Production Planning

This document is a detailed guide that provides a basic understanding of the Production Planning for Process Industries (PP-PI) in SAP, primarily designed for batch-oriented process manufacturing in industries such as chemical, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, and batch-oriented electronics.

The document explains the concept of PP-PI, which supports integrated planning of production, waste disposal, and transport activities within a plant. It also facilitates the integration of plants within the company, both vertically through an information flow and horizontally through the coordination of planning between production plants, recycling and waste disposal facilities, and production laboratories.

The guide then delves into a full-cycle scenario of SAP PP-PI, providing practical examples of creating material masters, bills of material, resources, master recipes, production versions, material allocation, standard costing, planned independent requirements, and running MRP. It also explains the process of updating stocks of raw materials, converting planned orders to process orders, checking material availability, releasing orders, issuing goods, confirming orders, receiving goods, calculating variances, doing settlements, and completing TECO.

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Starting with a one page description to the terms of SAP Configuration, SAP Implementation Methodology, and SAP Landscape, this document then provides the 8 steps of baseline configuration of SAP S/4HANA Production Planning (PP) module.

The configuration steps covered in this guide are as follows:

1. Factory Calendar: This involves creating company-specific dates such as alternate working Saturdays and holidays. The calendar ID can be used in the work center master data for calculating capacities.
2. Shift and Shift Sequences: This step involves defining the timings for each shift and the sequence of each shift. The grouping created here can be used in the Capacities tab in the work center.
3. Person Responsible: This refers to the person or group of people responsible for maintaining the master data in certain work centers. This key will now be available to select in the work center.
4. Capacity Planner Group: This is a person or group of people responsible for planning certain capacities. This key will now be available to select in the capacities tab in the work center.
5. Work Center Parameter: These are used in formulas for capacity planning, scheduling, costing, PRT management, and determining standard values using CAPP.
6. Work Center Formula: This involves creating new formulas based on parameters defined in the previous step. The formula is used for capacity planning, scheduling, costing, etc.
7. Standard Value Key: This key determines the meaning of the six standard values in the operation. It is used in formulas for the calculation of execution time, capacity requirements, and costs.
8. Control Key: This specifies how an operation or a sub-operation is processed in functions such as orders, costing, or capacity planning. The control key specifies how the business functions you want to carry out with an operation and how the SAP System processes an operation.

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In this document, the author compares the differences between SAP ECC and S/4HANA in terms of Materials Requirement Planning (MRP). Here’s a summary of the key points from the document:

1. MRP Run: S/4HANA uses MRP Live, which offers improved performance and shorter planning cycles. It also supports more detailed planning scopes and allows for more frequent planning runs, providing more up-to-date supply and demand information.
2. Demand Driven MRP (DDMRP): This feature is not available in ECC. DDMRP is a pull methodology to plan inventories and materials based on current demand, offering a new way of managing the supply chain.
3. Predictive Material & Resource Planning (pMRP): This feature is not available in ECC. pMRP in S/4HANA helps identify potential capacity issues and evaluate possible solutions based on a simplified requirements plan.
4. Production Version Selection: In ECC, there are multiple selection methods available. However, S/4HANA considers the production version with the latest “valid from date”, irrespective of the selection method and lot size.
5. Batch Management: The transaction codes for batch management have changed in S/4HANA.
6. Advanced Planning: In ECC, advanced planning requires a separate system and data transfer. In S/4HANA, advanced planning is part of the system, eliminating the need for a separate system and data transfer.
7. Production Scheduling Board: This feature is not available in ECC. In S/4HANA, the Production Scheduling Board allows for detailed planning of resource schedules and order dates and times.
8. Material Scrap and Operation Scrap: S/4HANA offers analytical apps that compare actual scrap figures with expected scrap, allowing for feedback loops for updating expected scrap percentages.
9. Planning File Table: The original planning files in ECC no longer exist in S/4HANA. They have been replaced by the new planning file PPH_DBVM.
10. FIORI Application Type: S/4HANA offers new FIORI applications for transactional tasks, analytical overviews for KPI analysis, and factsheets for viewing essential information about an object.

The document also provides detailed comparisons of various other features and functionalities, including DDMRP, pMRP, selection methods for production versions, production version status, mass processing, and more. It also highlights the new processes and changes in transaction codes in S/4HANA.

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