Search Results for: sap-apo

  • How to Understand Customer Versus Order Prioritization and in SAP CTM

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … pegging relationships connecting supply and demand elements, it is transparent to the planner which planned production or transportation order was created for which demand element. In certain situations it may be desirable to sell a higher grade product for fulfilling a demand for a lower grade product.” – Real Optimization with SAP APO
    The fact that CTM was designed for one industry was particular requirements in mind is left out of SAP documentation, consistent with SAP’s interest in selling their functionality to as wide a customer base as possible. However, there is a lot more to CTM and a lot …

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    How to Use the CTM Global Settings

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … prioritization. SAP APO does not attempt to fulfill the late demand until the end of demand prioritization. The advantage of using this strategy is that late demand fulfillment does not delay the fulfillment of subsequent demands. If all demand elements have moved to the end of demand prioritization, SAP APO switches automatically to the domino strategy.” – SAP Help
    Restrict Early Demand Fulfillment (and associated fields): Period before demand date (in days), in which Capable-to-Match Planning (CTM) can create planned orders to cover a requirement.
    Allow Shortage: Indicates whether the system is allowed only partially to fulfill a …

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    How to Understand Requirements Strategies in SAP ERP and APO

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … Requirements strategies are of primary importance to SNP and PP/DS and the corresponding linkages in ERP and have a light connection to GATP. The graphic below shows the major control areas for requirement strategies.

    The requirements strategy is defined by SAP as:
    “Determines how production quantities are planned in SAP APO and how the forecast is consumed by other orders. The purpose of consumption is to ensure that requirements are not duplicated in the system and that the most detailed requirements are used. Forecasts and sales orders are for instance both requirements. Since a forecast is less specific than …

  • How to Understand SNP Category Groups and Changing the Sales Order Key Figure

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … that any category can be added to any key figure. In many instances, I have observed that the client has not discovered what category groups are in each key figure, and SAP could do a better job of highlighting this functionality.
    Getting to the Planning Area To bring this process, we need to get to the Planning Area. First, we will go to the transaction /N/SAPAPO/MSDP_ADMIN, and this will brings us to the main administration screen for Planning Areas.
    To get where we need to go, we will select the Planning Area and the Key Figure …

  • How to Best Set Up the SAP SNP Optimizer

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … The optimization mathematics (provided by SAP and which are proprietary but based on public research and not much different from other supply planning cost optimizers)
    The optimization master data (the costs and the optimizer profiles, etc.)

    This quote provides some more detail about the CPLEX engine.
    “The SNP optimizer in SAP APO is based on linear and mixed integer linear programming (LP and MILP) using ILOGs CPLEX, the optimization engine. LP problems can be solved with the primal simplex, and the dual simplex or interior point methods. The decision about the sources for the products in question depend upon the …

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    The Problem with Characteristics and CVCs in SAP DP and SAP BW

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … science has arrived at to accomplish this task is the data cube and the star schema overlays onto a relational structure.
    We go into detail on these topics in this article.
    However, there are tremendous differences between how forecasting and analytic applications expose the complexity of this functionality. I am a big fan of Demand Works Smoothie because very little specialized knowledge must get characteristic/hierarchal/attribute to work.
    Characteristics in SAP APO
    It is important to recognize that DP and SNP use different characteristics, and thus different planning areas and planning object structures are created for DP and SNP.

  • How Good are the SAP Solutions for 3PL and 4PL?

    ByPrimary Researcher

    Executive Summary

    SAP’s 3 PL and 4 PL solutions in the SAP APO suite are extremely problematic.
    There are important trade-offs and costs and complexity with SAP APO.

    Introduction into the Solutions for 3 PL and 4 PL
    One question the sometimes comes up is whether SAP offers an efficient solution for 4 PL logistics companies. SAP has tried to target the transportation and warehousing space and therefore 4 PL providers. So how appropriate is APO for 4 PL logistics companies? In this article, written by a long-term SAP APO consultant, we explain what the fit actually …

  • Introduction to SAP CTM aka Capable to Match and the CTP Profile

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … production capacities transportation capabilities between locations, safety stock levels based on absolute quantities or target days of supply, and deals with time-dependent process parameters in order to respect yield learning curves essential in semiconductor manufacturing. Transportation capability restrictions are not included in CTM planning as this is not even seen as an important constraint in semiconductor planning.” –  Real Optimization with SAP APO
    As the end of this quote indicates, this brings up where CTM was first developed.
    Where Was SAP CTM First Developed?
    According to Kallrath and Maindl, CTM was explicitly developed for the semiconductor industry.
    “During the …

  • How to Best Understand Pegging and Net Requirements in SAP

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … allowing the planner to much more quickly moves through their activities.
    The Pegging Report
    The pegging report is shown conceptually on the following page:

    Peggings exist in ERP systems as well, as the screenshot above demonstrates. The peggings can be arrived at by selecting a line item and then selecting the pegging button at the bottom of the Stock Requirements List. Peggings that are created inside of SAP APO are not shown in the Stock Requirements List in SAP ERP and vice versa. The pegging view in ERP is designed to show peggings that are created by a procedure (such

  • How to Understand Source of Supply in APO

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … any lie for personal benefit. Furthermore, SAP pays off all IT analysts — who have the same concern for accuracy as SAP. Not one of these entities will disclose their pro-SAP financial bias to their readers. 

    Where Source of Supply Applies
    Source of supply applies to the following modules in SAP APO:

    SNP
    CTM
    PPDS

    APO defines different sources of supply which can be selected automatically or in interactive planning. Inherent to his process is a method of prioritizing the different sources. A quotation is a method of setting a static source of supply.
    Quota arrangements are often based upon …