Today I would like to explain a bit our concept to enable customer specific enhancements to the TM 9.1 load planning feature. As it is the first release having such a function in, we spend quite some time enabling functions / restrictions going beyond the standard load planning.
Basically, there are 3 options for enhancements:
1. Process Controller strategy: Quite a lot of functions in SAP TM work using the process controller framework enabling a flexible combination of standard processing methods and custom methods. The standard load planning is delivered as strategy ALP_DEF (Default strategy for TM automatic load planning) with the methods ALP_PRE, ALP_OPT, and ALP_POST.
ALP_PRE: Read all required master and business document data for the selected Freight Orders to be planned.
ALP_OPT: Maps TM data into SAP optimizer format, calls the engine, and receives result (load plan, load distribution, ...)
ALP_POST: Write result back to SAP TM
So depending on the requirement, it is possible to define an own LP strategy adding for example an additional pre-processing step when there is the need to enrich the data further (maybe additional item info to define a stacking matrix). Or in case the load plan shall be validated or adjusted after the standard SAP TM optimization, an additonal post processing can be implemented. In general it is also possible to completely replace the standard pre- and postprocessing, but usually it does quite a few required things and therefore a complete replacement ames sense only in very specific scenarios.
Of course here would also be the spot to switch to another optimizer engine if required.
As the LP process controller strategy is attached to the planning profile and this is attached to the Freight Order type or can be selected for each Transportation Cockpit session, this enhancement capability is very powerful and can be used when the enhancement requirement goes beyond simple data adjustments.
2. Optimizer Enhancement Spot: For enhancements in scenarios where the standard SAP TM optimizer for load planning is used (what I think will be the case in almost all customer implementations), an enhancement spot exists enabling the manipulation of the direct input and output of the engine. This BAdI can be used to when for example the standard preprocessing is sufficient, but adjustments to the data mapping are required. Or load plannig rules should be manipulated depending on the items.
Enhancement Spot: /SCMTMS/PLN_OPT_LSO
Note this comes with SAP TM 9.1 SP01 and can not be implemented on SP00.
Maybe I will spend an MKS on specific implemenatations to support certain scenarios.
3. Visualization Enhancement Spot: For the 3-D visualization it is possible to adjust almost everything starting from box colors over tooltips displayed up to functions attached to the object context menu. Here it would also be possible to for example attach functions like removing the item from the freight order or unplan the item.
Enhancement Spot: /SCMTMS/ES_LSO_3D_ENHANCE
Of course there are scenarios that would require additional fields for the involved master data (for example additional product dimensions) or on business document level. To achive this follow the standard SAP TM enhancement guide and pick the data up in the preprocessing.
