SAP APO
Advanced Planning and Optimization (APO) module is one of the key component under SAP Supply Chain Management (SCM). It provides different business processes related to Demand Planning, Supply Network Planning (SNP),
Production Planning/Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS), Transport Management and Global Available-to-Promise.
APO is tightly integrated with ECC system using a core interface (CIF) and provides full reporting functionalities on top of data marts and InfoCubes. With the recent release of Supply Chain Management (SCM) 5.0, a
new set of functionality has been added - Service Parts Planning - to perform spare part management under Supply Chain. SAP APO provides complete integrated functions to manage supply chain processes and supports
various features.
The use of Supplier Network Collaboration (SNC) (also known as Inventory Collation Hub (ICH)) to provide collaboration between the suppliers and the customers. Using APO, you can achieve coordination between
different partners at all stages of the supply chain process. It starts from receiving an order, monitoring the stock, and shipping of the product. You can constantly perform optimization and evaluation of Supply
Chain process and monitor process efficiency. APO also provides BI component to support Reporting functions and data marts.
Advanced Planning and Optimization consists of following application functions −
- Demand Planning
- Supply Network Planning
- Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS)
- Supply Chain Collaboration
- Global Available-to-Promise
- Transport Management
- Supply Chain Collaboration/Inventory Collation Hub
1. Demand Planning(DP)
Demand planning allows to perform forecasting of products in the market. The output of demand planning process is the demand plan which considers all the factors that affects the demand. The demand planning process
defines the activity in Demand Planning cycle. As the demand planning process takes place in the form of a cycle, certain activities can be repeated.
* Demand Planning Implementation
The successful setup of the demand planning process includes setting up the planning area. You need to identify the key figures to be used for demand planning. Actual data for demand planning and historical planning
data is stored in InfoCube and the current planning data is stored in live cache time series objects.
In demand planning, you require a key figure for each department and business partner to create the forecast.
For each key figure, you have to decide whether you will also need key figures for corrected history, corrected forecast, promotions, ex-post forecast, and/or ex-post MLR forecast. If key figures do not exist in the
system, you can create them.
* Key Figures in Demand Planning
In demand planning, it contains data represented as a numerical value. It can be a quantity or a monetary value. There are three type of key figures commonly used under demand planning −
- Quantity (To represent physical quantities)
- Amount (To represent amount of money)
- Number (To represent numerical values)
* Use
You can use Demand Planning (DP) to create a forecast of market demand for your company's products. This component allows you to take into consideration the many different causal factors that affect demand. The
result of Demand Planning is the demand plan.
Demand Planning is a powerful and flexible tool that supports the demand planning process in your company. User-specific planning layouts and interactive planning books enable you to integrate people from different
departments, and even different companies, into the forecasting process. Using the DP library of statistical forecasting and advanced macro techniques you can create forecasts based on demand history as well as any
number of causal factors, carry out predefined and self-defined tests on forecast models and forecast results, and adopt a consensus-based approach to reconcile the demand plans of different departments. To add
marketing intelligence and make management adjustments, you use promotions and forecast overrides. The seamless integration with Supply Network Planning (SNP) supports an efficient Sales and Operations Planning (SOP)
process.
* Purpose
This process describes each activity in the Demand Planning (DP) cycle. In general, you can assume that the order of the processes presented here is the order in which you should proceed through the DP cycle.
However, since DP is represented as a cycle, not a linear path, you may decide to repeat certain activities or to proceed in a different order.
2. Supply Network Planning(SNP)
Supply Network Planning integrates all the process in Supply Chain − purchase, manufacturing, and distribution. Supply Network Planning results in optimal purchase and production, lesser order completion times, and
improved customer service.
Supply Network Planning is closely integrated with other processes of Advanced Planning and Optimization to develop an optimized model for purchase, manufacturing, and distribution. Supply Network Administration
includes the following −
@ Planning Area Administration
Planning area administration is the first step in Supply Network Planning setup. For Supply Network Planning, SAP has predefined characteristics and key figures.
*Buckets Profile
In Advanced Planning and Optimization, you have two types of bucket profile − Storage Bucket Profile and Planning Bucket Profile. Storage bucket profile is used to store data based on the given planning area in
Demand Planning or SNP. Planning bucket is used to define the time bucket used for planning purposes. When you create planning bucket profiles, it can be used for future planning and past horizon by making an entry
in the planning book.
@ Master Data for Supply Network Planning
You need to create a master data for planning method used in Supply Network Planning. In Supply Network Planning, you have a general master data. Also you have to identify the planning method to generate the master
data.
*Master Data to Run the Optimizer
You should maintain all the master data before you run the optimizer in Supply Network Planning. Like when you want to use Local time, you should set this indicator.
Following Master data should be created to run the optimizer −
Location Specific
It includes the type of location, storage resource, handling resource, calendar and time zone, etc.
Product Specific
It includes the master data related to attributes (weight of product, volume and unit, etc.) unit of measures, procurement related (procurement type, procurement costs, planned delivery time, etc.), SNP related
master data and other product specific fields.
Resource Specific
You have the master data specific to resource type - Bucket resources, single mixed resources, multi-mixed resources, etc.
Once a resource master data is created, you have to assign resources to the location master data.
@ Supply Network Planning Run
Different planning methods are available to run Supply Network Planning. These run can be performed using an application or also in the background. Common SNP planning run includes −
* Optimization-Based Planning
This planning method is cost effective, which considers all the factors to find the most cost-effective plan. The optimizer considers the following points keeping the cost as a base factor −
Which products are to be produced and the quantity of product transported, stored, and procured.
Resources to be used and Production data structures to be used for production.
Production location, storage and delivery, and source and destination locations.
* Heuristic-Based Planning
In this planning method, we group all the demands for a product at a location into one demand for the bucket. The planning horizon and key figures on the basis of which heuristic is done, based on the planning book.
* Supply and Demand Propagation
In Supply Network Planning, you use supply and demand propagation to implement continuous changes because of constraints and to find a feasible solution to fulfill the demands. Supply and Demand propagation doesn’t
consider lot sizes.
NOTE- Supply and Demand Propagation in SNP is only used with time series live cache.
* Executing Supply and Demand Propagation
To execute supply and demand propagation, you need to navigate to SAP Easy Access → Advanced Planning and Optimization → Supply Network Planning → Planning → Supply and Demand Propagation.
Use
There are various options available for transferring the results of the SNP planning run to other upstream and downstream SAP APO applications or planning stages:
You can release the SNP planning results to Demand Planning ( DP ) to compare the SNP plan that is constraint-based with the demand plan that is not constraint-based (see Releasing the Supply Network Plan to
Demand Planning ).
You can release more detailed results of an SNP optimization run to Demand Planning (see Releasing the Results of an Optimization Run to Demand Planning ).
You can release the SNP planning results to the supply and demand propagation planning method to transfer the data stored in order key figures to time series key figures (see Releasing the SNP Plan to Demand
Planning ).
You can release the planning results back to SNP if you have used the supply and demand propagation planning method (see Releasing the Results of Supply and Demand Propagation to SNP ).
You can convert SNP orders into PP/DS orders to transfer the planning results to Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) (see Conversion of SNP and CTM Orders into PP/DS Orders ).
You can transfer the planning results directly to the ERP system. For further information, see the component Integration of SAP APO and the ERP System under Integration of Transaction Data .
Purpose
If your company has a regular forecasting cycle, you may have several forecasts for any given period that you wish to retain for purposes of forecast accuracy monitoring. You can save these multiple forecasts in
different key figures of the same planning version . For example, you may save the forecast created in January in the key figure January's forecast , the forecast created in February in the key figure February's
forecast , and the forecast created in March in the key figure March's forecast . Permanent data storage should be made in InfoCubes, not liveCache.
3. Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS)
In SAP APO, Production Planning/Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) is used to generate procurement proposals to meet the production requirements. This component is also used for defining resource plan and order details. You
can also plan for critical products to reduce the lead time and to improve time delivery performance.
PP/DS can be used to create executable plans and to achieve the following −
- Improve the on-time delivery performance for critical products
- Reduce lead times
- Improve coordination between resources and better procurement process
- Reduce the stock cost
PP/DS is integrated with other SAP APO components. For example, with demand planning to create a demand plan and to move PIR to PP/DS to create procurement proposals.
Transaction and master data from the OLAP system is moved to APO and after order processing planning, results are moved to APO system
@ Integration of PP/DS with SAP APO applications
Let us now discuss integration of PP/DS with SAP APO applications.
* Integration with Demand Planning
Demand planning is used to meet the market demand for critical products after considering different factors and the result of demand planning is a demand plan. Demand plan is moved to PP/DS to raise procurement
proposals for both external system and internal procurement process.
Using Demand Plan, demand planning is executed for customers and planned independent requirement results are transferred from DP to PP/DS to cover PIR by creating procurement proposals.
Following is the Process Flow −
- STEP 1 − First step is to start with the release of demand plan to Supply Network Planning. Demand plan can be released as mass processing or online.
- STEP 2 − Consider the release period same on PP/DS horizon and Supply Network Planning horizon
- STEP 3 − Copy requirements to target planning version, resulting in a demand plan to Supply Network Planning, which in turn triggers an event in PP/DS for products.
- STEP 4 − Action takes place as per Planning Procedure for mentioned products.
- STEP 5 − Execution of PP/DS Plannin
* Integration with SNP
Supply Network Planning (SNP) ensures that product quantities are available at the right time, right place without overloading of resources in production and transportation process. SNP defines the quantities in
which products should be procured, produced, or transported. PP/DS defines lot sizes of products to be procured, and sequences of planning order.
Both the methods are integrated and planning is performed for different task distribution.
* Supply Network Planning and PP/DS Planning Tasks
SNP and PP/DS are defined for different phases - SNP planning is used for medium-term objectives and short-term planning is for PP/DS. The horizon for SNP planning and PP/DS planning are same and the planning area
doesn't overlap.
When the same planning version is used for SNP and PP/DS, it is also possible to convert SNP orders into PP/DS orders.
@ PP/DS Alert Monitoring
You can monitor alerts raised in PP/DS planning using the Alert monitor. You need to define an alert profile relevant for to your planning. Different alert types are created in PP/DS.
* Alerts Related to Relationship between Orders or Operations
Dynamic pegging with date/time alerts
Fixed pegging alerts
Quantity alerts for pegging
Shelf life
This option is checked in the product master. Navigate to SAP Easy Access − Advanced Planning and Optimization − Master Data − Product.
The system compares the shelf life planning with the actual shelf life of receipt during planning.
When shelf life requirements are met, pegging relationships are created.
Relationship between Operations
@ Alerts Related to Procurement Planning
When procurement planning heuristic is run, different PP/DS alerts can be raised w.r.t Planning. Following are the common alert types −
* Procurement Planning Exceptions
In PP/DS alerts related to procurement planning are generated when you define setting in customizing. Navigate to Application logs for PP/DS, and define and maintain exception groups.
To check exception message, you can use the context menu of alert. Each of the message belongs to different alert classes.
Example − An alert can have different class that shows different status messages.
CLASS 1 − Termination Messages
CLASS 2 − Error Messages
CLASS 3 - Warning Messages
CLASS 4 - Success Messages
* Order Related PP/DS Alerts
Following PP/DS alerts are raised w.r.t orders raised −
Alerts for the orders with status deallocated
Alerts for orders with date time in the past
Quantity falls short/exceeds desired quantity
Order with validity period expired
* PP/DS Alerts Related to Resources
In PP/DS, you can have alerts raised related to resources in planning.
Alerts related to resource utilization above/beyond threshold value
Capacity overload for bucket resource
Resource overload in case of single/multi-activity resource
Alerts related to container resources planning
* PP/DS Alert for Campaigns
Following PP/DS alerts can be raised related to campaign planning. When planning with production campaign is performed, the system can issue following alerts −
- Alerts related to cleanout order in a campaign
- Alerts related to interrupted campaign
Use
You use the Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) component:
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
Purpose
Transferring planned independent requirements from DP to PP/DS
You use Demand Planning (DP) to create a forecast of market demand for your company's products. This allows you to consider the many different causal factors that affect demand. The result of Demand Planning is the
demand plan.
You can transfer the demand plan to Supply Network Planning (SNP) or Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) . You use these applications to plan how to cover the transferred planned independent
requirements and to create procurement proposals for in-house production or external procurement. In SNP you execute aggregate, medium-term planning and in PP/DS you execute detailed, short-term planning. For more
information, see Integrating SNP and PP/DS .
4. Supply Chain Collaboration
Supply Chain Collaboration is an extension of Ariba Network that enhances the ability of suppliers to collaborate with buyers in supply-chain tasks such as ordering, invoicing, and shipping.
With Supply Chain Collaboration enabled, an array of features become available to buyers and suppliers on Ariba Network. These features facilitate collaboration between buyers and suppliers, for example on
transactions pertinent to direct material supply chains.
Supply Chain Collaboration enables you, as a supplier, to do the following:
- Collaborate efficiently with all supply-chain partners through a single global solution
- Easily manage all direct materials processes, including consigned inventory, rolling delivery schedules, and contract manufacturing
- Respond intelligently to changes in supply and demand with real-time visibility into supply-chain metrics
- Rapidly connect to thousands of buyers with minimal IT costs
Buyers can enable and disable Supply Chain Collaboration for individual suppliers with whom they have an active relationship. After enabling a supplier, buyers can enable and disable the retail-industry
functionality for individual suppliers. When at least one buyer enables a supplier to use the SAP Chain Collaboration functionality, that supplier is always directed to the Supply Chain Collaboration supplier
user interface portal for all buyers.
Purpose
The goal of SAP APO Collaborative Planning (CLP) is to help enterprises carry out collaborative supply chain planning activities with their business partners. Thus, relevant input from business partners can be taken
into account to synchronize planning across the network and leverage APO to generate optimized plans based on data from the supply network. Enterprises can now focus on enhancing customer value by enabling true
business collaboration across business partners in their networks .
Internet and associated technologies such as XML have revolutionized inter-enterprise business processes by enabling seamless information exchange between business partners. High volumes of data can be transferred at
low cost and even minor business partners can exchange information in an economical manner. Interactive on-line access to each other's systems can be achieved easily via a conventional Internet browser.
APO CLP is the building block which enables enterprises to collaboratively plan all logistics activities ranging from forecasting to shipment planning together with their business partners. Collaborative Planning
extends the boundaries of supply chain management to include all relevant business partners and enable collaborative business processes across the network. The distinct entities in the network such as suppliers,
manufacturers, and retailers can cooperate and act as a single entity focused on delivering enhanced customer value while reducing costs throughout the entire chain.
SAP APO Collaborative Planning was designed to:
- Enable exchange of required planning information with business partners
- Allow the use of browser to read and change data
- Restrict user access to authorized data and activities
- Support consensus planning process
- Support exception-based management
5. Global Available-to-Promise
GATP stands for Global Available To Promise. It is part of SAP SCM-APO tool.
(GATP) in APO supports online searches to determine if requested products are available at specific times in quantities that satisfy customer demand. GATP processes are run via SAP live Cache, which processes large
volumes of data and enables data sharing across several applications. GATP meets the challenge of providing availability information across a global enterprise. The concept of available to promise (ATP) used in Sales
and Distribution (SD) module in SAP R/3 provides check capabilities that deliver results for basic business scenarios. More complex scenarios, however, require more robust capabilities to make delivery commitments
that are in line with the real-world demands. In short, global scenarios require global solutions. Global ATP — or GATP — takes advantage of SAP APO technology and picks up where the SAP R/3 ATP solution leaves off.
Following are the functionalities using GATP allows you to answer questions related to promising products to your customers. GATP quickly makes information available to provide real-time optimized decision support.
It offers the functionality to perform availability checks which consist of online searches that determine if requested products are available at requested times in the quantities that satisfy customer demand. GATP
can be used for Sales Order, Scheduling Agreement, Delivery, stock transfer orders and production orders (for their input components).
GATP is like promising to customer demands based on some predefined availability checks on your existing stocks. It uses ATP rules to decide whether the customer demands can be confirmed against the available stocks.
It is a tool by which you try to maximize your servicing capacity to the customer by using different methods of GATP.
e.g. You define if a customer ask for product A if A is not available you can give him B or C or D or ALL (Functionality product substitution), if these products are not available in asked location, system will look
for other locations (Functionality product substitution).
If nothing is available, system trigger production (using Available To Promise).
In short how it helps is, by reducing customer demand loss by increasing the serviceability.
ATP Versus GATP
ATP functionality is already there in R/3 but with limitations :-
ATP-Availability check in ERP is limited to single location.
Product Substitution is manual and it is limited to single material substitution.
Production cannot be called from ATP check for a MTS product.
No simulation.
Global ATP checks the entire network (other plants), product / material substitutions defined in the condition and also production from alternative location based on the advanced functionality called Rule based ATP.
Alternative Product
Alternative Location
Production (Alternation PPM)
You can also call production while creating a sales order and if the sales order is not fully confirmed or call production directly, based on the available capacity, a planned order can be created and the delivery
proposal can get the confirmation date.
* Product Check
A basic product availability check generates positive results if the so-called ATP quantity for a product is available on the requested delivery date. If it is not available, a new delayed delivery date is proposed.
The ATP quantity referenced during the product availability check is based on categories defined in Scope of Check.
* Product Allocation Check (PAL)
The second basic method is product allocation (PAL). Using information in the DP module, PAL lets you know your availability to promise when sales orders compete for quantities in a constrained supply chain. New
products, production downtimes, and other factors lead to fluctuating demands, which can affect product supply. For these situations, PAL provides a tool to ensure a better distribution of the total amount when a
company cannot deliver the full available quantity to a customer.
* Check against Forecast
The last method on the list is a check against forecast. It provides a check method that is especially important in make-to-order environments, where inventory is not available to confirm the quantity ordered by the
customers. In this case, the quantity confirmation is performed against the forecast. Like PAL, this functionality is integrated with the DP module.
* Rules-Based ATP
An ordinary ATP check is restricted to the requested locationproduct and checks only the according timeseries. Using rules-based ATP it is possible to substitute both the location and the product. In branched supply
chain networks, rules-based ATP allows companies to take full advantage of multiple shipping assets to ship goods from alternative sites to customers. In addition, it permits certain products to be substituted as
required to successfully satisfy customer demands. RBA is beneficial for Distributors, consumer product goods Industries.
* Capable-to-Promise(CTP)
CTP technology taps into SAP APO Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) functionality. CTP triggers an online ATP check when a sales order is created. If the supply cannot cover the new demand, the PP/DS
functionality is called on as a part of the ATP check.
Production can be directly triggered through a CTP Check if the inventory is not available to satisfy an incoming demand. Production is either triggered for the full requirement quantity or partial requirement
quantity depending on the available inventory. Production can be triggered for sales orders or stock transport orders. When production is triggered, the system creates a feasible production plan that respects any
material or capacity constraints. The key driver for triggering production as part of an ATP check is the configuration of the check instructions – production should be triggered directly or after an availability
check.
Product Master- PP/DS Tab – PP Plng Procedure determines the action in CTP. Example – Cover Dependent Requirements Immediately option is selected, a product heuristic for a specific product is called immediately when
a sales order is created or changed. In general, the PP planning procedure determines the actions to be executed after a planning event like – sales order creation, goods movement, planned order change, etc. You
cannot use CTP for backorder processing. The main reason for this is the poor performance of the procedure. CTP is beneficial for Steel manufacturers, paper, chemical Industries. Please refer SAP Note#426563 for
additional information.
* Multilevel ATP
The basic idea of the multi-level ATP is to confirm a customer request if the components for the product are available in time (i.e. taking the lead-time to produce the finished product into account). Basically,
multilevel ATP explodes a bill of material (BOM) for the assembled product, then checks the availability of each item at the component level. A multilevel ATP check determines the availability of each component
required by the finished good.
CTP Vs ML-ATP
A big difference between this check and CTP is data is stored in the ATP tree. It’s a new object that prevents the creation of the receipt elements generated by CTP.
It is especially helpful for business scenarios that require products to be configured for individual customers (assemble-to-order scenarios). If component availability is the critical factor for your planning,
multilevel ATP is the best option. Because CTP focuses on detailed scheduling strategies, it is the best choice when bottlenecks are the critical factor. SAP note 480292, Multilevel ATP documentation also provides
helpful information about the functionality.
In a make-to-order environment there are no receipts per definition. The idea of an ATP check is therefore not to check whether there are receipts for the requested product but whether there is enough available
capacity to produce the product and/or whether the required components are available. This can also be done using third option – ATP check against allocations, where the allocations represent an aggregated capacity.
* Transportation and Shipment scheduling
The transportation and shipment scheduling is an integral part of the availability check in APO, and calculates the time difference between the requested delivery date at the customer site and the required material
availability date at the factory. In between the requested delivery date and the material availability date the goods issue date, the loading date and the transportation planning date are scheduled. The scheduling
starts from the requested delivery date and time. The requested delivery date is meant as the date when the material has to arrive at the customer site. This is the date which is entered in the sales order.
* Backorder Processing
The basic idea of backorder processing is to carry out a new ATP check for a set of order items. This way backorder processing can also be used to distribute quantities in case of shortage (resp. lateness) according
to priorities. Backorder processing is usually performed in the background, but interactive backorder processing is also possible. Basically, BOP consists of three steps: Filter the treated elements, sort those sales
documents, and schedule them.
* Event-driven quantity assignment (EDQA)
EDQA automatically starts backorder processing. EDQA is a feature within BOP that allows the system to react immediately, based on the business events that are affecting the stock availability situation. Instead of
waiting for the next BOP batch run, EDQA resolves the ATP check inconsistencies with a list of defined activities. Some of the business events that can be modeled in EDQA are the goods receipt of inventory, changes
in purchasing or sales documents, changes in the sales order confirmation, Changing the stock data, or Changing the planned order.
Use
Increasingly, companies operating worldwide are forced to globalize available information in order to conduct business efficiently. Specifically, this means that information has to be made available across system
boundaries as quickly as possible to provide optimized decision support. Global ATP can be used in heterogeneous system landscapes to provide necessary information as quickly as possible. Global ATP is one of the
central methods of SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO) that utilizes SAP liveCache. The data is stored in the SAP liveCache in the form of ATP time series.
Global ATP contains the functions for the ATP check in SAP APO. Scheduling, which is performed in SAP APO, is also a part of this. The ATP check also known as the availability check represents an online search that
should ensure that your company can provide the requested product at the requested time in the quantity requested by the customer. The ATP check can determine, using the so-called check methods, if a requirement can
be confirmed.
The check methods, which are also known to the ERP system, have been extended in SAP APO by the following new methods, such as:
Combining Check Methods
Capable-to-Promise (CTP)
Multilevel ATP Check
Rules-Based ATP Check
Correlation Calculation
In Capable-to-Promise (CTP) and the multilevel ATP check, Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) is called to cover the requirement, while in the rules-based ATP check, substitutions can be checked to
confirm the requirement. The correlation calculation corresponds to an enhanced function of Delivery Group Correlation in the ERP system.
You can use backorder processing to reset the confirmations from an ATP check and to reallocate them.
The Explanation and Simulation of the Availability Check allows you to display the check results and simulate the ATP check. You can also simulate Transportation and Shipment Scheduling there.
Transport Management
This component is used to maintain shipments in the supply chain process, which includes sales order, purchase orders and deliveries. Transport Planning and Vehicle Scheduling(TP/VS) component supports different
processes such as inbound and outbound deliveries, etc. TP/VS is a part of Transportation Management and all sales orders, purchase orders, and deliveries from SAP R/3 are transferred to SAP APO using CIF.
* Master Data for Transport Planning/Vehicle Scheduling
Following master data is maintained in TP/VS component −
TP/VS Resources
Transport Lanes
Schedules
Cost Profiles
Transshipment Hierarchies
The master data you created in SAP APO is directly assigned to an active model manually. You can assign resources, schedulers, and hierarchies to an active model.
* Order Split Function in TP/VS
This function is used to split the orders and outbound deliveries either automatically or manually. This function can be used when you have sales order and it requires multiple deliveries due to the size of the
orders. Also, when you load the order due to insufficient loading space, you may need to split the order in multiple deliveries.
To perform order splitting, it is required to define the split rules. You can define the split rules by navigating to SAP Easy Access → Advanced Planning and Optimization → Transport Planning/Vehicle Scheduling →
Environment → Current Settings → Transportation Optimization → Define Split Rules.
An order can be split based on the split quantity or in accordance with the vehicle capacity. When the quantity raised in an order exceeds the split quantity or the capacity of the vehicle, the order is split.
Split function can be used for the following order types and deliveries −
Purchase Order
Sales Order
VMI Sales Order
Stock Transport Order
Sales Order
Order split can be performed either automatically or manually. When you call interactive planning, automatic splitting of order takes place based on the split rules defined. To perform manual order splitting, you can
navigate to SAP Easy Access → Advanced Planning and Optimization → Transport Planning and Vehicle Scheduling → Planning → Create Freight Unit
* Interactive Planning in Transport Management
Using interactive planning in APO, you can assign sales orders, purchase orders, and order types to vehicle resources under Transport management. You can then process it further. Orders are created in SAP R/3 system
and transferred to APO using CIF.
Purpose
You use this process to plan, optimize, and execute the complete transportation process between companies in a detailed manner. You execute transportation planning in SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO)
using the component Transportation Planning/Vehicle Scheduling (TP/VS) . The orders (sales orders, purchase orders, returns, or stock transport orders) and deliveries that you have created in SAP R/3 and transferred
to SAP APO using SAP APO Core Interface (CIF) form the basis for planning. The result of TP/VS planning are planned shipments that you transfer to SAP R/3 after planning is complete. There you use the SAP R/3
component Logistics Execution (LE) for transportation execution.
6. Supply Chain Collaboration/Inventory Collation Hub
WHY LEARN SAP APO?
Over the past few years, SAP has extended its planning footprint beyond SAP APO with the introduction of SAP Sales and Operations Planning, SAP Demand Signal Management, and SAP Enterprise Inventory and Service-Level
Optimization. Based on the business drivers discussed at the beginning of this article, SAP envisions a state-of-the-art demand network that puts the customer at the centres of all processes and connects all the
business partners required to fulfil the demand with the speed customers are expecting, while meeting all efficiency and profitability goals. With this new approach, SAP decided to simplify the overall planning
platform with speed, customer-centricity, and responsiveness in mind. The SAP approach leverages SAP HANA technology and enables a common data model, allowing for real-time data across supply chain planning solutions
Moving from an on- premise technology to a purpose-built, cloud-based technology gives customers multiple deployment options moving forward.
The new solutions enable companies to transform their supply chains into demand networks by:
Simplifying and coordinating the planning experience for users across functions through a new user interface with embedded collaboration technology and the option for planners to work within Microsoft Excel
Reacting more quickly to changes in demand to capture more sales by leveraging SAP HANA to provide demand networks with real-time monitoring and a focus on short-term planning
Enabling more frequent planning cycles by avoiding any latency due to data transfer between different planning systems
Ensuring plans are executed in operational systems by incorporating predictive analytics (for example, demand sensing) algorithms in combination with optimization (for example, multi-echelon inventory
optimization) to translate plans into operational systems
Reducing complexity and time to achieve business value through deployment in SAP Cloud
BENIFIT
Increase in revenue
Improve profit margins
Reduce purchasing costs
Reduce production and logistics costs
Improved inventory management
Improved Management
With TECH ERP SOLUTION Online SAP training course, you will get in-depth knowledge of modules, ensuring you will get hands-on training which is essential in order to work in industry.
Demand Planning
CAREER IN SAP APO?
If you work in a company that plans to implement SAP ERP soon and you are part of the implementation team, you will gain enormous value addition to your career when you’ll leverage your business process knowledge to
ensure the same is mapped in SAP ERP. However, when the SAP ERP implementation is complete, the SAP ERP system has matured and users are able to routinely perform their business functions in SAP ERP, you’ll have
little to contribute except occasional troubleshooting or implementing new functionality. If the company is large enough and have its in-house SAP ERP helpdesk or Competency Center, you’ll be part of the
troubleshooting team, at best.
If you work as SAP ERP consultant and in a consulting firm, you’ll have endless opportunities to travel, meet new clients, implement SAP ERP projects for various industries and learn new features and functionality of
SAP ERP with its every new release. With each new project or implementation, you career graph will exponentially rise and so will be your compensation. However, a career in SAP ERP consulting has its own limitations,
such as you’ll never know how you’ll remain on bench if there is no new project, or when you have to look after more than one projects at a time. Further, as an SAP ERP consultant, it is often unpredictable as to
where your next project will be. For example, you are currently deployed to a project in Karachi, but maybe your next project will be in Peshawar, Rahim Yar Khan or even in Dubai, or Riyadh (International
deployment). This may affect your career planning, for example, if you want to continue further studies or have family commitments that prevent you from being away from home for too long. Obviously, you’ll not be
able to move your family with every new project at different locations, as such projects are of normally 6-8 months.
SAP APO is very demanded in world for different specilation .We have the best placement faculty working round the clock to ensure trainees get placed at top companies while having training programs. sap all courses's
placement team has a wide network of top companies, and we have placed thousands of students in the market over the years. With hands-on training and practical knowledge, our vision is providing the best workforce to
IT companies. Engaged in offering placement for years, we are the most successful and fast growing company in the number of placement. Exclusive placement assistance where our placement team share trainees' technical
skills, work experience, and directly collaborate with partners, helping our students to land a dream job.
SAP APO OVERVIEW
SAP APO stands for Advanced Planner and Optimizer. SAP APO is a supply chain planning tool; that helps organizations manage their supply chain. SAP APO had primarily four modules DP (Demand Planning), SNP (Supply
Network Planning),PPDS (Production Planning and Detail Scheduling), GATP (Global Available to Promise). Learning SAP APO ideally needs some domain background but not mandatory. In-case one is planning to learn SAP
APO but is new to supply chain and SAP its suggested to spend time to learning basic supply chain concepts. As a tool SAP APO is very interesting and fun to learn compared to other modules offer by SAP.
With TECH ERP SOLUTION Online SAP training course, you will get in-depth knowledge of modules, ensuring you will get hands-on training which is essential in order to work in industry.
Course Modules
Saumya Agrawal
I am Saumya Agrawal, placed in Global Intelly soft. as a SAP APO Consultant; TECH ERP SOLUTION SAP Internship really helped me in cracking the interview because I came to know about the understanding and logic behind the business process during my SAP Program. My mentor has taught me very well because of his teaching I was able to crack the Interview. I am really thankful to him. I have got good hands on practice & exposure training, Certification & Internship. All Concepts covered in tech erp solution training Program Infrastructure & Environment is very good we get knowledge & understanding of other functional modules to develop our SAP skills. I am very thankful to TECH ERP SOLUTION for guiding me during the Internship program. I wish that everyone who is interested to make a career in SAP should definitely join TECH ERP SOLUTION INSTITUTE.