Advanced Planning and Optimization(APO) module is one of the key components under the SAP Supply Chain Management(SCM). It provides a different business process related to Demand Planning, Supply Network Planning(SNP), 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 parts 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 know 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 with receiving an order, monitoring the stock, and shipping of the product. You can constantly perform the optimization and evaluation of the 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 applications functions:-
SAP APO is installed as part of SAP Supply Chain Management server installation or it is also available as an add-on tool to SAP ERP Package