and releasing a manufacturing order can now be split. The next figure shows a typical process flow of the 4-eyes principle where the supervisor has the authorization to create and change a manufacturing order, while the reviewer has the authorization to release an order.
Fig. 16: Segregation of Duties for Manufacturing Order – Example Process
To ensure quality, the order creation, change, and release process is authorized using restrictions that allow you to divide the tasks between multiple users if necessary. The restriction is available in certain catalogs but existing roles that use the catalogs have not been updated. You must make these changes manually.
Existing roles are not automatically updated. To enable the feature, you must add the restriction field to them and configure it accordingly. This feature is being phased in in 2111. As of 2202 the restrictions must be maintained in your roles, otherwise you could have problems creating and releasing orders. You must maintain this restriction object in your roles before the 2202 release!
Fig. 17: Segregation of Duties for Manufacturing Order – Maintain Business Roles
Without the required authorization the system will prevent that the user can release an order.
Fig. 18: Segregation of Duties for Manufacturing Order – Error message due to missing authorization
Quality Management
Production Part Approval Process
The following features are now available for first article inspections in the production part approval process (PPAP):
- For an internal PPAP, you can specify multiple purchase order items in the Manage Quality Info Records app.
Fig. 19: ‘Manage Quality Info Records’ app – specify multiple purchase order items for an internal PPAP
- If you want to make a usage decision for regular inspection lots with the same combination of material, supplier, and plant, a warning message is triggered if the corresponding first article inspection has not been completed.
Fig. 20: ‘Manage Usage Decisions’ app – Warning message is raised if there is an open (not valuated) First Article Inspection for the same Material / Supplier combination during the Usage Decision
- You can monitor inspection lots created for first article inspections in the worklists for displaying and processing inspection lots.
Fig. 21: New Indicator to search and monitor inspection lots related to First Article Inspections
Manage Inspection Plans
Within the Manage Inspection Plans app the filter for Material is now available.
This helps the Quality Planner to filter based on Material.
Fig. 22: ‘Manage Inspection Plans’ app – Material-based Search
Record Inspection Results
With the 2108 release, the new Record Inspection Results app was introduced as the successor of the Record Inspection Results (Deprecated) app (see my 2108 blog).
With the new Record Inspection Results app, a Quality Technician can now:
- Add long texts (texts more than 40 characters) for remarks
Fig. 23: ‘Record Inspection Results’ app – add long text for remarks
- Force inspection completion for valuated characteristics with summarized results without results recording
Fig. 24: ‘Record Inspection Results’ app – Force Completion
- The Quality Technician can navigate to Manage Control Chart app.
Fig. 25: ‘Record Inspection Results’ app – Navigation to ‘Manage Control Chart’ app
Automatic Usage Decisions for Production
Quality Engineers can make now a usage decision for inspection lots in production. You can use the following functions:
- You can use the Trigger Automatic Usage Decision (For Production) app to manually generate a list of inspection lots that are defined for a usage decision.
- You can use the Schedule Automatic Usage Decisions (For Production) app to have the system trigger the usage decisions at predefined intervals.
Fig. 26: ‘Schedule Automatic Usage Decisions – For Production’ app
Output Management in Quality Certificate Apps
Quality Engineers can now perform the following operations in the output management list of the Manage Quality Certificates for Batches and Manage Quality Certificates for Inspection Lots apps:
- Send an item for output
- Duplicate an output item. After you duplicate an output item, you can change the output channel and also modify the printer/email settings based on the output channel you choose
- Retry sending an item for output in case of errors
Fig. 27: ‘Manage Quality Certificates for Inspection Lots’ app – Enhanced Output Management
Furthermore Quality Management offers now Harmonized Document Management for some SAP Fiori apps as well as new and enhanced APIs, Events, BAdIs, SSCUIs for quality notification and quality certificates (see What’s New Document).
Thanks for reading this blog post. Stay tuned!
You will find a collection of my SAP S/4HANA Cloud release blogs here:
Recently, my colleague Markus Oertelt has started an interesting blog series about
Discrete Industries in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud release info here
- Sven Denecken’s SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2111 Release Blog
- Latest SAP S/4HANA Cloud Release Blogs here
- Product videos on our SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA YouTube playlist
- Check out our brand-new Early Release Series Brochure!
- Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
- openSAP Microlearning for Manufacturing in SAP S/4HANA here
- Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community: here
- Feature Scope Description here
- What’s New here
- Help Portal Product Page here
Follow us via @SAP and #S4HANA, or myself via @GerhardWelker and LinkedIn