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Sunday, April 12, 2009

What is 'Production Planning'

Manufacturing is a complex process. Some companies make a few products, while most make a variety of products. Each uses a variety of processes, machinery, equipment, labor skills and material. All these must be organized efficiently for better profitability. Goods must be manufactured at right quality and quantity at right time and must be delivered at right place.

A good Production Planning System must answer four questions:

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What are we going to make?

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What does it take to make it?

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What do we have?

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What do we need?

Priority and Capacity of a firm must be balanced. Production Planning System must perform this task.

Normally Production Planning System has five major levels.

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Strategic Business Plan.

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Production Plan (Sales and Operation Plan: SOP).

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Master Production Schedule.

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Materials Requirement Plan (MRP).

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Purchasing and Production Activity Control.

Each level varies in purpose, time span and level of detail.

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The Strategic Business Plan is a statement of major goals and objectives the company expects to achieve over next two to ten years.

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The Production Plan gives quantities of each product group that must be produced each period.

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Master Production Schedule is the plan for individual end items. Production Plan limits the Master Production Schedule.

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Materials Requirement Plan is the plan of components required to make the end items planned in Master Production Schedule. Master Production Schedule drives Materials Requirement Plan.

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Purchasing and Production Activity Control is the implementation of the Production Plan.

It is necessary that the whole Production Planning System is integrated and changes at any level must affect immediately the other levels.

Normally the total number of components required in any firm run in thousands. Also demand changes daily in this ever-changing world. New sales orders come in, some get cancelled, there may be break downs at production floor, there may be late or early delivery from suppliers. It is difficult to keep track of all these changes manually. There is tendency to keep safety stock to take care of this.

An effective computerized Production Planning System can keep track of all the changes. There is no need to keep high safety stock. The money blocked in the excessive safety stock can be released. At the same time, opportunity costs due to stock-outs can be minimized.

SAP R/3 Production Planning (PP) module is one of the effective computerized production planning systems available.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

SAP R/3 'PP' Module

SAP R/3 has highly integrated Production Planning System. The PP module is divided into two Sub-modules, 'PP-PI' and 'Production General'.

PP-PI sub-module is designed for process industries like Oil and Gas.

Production Planning module of SAP takes care of Master data needed like Bill Of Materials, Routings and Work Centers and stores it in one separate component.

Various stages of planning system can be planned by using components like

- Sales and Operation Planning

- Long Term Planning

- Demand Management

- Materials Requirement Planning

SAP has distinguished various styles of production like Kanban, Repetitive Manufacturing and Production Order processing. It can take care of various planning strategies like 'Make-to-stock', 'make-to-order', 'planning without final assembly' etc.

SAP R/3 PP module can also plan Capacity. The capacity Planning sub-module is taking into account various capacities like pooled capacity etc.

Production Orders reporting has flexibility of confirming orders with or without backflush. The material can be staged to production site from the Warehouse after releasing order. Costing can be triggered automatically by integrating the module with Cost Accounting Module.

Integration with other modules like Material management, Financial Accounting, Cost Accounting, Human Resources & Development, Sales and Distribution etc adds on to reliability of the production planning system in SAP R/3. The system is a real time system. The changes in demand (cancelled or added sales order etc) and supply (high/low rejection, early/late supply from supplier, breakdown of facilities etc) are reflected in real time and the production controller can react fast to these changes.

SAP R/3 PP module is a very effective tool for production planning. As is gives many alternatives, it must be configured correctly to utilized optimum potential. The person configuring the system MUST have through understanding of the business needs as well as 'PP' and other modules of SAP R/3.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

SAP Production Planning – PDF Links


PP Production Orders

PP - Work Centers

Product Catalog and Online Store on the Internet

Product Cost Controlling Information System

Product Cost Planning

Production lot planning / individual project planning

Production Planning and Control (PP)

Production Planning and Control (PP)

Production Planning and Control (PP)

Production Planning & Control Workflow Scenarios

Production Planning - Process Industries (PP-PI)

Production Resources/Tools (PRT)

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

Product Safety (EHS-SAF)

Product Structure Browser

Capacity Evaluation (PP-CRP-ALY)

Capacity Leveling (PP-CRP-LVL)

Capacity Leveling in PP-SOP and LO-LIS-PLN

Capacity Planning in Customer Service and Plant Maintenance

Capacity Planning in Long-term Planning

Capacity Planning in MPS and MRP

Capacity Planning in Process Industries

Capacity Planning in Repetitive Manufacturing

Capacity Planning in Sales and Distribution

Capacity Planning in Shop Floor Control (PP-SFC)

Capacity Planning in the Project System

Material Requirements Planning

Capacity Planning in Shop Floor Control

PP Bills of Material Guide

PP - Capacity Planning

PP Component Short Description

PP PDC Interface

PP KANBAN

PP - PI-PCS Interface: Linking of Process Control

What is SOP?

Suitable for long/medium-term planning, with an aim to streamline a company's 'Sales and Operational Planning, SOP' is a forecasting tool enabling you to set up sales, production, and other supply chain targets based on existing, future, or historical data. SOP is most suitable for planning finished goods, and not for material component planning.

SOP plans are passed on to Demand Management (DEM) in the form of independent requirements, which in turn is fed into MPS (Master Production Scheduling) and MRP (Material Requirements Planning). The results of SOP can be passed on to profitability analysis, cost center accounting, and activity-based costing.

SOP contains two application components; namely, Standard SOP (PP-SOP) and Flexible Planning (LO-LIS-PLN). The Standard SOP comes pre-configured with the system. Flexible planning can be configured in a variety of ways.

SAP PP Overview

SAP R/3 has highly integrated Production Planning System. The PP module is divided into two Sub-modules, 'PP-PI' and 'Production General'.

PP-PI sub-module is designed for process industries like Oil and Gas.

Production Planning module of SAP takes care of Master data needed like Bill Of Materials, Routings and Work Centers and stores it in one separate component.

Various stages of planning system can be planned by using components like

- Sales and Operation Planning

- Long Term Planning

- Demand Management

- Materials Requirement Planning

SAP has distinguished various styles of production like Kanban, Repetitive Manufacturing and Production Order processing. It can take care of various planning strategies like 'Make-to-stock', 'make-to-order', 'planning without final assembly' etc.

SAP R/3 PP module can also plan Capacity. The capacity Planning sub-module is taking into account various capacities like pooled capacity etc.

Production Orders reporting has flexibility of confirming orders with or without backflush. The material can be staged to production site from the Warehouse after releasing order. Costing can be triggered automatically by integrating the module with Cost Accounting Module.

Integration with other modules like Material management, Financial Accounting, Cost Accounting, Human Resources & Development, Sales and Distribution etc adds on to reliability of the production planning system in SAP R/3. The system is a real time system. The changes in demand (cancelled or added sales order etc) and supply (high/low rejection, early/late supply from supplier, breakdown of facilities etc) are reflected in real time and the production controller can react fast to these changes.

SAP R/3 PP module is a very effective tool for production planning. As is gives many alternatives, it must be configured correctly to utilized optimum potential. The person configuring the system MUST have through understanding of the business needs as well as 'PP' and other modules of SAP R/3.

SAP Production Planning (PP) Tables

Work center
CRHH Work center hierarchy
CRHS Hierarchy structure
CRHD Work center header
CRTX Text for the Work Center or Production Resource/Tool
CRCO Assignment of Work Center to Cost Center
KAKO Capacity Header Segment
CRCA Work Center Capacity Allocation
TC24 Person responsible for the workcenter

Routings/operations

MAPL Allocation of task lists to materials
PLAS Task list - selection of operations/activities
PLFH Task list - production resources/tools
PLFL Task list - sequences
PLKO Task list - header
PLKZ Task list: main header
PLPH Phases / suboperations
PLPO Task list operation / activity
PLPR Log collector for tasklists
PLMZ Allocation of BOM - items to operations

Bill of material

STKO BOM - header
STPO BOM - item
STAS BOMs - Item Selection
STPN BOMs - follow-up control
STPU BOM - sub-item
STZU Permanent BOM data
PLMZ Allocation of BOM - items to operations
MAST Material to BOM link
KDST Sales order to BOM link

Production orders

AUFK Production order headers
AFIH Maintenance order header
AUFM Goods movement for prod. order
AFKO Order header data PP orders
AFPO Order item
RESB Order componenten
AFVC Order operations
AFVV Quantities/dates/values in the operation
AFVU User fields of the operation
AFFL Work order sequence
AFFH PRT assignment data for the work order(routing)
JSTO Status profile
JEST Object status
AFRU Order completion confirmations
PRT's voor production orders
AFFH PRT assignment data for the work order
CRVD_A Link of PRT to Document
DRAW Document Info Record
TDWA Document Types
TDWD Data Carrier/Network Nodes
TDWE Data
Carrier Type

Planned orders

PLAF Planned orders

KANBAN

PKPS Kanban identification, control cycle
PKHD Kanban control cycle (header data)
PKER Error log for Kanban containers

Reservations

RESB Material reservations
RKPF header

Capacity planning

KBKO Header record for capacity requirements
KBED Capacity requirements records
KBEZ Add. data for table KBED (for indiv. capacities/splits)

Planned independent requirements

PBIM Independent requirements for material
PBED Independent requirement data
PBHI Independent requirement history
PBIV Independent requirement index
PBIC Independent requirement index for customer req.

Interview Quetions in SAP PP

1. Which is the highest organisational level in SAP
a) Plant b) Client c) Storage Location
Ans: b
2. For Material Master record PP Data which is the highest organisational level
a) Plant b) Client c) Storage Location
Ans: a
3. What is the difference between F1 Help & F4 Help.
a) F1 is for possible values and F4 is for application help b) F1 is for Application Help and F4 is for Technical Help c) F1 is for Field Help and F4 is for possible entries. d) None of the above
Ans: c
4. Variant Configuration is typically used in
a) Make – to – stock Environment b) Make – to – Order Environment c) Spare parts Sale d) Repetitive Manufacturing Environment
Ans: a
5. Configurable Material check for a material is set in _____________
a) Basic Data b) MRP View c) Sales View d) Classification
Ans:
6. Basic Data screen contains general data such as
a) Material Number b) Material description c) Base unit of measure d) Technical data
Ans: a, b, c
7. Functions of Classification are
a) To find an appropriate object b) To find similar objects c) To establish that no appropriate object exists.
Ans:
8. Entering “/o” in command field
a) Ends current transaction b) Ends the current cession c) Opens new cession d) Opens new transaction
Ans:
9. For creating Material Master the following Transaction Code is used :
a) md01 b) mm01 c) me01 d) mc01
Ans: b
10. The unit in which the stock keeping is done in a company is called
a) Stock unit of measure b) Base unit of measure c) Unit of issue d) Purchase unit of measure
Ans: b
11. Batch is
a) Same as material code b) Partial quantity of material managed separately from other quantity of same material in stock c) A non reproducible homogeneous unit with unique specifications d) None of above e) All of above
Ans: b
12. A _____________________________ is a complete, formally structured list of the components that make up a product or assembly.
Ans:
13. Component in the BOM are allocated to operation in
a) BOM b) Material Master c) Routing d) Work Center
Ans: c
14. BOM contains the following
a) List of Components b) Qty of Components c) Operation to which components is attached. d) Unit of Measure of components
Ans: a, b, d
15. BOMs are always created as
a) Single Level b) Multi Level c) Components d) Along with routings
Ans: a


What are the cutover activities followed for PP module?
I am listing some cut over activities to be followed (for PP - Discrete Manufacturing). Production Planning / Master data: For Production planning, only master data shall be migrated to SAP. In the 1st Stage, there is no master data. Following is the master data elements relevant for PP: - Bill of materials - Routing. - Work Centres. Transaction data: As of the cut off date, ideally there should not be any work in process. All the open production orders should be closed and semi finished goods should be dismantled and should be added to Raw materials. This strategy should be followed for all production orders where lead time to complete the production order is not large. Since, the production orders are for longer duration and it is not possible to dismantle the product and add it to inventory, following can be the strategy for migrating the data to SAP: - Create a material master for the work in process and set the standard price as the cost incurred for that product (ie. Work in process) - Create a bill of material (which will be used only for this production order) including this material and other materials still to be consumed. - Create Routing for rest of the production process. - Bring the work in process material into inventory as of the cut off date. - Create the production orders in SAP for the Work in process and issue materials to production order. Complete the production process after the cut off date of the project.

What happens to planned after it has been converted into production order?
When you convert Planned order to Production order. the planned order are offset by production order. Reference of planned order can be seen in the production order.

How to attach a drawing for a material to BOM? Is it possible?
Yes, you can attach a drawing. First create a document using Transaction Code "CV01N - Create Document". Attach your drawing in that document. The system will generate a document number. Assign this document in the BOM with item category D.
Report in Long Term Planning - You use long term planning for your customers, what they need are very simple, just to calculate future requirements for 1 or 2 years. Are there any reports in SAP to list of material requirement from LTP? You need a list of material requirement from long term planning result for each item.
Use MS70 then use MCEC.
Scheduling planned order -

How can you get planned orders scheduled so that you can do capacity leveling?

MD11 and then Schedule works fine but ideally you would want the the planned order scheduled automatically on creation? You have tried setting up an action to schedule the orders but cannot get that to work either.
When running MRP, try selecting "2" in the scheduling box this will bring planned orders into CM01 and CM21
Capacity planning CM01 - When you run capacity planning T-code: CM01, you found the plan orders are not included in the pegged requirement, you checked the profile, the check box for order and plan order are all actived.
Guess that planned orders have been created without capacity requirement indicator in MRP ("2" - Lead Time scheduling), if this is the case, then when converted to process orders they will have impact on the Resource. If you want to see them as planned orders, re-run the MRP or change in every planned order, going to the Menu: Edit --> Scheduling
Another couple of possibilities are to do with the routing/work centres used and whether it isactually calculates consumption of capacity of the category at the work centre being displayed in CM01 (it might consume a capacity pool or it might not consume the category).
MPS in Backgound/Online - You want to run MPS for a plant either online or in the background, but you do not get any results. If you run MPS for a single material/plant, then everything is 100% OK.
You need to run a planning file and a consistency check first, transaction OMDO and MDRE respectively you'll need to set up two jobs to do it but it is straight forward, once you've done this set up the background job for MPS to run and do it in NEUPL first time round and then change to NETCH after that.

What is the output of MPS run?
From MPS run you plan the materials which are of 'A' type in the abc analysis (80% dollar value) that have to be planned before hand. MPS is also a type of MRP only in which components just below the materials on which MPS run is taken place, are planned.
Table for production order status - What is the table for finding status (for Ex TECO ed prodn orders). We are not able to find from AFKO and AFRU tables the status of production orders or at least the link tables if known can be mentionned. You are unable to link the structure caufvd and IOHEADER WITH AFKO and AFRU.
JEST is the table.
Data dictonary table for SOP planning data - You are using Standard SOP (Info structure S076), in which table can you see the planning values that you maintained in MC93 transaction? You looked under table "S076" and did not see any values there.
Use T.Code MC95 to display your entries under the version which maintained the the table S076.
Production order operation's component allocation - How does SAP know that an operation has components as indicated by the component allocation indicator? Tcode CO08.
Component allocation is done via routing maintenance or BOM maintenance for the assembly. This is master data maintenance. As soon as a PO is created, the master data is read into the PO.
How to delete groups of products? How to delete a group of products that was created in screen MC84?
Delete the members in the product group and then archive the product group in transaction SARA, object=MM_MATNR. (The product group is created as a material master record with material type PROD and this record is deleted in SARA.)

What is the T-Code for trigger point?
CO30 MENUCO30 Standard trigger points CO31 SAPMCNSM Create standard trigger point CO32 SAPMCNSM Change standard trigger point CO33 SAPMCNSM Display standard trigger point
What the tcodes to archieve/delete a material BOM?
Look at this option to delete a material BOM There are two ways of deleting BOMs: - Using the Delete function. - Using the Deletion indicator.
If you select the deletion indicator, the BOM is archived in the next reorganization run, and can be deleted if required. In the BOM header, you set the indicator that controls physical deletion after the archiving run. You can still process the BOM within its validity period.This also applies if the deletion indicator is entered with reference to a change number with a valid-from date that is after the date of the next reorganization run
You can use the below mentioned tcodes:

CS25/CS28 Archiving for BOMs

CS26 BOM deletion

CS27 Retrieval of BOMs

Where shall we maintain number range for planned orders?
To maintain number range for planned order. Go to: MM-->CBP-->NUMBER RANGE-->DEFINE NUMBER RANGE FOR PLANNING RUN. Don't allow External Number Assignment.
What is t.code for planning calendar and factory calendar?
Planning Calendar--MD25 Factory Calender--SCAL

Menu Path

SPRO-->Materials Management-->Master Data-->Maintain Planning SPRO-->Calendar--md25
SPRO-->General Settings-->Currencies-->Expiring Currencies-->Maintain SPRO-->Calendar-->SCAL

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