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 the APO system.
Let us now discuss the integration of PP/DS with SAP APO applications.
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 the 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 Planning.
Supply Network Planning (SNP) ensures that product quantities are available at the right time, a 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.
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 the 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.
You can monitor alerts raised in PP/DS planning using the Alert monitor. You need to define an alert profile relevant for your planning. Different alert types are created in PP/DS.