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Manage Supply Network Planning & CTM in
SAP APO (3.x) and mySAP SCM (4.x / 5.0) Best Practice for
Solution Management
Version Date: November 2005 This version is valid for SAP APO
3.0A, 3.1 and mySAP SCM 4.0, 4.1 and 5.0
The newest version of this Best Practice can always be obtained
through the SAP Solution Manager
Contents Applicability, Goals, and
Requirements....................................................................................................2
Preliminary Information
......................................................................................................................3
Procedure...........................................................................................................................................9
Business Process Step 1: Initialize Planning Version
................................................................10
Business Process Step 2: Load
Data.........................................................................................11
Business Process Step 3: Safety Stock Planning
......................................................................12
Business Process Step 4: SNP Heuristic Run
...........................................................................13
Business Process Step 4a: CTM Planning
Run.........................................................................15
Business Process Step 5: SNP Optimizer
Run..........................................................................20
Business Process Step 6: Capacity
Leveling.............................................................................22
Business Process Step 7: SNP Interactive Planning
.................................................................23
Business Process Step 8: Execute Batch Macros
.....................................................................25
Business Process Step 9: Exchange Requirements with Supplier
............................................27 Business Process
Step 10: Load Data into
BW.........................................................................28
Business Process Step 11: Create/Update Planned Orders, Transfer
Orders, and Purchase
Requisitions................................................................................................................................29
Business Process Step 12: Release SNP to
DP........................................................................30
Business Process Step 14: Deployment Heuristic
.....................................................................32
Business Process Step 15: Deployment
Optimizer....................................................................32
Business Process Step 16: Transport Load Builder
(TLB).........................................................33
Business Process Step 17: Delete Transaction
Data.................................................................33
Further Information
.................................................................................................................................35
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Best Practice: Manage Supply Network Planning & CTM in SAP
APO (3.x) / mySAP SCM (4.x / 5.0)
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Applicability, Goals, and Requirements To ensure that this Best
Practice is the one you need, consider the following goals and
requirements.
Goal of Using this Service This Best Practice enables you to set
up a business-process management and monitoring concept for the
business process "Supply Network Planning" which is part of the
mySAP Supply Chain Management (SCM) solution using the SAP Advanced
Planning and Optimizing (APO). This business-process management and
monitoring concept aims to:
Define procedures for business-process oriented monitoring,
error handling, and escalation management for Supply Network
Planning
Define the roles and responsibilities for all persons involved
in the customers support and monitoring organization with respect
to Supply Network Planning
These procedures ensure the smooth and reliable flow of the core
business process in order to meet your business requirements.
Alternative Practices You can get SAP experts to deliver this
Best Practice on-site if you order a Solution Management
Optimization (SMO) service, known as the SAP Business Process
Management service.
Staff and Skills Requirements To implement this Best Practice,
you require the following teams:
Application Management Team The SCM / APO business process
management concept (which this Best Practice aims to produce)
should be created by the Application Management Team. This team
combines experts from your company:
Business department Solution support organization (for example,
the IT department and the Help Desk) Implementation project
team
Execution Teams
The execution teams are the following groups, which taken
together form the customers Solution Support Organization:
The Business Process Champion for each business process
Application Support Development Support Program Scheduling
Management Software Monitoring Team System Monitoring Team
More information about roles and responsibilities of these teams
can be found in the superordinate Best Practice General Business
Process Management, which you can obtain through the SAP Solution
Manager.
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Best Practice: Manage Supply Network Planning & CTM in SAP
APO (3.x) / mySAP SCM (4.x / 5.0)
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Duration and Timing Duration
Creating a business-process management concept may take around
one week per business process. Implementing the business-process
management concept may take around one additional week.
Timing
The best time to apply this Best Practice is during the planning
phase or during the implementation phase of your mySAP
solution.
How to Use this Best Practice Firstly read the whole document to
get an overview of its structure, contents, and details. Determine
the APO SNP core business process to be monitored. If you use the
APO Core Interface (CIF) within this process, you should also see
the respective Manage APO Core Interface in mySAP SCM Best
Practice. Record all the relevant steps in your core business
process; use the example business process as a template. Exclude
template process steps that you do not perform. For every process
step, take the monitoring elements from the tables and insert them
into your own template. Complete the information according to your
specific requirements, for example, frequency and time of
monitoring activity. If the process step includes CIF data
transfer, add the information from the CIF document, section
Operation and Monitoring of the APO CIF. Do not forget to include
the respective information for interfaces other than CIF and for
business process steps performed with your own (Y-, Z-) programs.
Determine the related monitoring activities, tools, and responsible
teams and fill in the table accordingly. For activities that are
not directly related to a business process step, like those
mentioned in section System Administration Related to the APO CIF
in the CIF best practice, create a separate table. Proceed in the
same way with all your other core business processes and other
activities you want to monitor.
Preliminary Information
The SCM System Landscape The substantial components of an SAP
SCM system landscape are summarized in the following table and
shown schematically in the subsequent illustration.
SAP APO System The SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization system
facilitates the strategic, tactical, and operational planning
processes.
APO consists of several software components: a relational
database system (RDBMS) just as there is in any R/3 system, known
as the APO DB; an SAP Web Application Server (or for releases up to
APO 3.1 an R/3 Basis); the APO application programs; a separate,
very fast object-oriented SAP DB database called liveCache;
application programs running in liveCache the COM routines; and a
number of programs that execute elaborated optimization algorithms,
called the optimization engines. These components can run on the
same or on different servers.
OLTP System The Online Transaction Processing system covers
functionality for sales and distribution, material and inventory
management, controlling, shop floor control, logistic execution,
and so on.
OLAP System An Online Analysis Processing system, such as SAP
Business Information Warehouse (BW), provides cumulated historical
data as a basis for future extrapolation purposes in APO Demand
Planning.
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Best Practice: Manage Supply Network Planning & CTM in SAP
APO (3.x) / mySAP SCM (4.x / 5.0)
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SAP R/3 Plug-In
OLTP System
RDBMS
SAP R/3 Plug-In
OLTP System
RDBMS
RDBMS
SAP APO System
liveCache
liveCache
OLAP System
RDBMS
The various strategies for using SAP APO, SAP R/3, SAP Business
Information Warehouse (BW), and possibly other data processing
systems in combination are called integration scenarios.
Data for planned independent demand can enter the Supply Network
Planning (SNP) module either through the Demand Planning (DP)
module, or from external systems. Since SNP can have some or all of
its Key Figures in the time series liveCache, data can enter it in
the same manner as they enter Demand Planning. Usually, an APO
system is connected to one or several systems that provide
historical and actual data, for example, sales figures, for your
Supply Network Planning business process. These systems can be SAP
R/3, SAP BW, and / or third party and legacy systems or a
combination of these. As APO comprises a complete SAP BW, the tools
for extracting data from other systems and transferring them to APO
for demand planning purposes are the same as those used by SAP BW.
The APO BW reads the data using remote function call (RFC)
techniques, IDocs, or OS file access. In addition, data such as
sales orders, stock, production orders or purchase orders can be
sent from R/3 to SNP as order objects through the Core Interface
Function (CIF), which is described in the corresponding Best
Practice Manage APO Core Interface in mySAP SCM.
On the other hand, the planning results of the supply network
planning process are fed into other applications for further
planning or execution purposes. The system types that can be used
here are APO itself - in particular its modules DP and / or PP/DS
-, SAP R/3, or again third party, or legacy, systems. The latter is
not considered in this Best Practice document.
This Best Practice is therefore based on a general and common
integration scenario for setting up a mySAP Supply Chain Management
solution using SAP APO. As data sources, SAP BW, SAP R/3, and flat
files can be connected to the SAP APO system.
SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (APO) is the planning
component of mySAP SCM, the Supply Chain Management solution
provided by SAP. SAP APO is used to make strategic, tactical, and
operational decisions and supports you in performing the following
planning activities:
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Best Practice: Manage Supply Network Planning & CTM in SAP
APO (3.x) / mySAP SCM (4.x / 5.0)
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Demand Planning (DP) Supply Network Planning (SNP) Production
Planning (PP) Detailed Scheduling (DS) Deployment Transport Load
Builder (TLB) Transport Planning and Vehicle Scheduling (TP/VS)
Global Available-to-Promise (gATP)
SAP APO is most of all a planning tool, although some industry
specific execution functions are available, for example, production
backflush for repetitive manufacturing. In standard business
scenarios, execution functions, such as confirmations, goods
receipt, purchasing, and so on are performed in the SAP R/3 OLTP
system, which contains all functionality for, among many others,
Material Management MM, Sales and Distribution SD, Production Order
Processing PP-SFC, Logistics Execution LES, and Controlling CO.
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Best Practice: Manage Supply Network Planning & CTM in SAP
APO (3.x) / mySAP SCM (4.x / 5.0)
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Supply Network Planning The individual core business process and
its modeling in SNP for planning your supply network may differ
more or less from the canonical process described and illustrated
as follows.
Description: The process flow above describes a typical SNP
process flow. Before data can be loaded into Supply Network
Planning, a planning area and planning version must be created and
initialized. The planning version can consist of order key figures,
time series key figures, or both.
After initialization, data can be loaded into SNP in several
ways: by releasing a forecast from Demand Planning, by CIF transfer
from R/3, or from a flat file using a BAPI (Data from BW can only
come to SNP either via BAPI or by transferring it through the APO
data mart into a DP planning area, from where later a release to
SNP can be done).
Many customers then execute a batch job to calculate safety
stock: in some cases this is done separately from the main planning
run using report /SAPAPO/MSDP_SB. In other cases, it is calculated
by a macro during the heuristic or optimizer run, depending on
which safety stock planning method used.
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Most customers then run either the SNP Optimizer or the SNP
Heuristic, depending on the size of the problem and whether they
can meet their needs with the infinite planning considered by the
Heuristic. After the run is complete, planners usually check the
results in interactive planning, possibly using alerts. If the SNP
Heuristic has been run, Capacity Leveling is often performed on
bottleneck resources to ensure that a feasible plan is created.
Often customers perform a variety of tasks via batch macros:
these can be used to generate alerts and perform further
calculations on the data either before or after the planning run.
Many SNP process flows then exchange requirements with suppliers
often using collaborative planning.
At some point in the planning flow, some SNP customers use
remote InfocCubes in a BW system for reporting on the SNP plan. The
SNP planning results can also be sent to R/3 using the CIF
interface, where the planned orders and purchase requisitions
produced by SNP planning are then further processed using MRP. In
other cases, the constrained forecast calculated by SNP can be
released back to DP, and used in evaluating the feasibility of a
forecast. Still another use for the SNP data is to transfer it to
PP/DS, where a more detailed, single-location planning is
performed. After the PP/DS run occurs, the deployment algorithms -
either heuristic or optimizer based approaches are available - can
be used to plan transfers of single location-products from one
location to another, and to implement fair share rules. Although
deployment is a short-term planning, it uses algorithms similar to
the SNP heuristic or optimizer, so it is classed within SNP. In
some cases, a detailed transport load is needed to consider
transport load building constrains (min-max load) and to ensure
that loading of the transportation resources for multiple products
is feasible. Some comment is also needed about the use of
/SAPAPO/RLCDELETE: since SNP alone is not an execution system, many
customers also use this report to clean the order objects from the
planning version used for SNP Planning after the results of the
planning run have been sent to their respective destinations.
The system can automatically split the data set and automate the
parallel scheduling of batch jobs. This is already possible in SAP
SCM 4.0 for most Demand Planning and Supply Network Planning
processes. With SAP SCM 5.0 and SAP SCM 4.1 (SP 4 note 779850) this
is also available for:
Deployment Heuristic Transport Load Builder Master Data
Initialization Consistency check Time Series consistency check
Saving of optimizer results to liveCache Capable to Match (CTM)
(only SAP SCM 5.0) For all functions it is possible to specify a
parallel processing profile to control the parallelization. It
contains:
Maximal number of parallel work processes Maximum block size
Server group (optional)
Capable to Match If you are using CTM as a planning tool within
your Supply Network Planning network please also consult the above
picture and paragraph there are usually some differences to the SNP
standard process. For this purpose we provide here also a typical
business process involving CTM. The numbering of the process is
oriented on the SNP process to make finding of relating chapters in
this document easier. Of course your specific process might differ
more or less from this canonical process:
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Best Practice: Manage Supply Network Planning & CTM in SAP
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Description: The process flow is quite similar to the process
flow of SNP above and therefore not described in detail again. Of
course one has to keep in mind that CTM can also be used with PP/DS
orders and PP/DS PPMs. This than implies differences in the
processes e.g. that in interactive planning transaction
/SAPAPO/RRP3 is used more often than /SAPAPO/SNP94. Please consider
the following overview part for better understanding.
Overview: Multilevel Supply and Demand Matching (SDM) is the
umbrella for the SAP APO solution for matching prioritized customer
demands and forecasts to a set of supplies, while taking the
current production capacities and transport capabilities into
consideration. SDM's approach is production flow-centric, not
production resource-centric, as is the case with traditional
planning approaches. SDM does not consider the individual
distribution and production levels of the supply chain one after
the other, but considers all possible paths through the
distribution and production levels together. For each demand
element, the search is performed through the supply chain and the
first possible way to fulfill the demand element is determined.
Multilevel Supply and Demand Matching (SDM) is the umbrella for
the SAP APO solution for matching prioritized customer demands and
forecasts to a set of supplies, while taking the current production
capacities and transport capabilities into consideration.
SDM aims at a medium to long-term planning horizon and
guarantees a timely multilevel synchronous production flow,
triggering flow only when necessary. Because SDM is order-based, it
requires a tool that also supports a multilevel dynamic order
split.
Capable-to-Match (CTM) is the central planning tool of SDM. In
addition, an order-based method of Supply Distribution, as well as
a tool that provides a graphical, flow-oriented view of the supply
chain, complement this application.
SDM complements the cross-plant supply chain planning strategies
of the SAP APO applications Supply Network Planning (SNP) and
Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS). Therefore it
is also necessary to read especially the SNP Feasibility Check
Assessment Guide for understanding the entire business process.
The business area Multilevel Supply and Demand Matching
similarly to SNP covers the following activities;
Supply Chain Planning
Creating feasible plans for purchasing, manufacturing,
distribution and transportation Integrating purchasing,
manufacturing, distribution, and transportation planning for
the
midterm
Making sourcing decisions through the Supply Network
Categorizing supply to meet prioritized demands Synchronizing
activities and plan material flow throughout the supply chain
Capable-to-Match (CTM) planning is the planning tool of SDM. It
uses constraint-based heuristics to conduct cross-plant checks of
production capacities and transportation capabilities based on
predefined supply categories and demand priorities. At the same
time, existing supplies are cleared when matching them with
demands. The aim of the CTM planning run is to propose a feasible
solution for fulfilling demands.
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Best Practice: Manage Supply Network Planning & CTM in SAP
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CTM first prioritizes the demands then schedules them one after
the other in the prioritization sequence. CTM then matches the
supplies and demands on a first come, first served basis while
taking the production capacities, transport options and existing
supplies into consideration.
Customers often use CTM as an alternative to the SNP heuristic
or SNP optimizer. However, there are also customers using CTM in
the PP/DS environment. For such cases, please also refer to the
Best Practice document Manage Production Planning in SCM / APO.
The CTM engine runs on an extra optimizer server, which must be
based on Windows NT/2000/XP. This will connect to an APO
application server using Remote Function Calls (RFC). During
installation or after configuration changes, make sure that the
connection to the optimizer server maintained in SM59 still works
correctly.
Procedure In applying this Best Practice procedure, you create a
company-specific process-oriented monitoring concept. This concept
consists of monitoring activities to be performed for each
business-process step and its respective monitoring objects. When
adapting this concept for your company, you must specify the times,
responsible teams, and escalation paths (teams) for the monitoring
activities associated with each business-process step and its
monitoring objects. In each of the business process steps described
below, you will find the following information:
A detailed functional description of the process step Monitoring
activities for the process step Error handling, restartability, and
escalation A monitoring object table, listing each relevant
monitoring object, showing the:
o Monitoring object o Monitoring transaction or tool o
Monitoring frequency o Monitoring time (intentionally left blank,
to be filled in according to your schedule) o Indicator or error o
Monitoring activity or error handling procedure o Responsible team
o Escalation procedure
As the frequency of SNP planning processes varies from daily
activities at certain companies to only monthly or quarterly at
others, the monitoring frequency in these monitoring object tables
is partly only a rough estimate and has to be adapted to your
particular business process. During the Going Live and
stabilization phase of your APO implementation project, all items
listed in this document should be monitored tightly. After becoming
more experienced with system behavior, error occurrences, and
application operations, the monitoring frequency can be decreased,
but should never be reduced to zero unless you do not use the
respective function. Important planning jobs usually have to be
monitored after each run. Regular jobs of minor priority, for
example, certain clean-up jobs, can be checked less frequently than
the actual scheduled run times. For example, daily jobs can be
checked weekly. The following seems obvious but should nevertheless
be mentioned: Besides the monitoring of jobs described in the
business process steps below, it is essential that you check all
jobs that are running in your system at least several times per day
for abnormal terminations. For status cancelled, see Error
Handling, Restartability and Escalation. You should investigate and
correct these terminations appropriately. This check can be done
easily, for instance, with transaction SM37 by entering the time
interval since the latest check and selecting all jobs with status
cancelled. If you have no automatic notification in place that
informs the people responsible for Program Scheduling Management in
your Support Organization of abnormally terminated jobs, you need
to take measures to ensure that this is done manually in a reliable
and timely manner. A number of jobs must run periodically in a live
R/3 installation, for example, the jobs for deleting outdated jobs
or spool objects. For details and comments, see SAP Note 16083.
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Best Practice: Manage Supply Network Planning & CTM in SAP
APO (3.x) / mySAP SCM (4.x / 5.0)
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Business Process Step 1: Initialize Planning Version Before a
new planning version can be used in SNP, the planning version must
be initialized for an SNP planning area. How the planning area is
initialized depends on whether it contains only order objects, or
whether some or all key figures are time series key figures. For
order objects only, initializing the planning area is
straightforward: execute transaction /SAPAPO/MSDP_ADMIN and find
the planning area of interest; in most cases, the standard 9ASNP02
is used for order objects. Right click on the planning area, choose
initialize planning version. Type in the name of the planning
version, and execute. For planning versions with significant
amounts of master data, select the execute in background option.
General information on handling problems with version management is
available in SAP Note 519014. When you need to change the validity
period on a planning area with time series objects, simply enter
transaction /SAPAPO/MSDP_ADMIN, right click on the planning area,
and choose Create Time Series. Then enter the existing planning
version and the new start and end dates for the time series that
are desired. For large data volumes, it is preferable to use the
option Execute in Background, both so that the program will not
time out and so that the monitoring tools of SM37 are available. In
SCM 5.0 it is possible to compare the results of the planning based
on different master data sets. For that purpose the standard SNP
planning book contains additional key figures that can be linked to
a second planning version
Monitoring Activities
Jobs for Running and Monitoring "Initialize Planning Version"
(APO) If the planning area used for SNP contains time series key
figures, you should periodically check for inconsistent time series
objects using report /SAPAPO/TS_LCM_CONS_CHECK_ALL or
/SAPAPO/TS_LCM_CONS_CHECK. The difference between the two reports
is simply that /SAPAPO/TS_LCM_CONS_CHECK_ALL runs the report in
display mode for all TS planning objects, while
/SAPAPO/TS_LCM_CONS_CHECK has a parameter screen that allows the
user to choose a planning area and to decide whether to correct the
inconsistencies. SAP Note 358283 gives a description of the
report.
Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Monitor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
Initialize planning version
Report /SAPAPO/TS_LCM_CONS_CHECK
As often as you change master data
Status Run the job periodically to ensure that processes such as
delta initialization of the planning area have not created
extraneous objects in the liveCache
Program scheduling management
Contact application support
Initialize planning version
SM37 Depend-ing on business process
Status Ensure that job completes successfully
Program scheduling management
Contact application support
Initialize planning version
SM37 Depend-ing on business process
Status/messages
Whether or not the job completes successfully, monitor the
messages in the job log to ensure that no errors occurred
Application support
Contact process champion
See general issues of Error Handling, Restartability and
Escalation below.
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Best Practice: Manage Supply Network Planning & CTM in SAP
APO (3.x) / mySAP SCM (4.x / 5.0)
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Business Process Step 2: Load Data Depending upon your business
process, it may be that you periodically load either only
transactional data or both master data changes and transactional
data into SNP. Transactional data is usually loaded into SNP by a
release from Demand Planning to SNP, which is described in the Best
Practice Manage Demand Planning in mySAP SCM / SAP APO.
Master data changes cover the master data objects like location,
product, resource, PPM and transportation lane which are assigned
to the model as the characteristic combinations. If new master data
are loaded into a model, you should perform a model consistency
check using transaction /SAPAPO/CONSCHK: in many cases it is
preferable to use this transaction to launch a batch job and check
the output in SM37 afterwards. The profile used should be
restricted to the functionality and data which you are actually
using. After loading new master data, the data must be initialized
for SNP planning. When the planning area contains time series key
figures, this has to be done by reinitializing the SNP planning
area in /SAPAPO/MSDP_ADMIN or alternatively, by running report
/SAPAPO/TS_PAREA_INITIALIZE. When the planning area does not
contain any time series key figures, this can either be done by
reinitializing the SNP planning area or automatically by starting
SNP interactive planning or SNP mass processing.
Additionally, the consistency check report can be used in repair
mode. The consistency check should also be executed if the master
data are changed in APO but not visible or accessible via SNP. For
additional information see SAP Note 577038. Usually, master data
changes are sent by CIF from R/3 to SNP. If this is the case, you
need to regularly check and update the selection data tables for
the Planning Area(s) used for SNP. To do this, execute report
/SAPAPO/MCPSH_GEN_SELTAB_MGM. There exists a consistency check for
selections, in addition to functions for adding and deleting the
functions. However, please read Note 332812 carefully before using
this report to automatically correct inconsistencies. All CIF data
interchanges should also be monitored as described in the Manage
APO Core Interface in mySAP SCM. Some customers also load data
using a BAPI. If large amounts of data are loaded by BAPI, it is
possible that tables /SAPAPO/TSQ* can become very large and cause
performance problems. Ensure that only delta records are loaded by
the BAPI, and reinitialize the planning area using report
/SAPAPO/TS_PAREA_INITIALIZE to prevent this problem.
Monitoring Activities Apart from safeguarding the general
availability and consistency of the system components SAP APO, SAP
BW, and SAP R/3 OLTP, to safeguard this business step SAP
recommends that you monitor the objects listed in the following
table.
Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Monitor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
Master data /SAPAPO/CONSCHK
When data are modified
Messages Check log of consistency check for master data objects
that display inconsistencies.
Application support team
Contact process champion
Master Data /SAPAPO/CONSSHOW
When data are modified
Messages Check log of consistency check
Application support team
Contact process champion
See general issues ofError Handling, Restartability and
Escalation below.
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Best Practice: Manage Supply Network Planning & CTM in SAP
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Business Process Step 3: Safety Stock Planning There are two
types of safety stock methods in SNP: standard methods (SB, SZ, SM,
MB, MZ, and MM) and advanced methods (AT, AS, BT, BS). Standard
methods are performed in macro SAFETY_CALC, see note 504253 for an
introduction. Advanced methods are performed in report
/SAPAPO/RSDP_CALC_SAFETY_STOCK (transaction: /SAPAPO/MSDP_SB). In
the remainder of this section, only advanced methods are
considered. The advanced safety stock methods used in SNP are based
on the following assumptions (see also note 617567):
Demand is regular, i.e., there is demand in almost every
planning period, the demand quantities are significantly greater
than zero and do not fluctuate too much between planning periods.
Spare parts is a business area that usually does not meet this
assumption.
In case of shortage, the missing parts can always be delivered
belatedly, i.e., no demand gets lost (backorder case).
If neither regular stock nor safety stock suffice to cover the
whole demand, the remainder is made available using alternative
arrangements, for example, rush shipments (no delay approach).
All uncertainties in the supply chain are statistically
independent of each other. Please be aware that the safety stock
values calculated may differ significantly from the correct ones if
one or more of these assumptions are violated. In extreme cases,
the methods will not calculate any reasonable values.
Also make sure that the supply chain does not contain "cycles"
for the location products to be planned. In this context, a cycle
is a sequence of PPMs and/or transportation lanes that transform a
location product on to its self. If such cycles exist Safety Stock
Planning will be caught in an endless loop unless note 547049 has
been applied. Safety stock calculations for different location
products are independent of each other. Therefore, the order of
calculations is arbitrary. If you need to improve performance, you
can execute parallel processing by creating separate variants for
transaction /SAPAPO/MSDP_SB and run them at the same time. In
general, to avoid lock issues, it is advisable not to make changes
to the SNP planning version in which safety stock is run. Please
also consider notes 599871 and 600766. Be aware that with release
SCM 4.0, the results of extended safety stock planning can no
longer be saved in auxiliary key figures, but in time series key
figures only. In addition, the previous SNP standard planning
folders (9ASNP94, for example) only support the methods SB, SZ and
SM for safety stock planning. As of Release SCM 4.0 Support Package
08, a new 9ASNP_SSP SNP standard planning book exists for the
safety stock planning, which contains two specific time series key
figures for safety stock planning (9ASAFETY, 9ASVTTY). The
9ASNP_SSP folder supports all methods of the safety stock planning
in SNP (SB, SZ, SM, MB, MZ, MM, AS, AT, BS, BT). Please consult SAP
Note 646738 for details. As of Release SCM 5.0, the Safety Stock
for sporadic demand can be calculated with a standard planning
profile. This makes Safety Stock Planning also suitable for
industries such as spare parts. New fields in the product-location
master data also enable a Replenishment lead time determination and
the consideration of maximum and minimum Safety Stock Levels As of
Release SCM 5.0 it is possible to aggregate the method parameter
values, demand and replenishment lead time on a detailed level and
use the results instead of the values from header level
Monitoring Activities The monitoring activities needed to ensure
that safety stock planning runs are executed correctly are
indicated in the table below.
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Jobs for Running and Monitoring "Safety Stock Planning" To
ensure consistency and good performance of safety stock
calculations, schedule the following jobs to run on a regular
basis:
Calculate safety stocks with advanced methods with report
/SAPAPO/RSDP_CALC_SAFETY_STOCK. This report calculates the safety
stock associated with reorder point methods (either alpha or beta
service level; reorder cycle or reorder point).
When checking the spool file, look especially for messages in
the form of: "Product &1 in location &2 cannot be procured.
This indicates an error in the procurement type for the location
product, which should be corrected by the application support team.
Most commonly, the error is caused by a location product with
procurement type E (in-house production) for which there is no
valid PPM. For such location products no safety stock can be
planned since there is no way to procure it. When checking the job
in SM37, in addition to looking for jobs which cancelled, also look
for large values in the field Delay(sec), which might indicate that
the job had to wait for another process to release locked data, and
make a note of which other processes were running concurrently.
Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Monitor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
APO Report /SAPAPO/RSDP_CALC_SAFETY_STOCK
SM37 Each time the report is run
Check spool file for errors. Look for large values of Delay
(sec) in SM37.
Program scheduling management
Contact application support team.
See general issues of Error Handling, Restartability and
Escalation below.
Business Process Step 4: SNP Heuristic Run In Release 3.x the
SNP heuristic performs infinite planning for the supply chain. It
can be run in one of three modes: Multilevel (all products at all
locations), Network (all locations, but BOM is only exploded to one
level) or Location (all products at one location, but a full BOM
explosion takes place). In Release SCM 4.x the handling of
heuristic has been enhanced (not for interactive planning). For
transaction /../snp01 the following changes have been made:
The heuristic can be executed in two modes. Network (selected
products in all locations) or Location (selected products in
selected locations).
In addition to both modes you can set a flag to perform a full
BOM explosion. This enables to plan a part of the network but on
all levels.
o For this the report /sapapo/rsnpllcset has to be performed to
determine the low-level-code of all products of a version. This
should be done on a regular base but has to be done after relevant
master data changes (e.g. transportation lanes or PPMs)
Use of the Net Change planning flag is not recommended, unless
the number of location products is high and the number of changing
demands is comparatively small. Net change planning is only
available in the active version (000). The entries of objects
flagged for net change planning can be viewed from transaction
/SAPAPO/RRP_NETCH. When there is enough demand it can be cheaper to
distribute directly from the plant to the customer. The Planning
algorithms are up to SCM 4.x not able (except partly the
optimization) to take this into consideration, especially because
this is typically a multi-product decision. In SCM 5.0 the SNP
Heuristic is enabled to decide for a direct ship, instead of
considering the quotations. For this a Transport Load Builder check
is carried out to comply to load limits on multiple products. SCM
5.0 allows users to perform a SNP run on an aggregated level, by
defining hierarchies for products and locations to be taken into
account by the SNP heuristic, A disaggregating logic is available
to ensure that plans are consistent at all levels of aggregation
and the Interactive Planning offers extended drilldown options for
displaying the planning results. Larger supply chain models can be
planned, performance improvements by calculation on aggregation
levels can be achieved and the planning process is simplified.
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To set up the aggregated planning in SNP: 1. Define the
aggregated planning objects (MD aggregates: location aggregates,
product aggregates, BOM/Routing aggregates, resource aggregates) 2.
Define the relations between aggregated objects and detailed
objects (define location-product-hierarchies, BOM/Routing
hierarchies, resource hierarchies) 3. Generate aggregated
transactional data based on the definition of aggregated master
data 4. Perform Supply Network Planning based on aggregated master
data and transactional data 5. Disaggregate planning result to
detailed level (optional) If the heuristic run is executed in
Version 000, the inbound or outbound queues in the R/3 system
should be locked during the time of the heuristic run:
If you cannot rule out that, during the heuristic run, data will
be transferred from an SAP R/3 system to the SAP APO system (or
from APO to R/3) over the core interface (CIF), you can lock
inbound or outbound queues in the SAP R/3 system from the SAP APO
system. This should prevent inconsistencies occurring in the
planning if, during the heuristic run, transaction data is
transferred from SAP R/3 to SAP APO that is ignored by the
heuristic.
To lock outbound queues, you can use the /SAPAPO/CIFSTOPQUEUES
and /SAPAPO/CIFSTARTQUEUES reports in SAP APO. Reports RSTRFCI1 and
RSTRFCI3 are available for locking inbound queues. See also SAP
note 487261 / 528913.
Occasionally, with the import of a support package, the length
of data fields in report variants can change, which can cause
inconsistencies if not corrected. Fortunately, this problem can be
alleviated by running report RSVCHECK after implementation of a new
support package.
Monitoring Activities Regarding SM37: when several heuristics
identify large values of Delay(sec), it is recommended that you
investigate the possibility that another process (or several
parallel jobs) is locking one another. While the processes are
running, locks on the APO database can be seen with transaction
SM12.
Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Monitor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
APO report /SAPAPO/RSNPDRP1
This report performs the SNP heuristic run.
SM37 Depends on business process
Status Check if job is running as scheduled. Also check the
column Delay(sec)- large values may indicate that another process
was locking the job, and it waited for the other process to
finish.
If the report is not scheduled as provided by Application
Support, schedule it accordingly.
Program scheduling management
Contact application support
Spool file of report /SAPAPO/RSNPDRP1
SM37 As often as heuristic is executed
Log file Check whether the spool file has any error messages, or
strange results (e.g. many orders, each with a quantity of 1 for
the same location-product on the same date)
Application Support
Contact process champion
Application log of report /SAPAPO/RSNPDRP1
Slg1 As often as heuristic is executed
Log file Check whether the spool file has any error
messages.
Application Support
Contact process champion
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Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Monitor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
SCM report /sapapo/rsnpllcset
Sm37 On a regular base but after relevant master data
changes
Status Look for error messages like cycles. Ther are not allowed
for SNP.
Program scheduling management
Contact process champion
Report variants
RSVCHECK
Once a month, or after importing new support packages
List of variants with problems
Check if any variants have problems
Program scheduling management
Contact application support
See general issues of Error Handling, Restartability and
Escalation below.
Business Process Step 4a: CTM Planning Run Critical steps in CTM
The three critical areas for performance during CTM run are loading
and preprocessing of data, runtime of CTM engine and the writing of
the results to liveCache. In case of performance problems it is
crucial to determine which of the areas is critical -> Please
see section Monitoring Activities for details.
The most common reasons for poor performance are:
1) Slow reading and preprocessing of data: a) Order selection is
slow,
- due to deletion of orders taking too long - due to many orders
being selected; - due to pegging being analysed;
Possible solutions: - Filter demands and supplies considered by
date; - Reduce the planning horizon considered;
e.g. try to consider planning runs with shorter horizon during
the week and with long horizon on weekends;
- Optimize the parameter package size for orders selection in
/n/SAPAPO/CTMCUST; - Verify whether you really need all the
selected location-products to be planned for;
b) Reading further data (products, PPMs, resources, transports)
is slow; Possible solutions:
- Filter master data using only actively planned (by CTM)
objects; - Verify whether e.g. all the activities of a PPM need to
be planned as well by CTM;
c) Slow prioritization of demands Possible solutions:
- of course the time for prioritization is depending on the
amount of selected orders, so a primary goal should be to only
select the ones necessary for the CTM run;
- in the time for prioritization of demands there is also the
rule determination and evaluation included. Best for performance
here is of course to use setting Do Not Apply Rules. However if
rules are necessary try to use Apply Default Rule instead
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of Apply Rules! and evaluate whether planning parameter
DEFAULT_RULE is applicable (see SAP Note 441723).
2) CTM engine is slow: Possible solutions:
- Use Aggregation; - Reduce horizons for late and early demand
fulfillment as much as possible; - Filter demands by order category
and date;
3) Writing to liveCache is slow: Possible solutions: - Use
asynchronous liveCache update;
- Optimize package size for creating orders; - Optimize package
size for creating pegging relationships; - Optimize package size
for asynchronous liveCache update;
Important additional performance settings Some specific
performance relevant settings and referral notes are briefly
discussed in the following paragraphs:
Set the indicator Do not Evaluate Pegging Relationships in the
technical settings of the CTM profile, in order to delete all
non-firm orders without any further checks. (In APO 3.0A and 3.10
this setting must still be carried out via the planning parameter
FAST_DEL.) The system then does not check, for example, whether a
pegging relationship exists between an order and a demand that lies
outside the planning horizon. This means that the system will
certainly delete the order. If you do not require these checks, you
can set the indicator to shorten the runtime of the order
selection. If all orders lie within the planning horizon, checks
are not required as the result of the order selection is the same
with or without the checks. Note that this indicator must not be
used in connection with subcontracting, as the system must evaluate
pegging relationships for deleting subcontracting orders. Also only
use this indicator with planning mode Replan all Orders and
deletion mode Delete all Non-Firm Orders. If this functionality is
used in combination with a master data selection, all orders which
contain at least one location product of the master data selection
will be deleted. For more information about this setting refer to
note: 533457.
During the demand prioritisation and supply categorisation the
demands and supplies are stored in database tables /SAPAPO/CTMDEM,
/SAPAPO/CTMSUP, /SAPAPO/CTMMAP). These database tables can grow
with every new CTM profile, new planning version in a CTM profile.
During a CTM planning run for the current CTM profile and planning
version entries for demands and supplies are deleted form the
database tables, entries are created and entries are read to be
handed on to the CTM engine. In case there are many entries in the
database talbes the delete/read/write accesses can be time
consuming. If these tables contain many entries they can be deleted
by using program /SAPAPO/CTM_DEMSUP_DELETE Also see note 375174 for
further details. The table entries are automatically deleted if the
planning version is deleted or the CTM profile is deleted. With
release SCM4.1 it is possible to decide (customizing setting) if
these tables should be updated for a CTM planning run or if the
data is directly transferred.
Asynchronous liveCache update: The default setting of the CTM
engine is synchronous liveCache writing. This means that after the
CTM engine has finished, the system starts writing the whole result
to the liveCache. When changed to asynchronous update, writing is
carried out in parallel to planning. After finishing a certain
planning package (a planning package is finished after a specified
number of demands were planned by CTM) the result is written to the
liveCache while the CTM engine continues planning. In cases where
liveCache time and engine runtime are approximately the same this
setting can save up to 50% of the time, as those steps will then
run in parallel.
The runtimes of order selection and writing to liveCache also
strongly vary according to the chosen package sizes. The relevant
parameters are maintained in /SAPAPO/CTMCUST. However the package
size parameter for asynchronous liveCache updates can also be
maintained via the variable planning parameter PackageSize for each
CTM profile. Please consider the following points for optimal
settings for these parameters:
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1. The setting for Order Selection is based on location-products
rather than on number orders. If, for example, the parameter is set
to 5000, CTM reads the orders for the first 5000 location-products
in one package from liveCache. If the average amount of orders per
location-product combination is
a. 0.2 (each fifth loc-prod. has an order), the result is 1000
orders per package
b. 10 (each loc-prod. has on average 10 orders), the result is
50000 orders per package
As you can see, this setting strongly depends on the orders
(including fixed orders, PP/DS orders) existing per
location-product. Therefore it is important to try different
settings to clarify performance issues. As a guideline SAP expects
values of 10000-50000 orders per package for optimal
performance
2. The setting for the package size for asynchronous liveCache
Update considers the existing requirements and creates orders for
them. The PackageSize parameter determines here the number of
requirements considered before sending the resulting orders to
liveCache. The possibility exists that several orders have been
created per requirement or just one. Therefore the parameter does
not imply that the package includes 500 orders, if this is the
current setting, it only means that 500 requirements are considered
and the respective orders sent in one package.
It is only necessary to change this parameter if the CTM engine
is waiting for the liveCache (the queue for packages to be
transferred to liveCache increases as liveCache is not dealing with
the necessary updates fast enough). One can then look into the CTM
Application log and find the number of orders transferred per
package depending on the most relevant categories:
a. planned orders / production orders
b. purchase requisitions
c. transport orders
d. substitution orders
The amount of orders per package coming from these categories
together should result in at least 5000 orders per package to have
optimal performance.
Please note that using CTM in parallel is not usual and often
not practicable. Before using CTM in parallel it is crucial to
verify that the two (or more) subproblems to be run in parallel are
truly and completely independent / non-overlapping! Refer to SAP
Note 430688 for more information.
Monitoring Activities CTM run
Monitoring the CTM run includes understanding how long each of
those three steps takes approximately to see where possible
problems may be situated. For this information to be recorded you
need to have the Save CTM messages-Box on the Settings-tab in the
CTM profile activated, which results in a brief application log
being written. To find the information written in th log go to
- /SAPAPO/OPT11, then select the appropriate CTM run and click
and press on the Log-icon, or
- /SAPAPO/CTM -> result analysis -> display logs and
choose the appropriate log from the list; from here the times and
the warning messages should be regularly analyzed after CTM
runs.
1) Estimate for loading data and preproccesing:
end time of reading transports - start time of selecting
orders;
2) Rough estimate for CTM engine runtime (This might be wrong
with asynchronous liveCache update, if the writing is so slow that
the CTM engine stops. In case of doubts about the runtime estimate
for the CTM engine, the CTM trace file has to be looked at and the
time stamps for Engine Start and Engine Finished have to be
considered; this time estimate is more exact, but also more time
consuming;):
end time of entry for CTM Planning run in SM37->Job log - end
time of reading transports;
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3) Rough estimate for writing data to liveCache:
Sum of the differences between End and Start times of each
package to be written to liveCache.
4) In case there is safety stock being build up, there will be a
second CTM run after the end of the first one. Determining times
here works accordingly.
CIF Queues
In addition to those steps please notice that the CIF Queues
should be locked during the execution of the planning run to
prevent inconsistencies. Please see SAP Note 528913 for a full
discussion. Note that this does not apply if the CTM run is
executed on an inactive planning version. Also note that you should
upgrade your CTM engine in parallel with support package upgrades
to ensure optimal functionality and performance. In general it is
always good to take the newest available CTM engine.
Deleting locks after short dump during CTM run
In the event of a short dump during the CTM run, there are two
options to delete locks which prevent a new start of the CTM
engine:
1) Delete CTM engine run manually in transaction /SAPAPO/OPT03
before another run can be started. See Note 393634 for details.
They are also deleted by the job /SAPAPO/OM_REORG_DAILY, which
should be run once a day, but NEVER concurrently with any optimizer
or CTM runs.
2) Enter the planning profile via /SAPAPO/CTM.
Jobs and Tools for Running and Monitoring "CTM Planning Run" To
safeguard the functionality of the CTM planning run, refer to the
monitoring jobs in the table below. For an additional list of
transactions used to set up the engine during installation or
changes to the optimizer server, refer to the section Monitoring
APO Optimizers in the Best Practice: Monitoring and Administration
for SCM/APO.
1. To run CTM in the background, use the CTM report
/SAPAPO/CTMPLRUN. There are two options for deleting locks which
prevent a new start of the CTM run in the event of a short dump
during the CTM run:
a. Delete the run manually in transaction /SAPAPO/OPT03 before
another run can be started. See Note 393634 for details. Locks are
also deleted by the job /SAPAPO/OM_REORG_DAILY, which should be run
once a day, but NEVER concurrently with any optimizer or CTM
runs.
b. Enter the planning profile via /SAPAPO/CTM. This will
automatically delete the lock table entries
2. To verify that the optimizer server is running correctly
during the run:
a. Lists of users and processes running on the optimizer server
can be seen from transactions /SAPAPO/OPT03 and /SAPAPO/OPT12
respectively. With these transactions you can check whether
processes are still active on the optimizer server. These
transactions are usually only used for problem analysis beyond the
CTM engine, e.g. in case of hardware or operating system problems
on the optimizer server.
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Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Moni-tor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
APO report CTM: /SAPAPO/CTMPLRUN
This report runs the CTM in the background
SM37 Depending on your process.
Status Check if job is running as scheduled.
If the report is not scheduled as provided by Application
Support, schedule it accordingly.
Program scheduling management
Contact application support
CTM application log
/SAPAPO/CTM -> result analysis -> display logs or
/SAPAPO/CTMAPLOG
After every run
Message Type
Review messages in log with stop, red or yellow indicator
Application support
Contact process champion
Spool file SM37 After every run
Messages in spool file
Check for application errors after the CTM run, too.
Application support
Contact Process Champion
Optimizer Logs
/SAPAPO/OPT11
In case of cancellation of engine or for performance
analysis
Check for errors and time stamps
Display and analyze logs in this section, if there is no result
delivered from the optimizer.
Application support
Contact Process Champion
/SAPAPO/OM_REORG_DAILY
Among its other activities, this job will delete database
entries and files on the optimizer server which are no longer
needed.
SM37 Daily Check if job is running as scheduled.
If the report is not scheduled as provided by software
monitoring team, schedule it accordingly.
Program scheduling management
Contact software monitoring team support
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Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Moni-tor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
Master Data consistency check
/SAPAPO/CTM -> Edit -> Check your data
After master data changes
Check for inconsistencies
This job will identify any inconsistent data prior to running
the CTM run
Application support
Contact process champion
User list for Optimizers
/SAPAPO/OPT03
See above
Displays a user list of optimization runs
Software monitoring team
Contact application support
Running optimizer processes
/SAPAPO/OPT12
See above
Displays a list of optimizer processes on the optimization
server
Software monitoring team
Contact application support
See general issues of Error Handling, Restartability and
Escalation below.
Business Process Step 5: SNP Optimizer Run The CIF Queues should
be locked during the execution of the planning run to prevent
inconsistencies. Please see SAP Note 528913 for a full discussion.
Note that this does not apply if the optimizer is executed on an
inactive planning version. Also note that you should upgrade your
optimizer in parallel with support package upgrades to ensure
optimal functionality and performance. To get an overview of the
optimization system steps, refer to note 587407. To improve the
performance of an optimization run, refer to note 485018; in
addition, simply set the field Number of Processes in the
background transactions for the optimizers. It will spawn parallel
processes during some portions of the data read and model creation
of the optimization run. Note that a single optimization-based
planning run can use only one CPU on the optimizer server. Care
should be taken that the number of processes does not exceed the
number of available batch processes for this user on the system.
Due to the runtime and memory requirements of the optimization
engine, we must also think about the model size and complexity. For
an optimal performance of the optimization engine, see note 454433.
In the event of a short dump during the optimizer run, the
optimizer run must be manually deleted in transaction /SAPAPO/OPT03
before another run can be started. See Note 393634 for details.
They are also deleted by the job /SAPAPO/OM_REORG_DAILY, which
should be run once a day, but NEVER concurrently with optimizer
runs. If several optimization runs are carried out in parallel,
they should never have the same names. Also ensure that you have
applied Note 572220 (APO 3.0A, SP23; APO 3.1A SP13) to prevent loss
of optimizer result logs. In addition, if you ever run two
optimizer runs simultaneously, be sure to set the parameter
enque/delay_max in transaction RZ11 as described in consulting note
572996 to avoid lock problems. SCM 5.0 allows users to perform an
SNP run on an aggregated level, by defining hierarchies for
products and locations to be taken into account by the SNP
heuristic, A disaggregating logic is available to ensure that plans
are consistent at all levels of aggregation and the Interactive
Planning offers extended drilldown options for displaying the
planning results. Larger supply chain models can be planned,
performance improvements by calculation on aggregation levels can
be achieved and the planning process is simplified. To set up the
aggregated planning in SNP: 1. Define the aggregated planning
objects (MD aggregates: location aggregates, product aggregates,
BOM/Routing aggregates, resource aggregates) 2. Define the
relations between aggregated objects and detailed objects (define
location-product-hierarchies, BOM/Routing hierarchies, resource
hierarchies) 3. Generate aggregated transactional data based on the
definition of aggregated master data
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4. Perform Supply Network Planning based on aggregated master
data and transactional data 5. Disaggregate planning result to
detailed level (optional) It is sometimes difficult to understand
the results of the optimization, and to easily answer questions
such as what is the reason for shortfall quantities of a specific
product?, "where are resource or material constraints?, "what are
the reasons for specific sourcing decisions? In SCM 5.0 an
explanation tool is introduced delivering additional information in
the optimizer log for more detailed explanation of the planning
result. The user can choose the explanation goal, the level of
detail where more information is required, and the precision of the
explanation. In SCM 5.0 costs can be generated automatically based
on few initial settings for storage, PPMs, transport, procurement,
safety stock penalty, non-delivery penalty and late-delivery
penalty. Business Logic can be expressed in a simple way that
enables an economical interpretation
Monitoring Activities The following table describes how to
monitor and ensure the correct functionality of the optimizer
run.
Jobs for Running and Monitoring "SNP Optimizer" and Deployment
Optimizer (APO) To safeguard the continued functionality of the
optimizer, refer to the monitoring jobs in the table below. For an
additional list of transactions used to help set up the optimizer
during installation or changes to the optimizer server, refer to
the section Monitoring APO Optimizers in the Best Practice:
Monitoring and Administration for SCM/APO.
To run the optimizer in the background: use for SNP report
/SAPAPO/RMSNPOPT and Deployment report /SAPAPO/RMDPLOPT.
To verify that the optimizer is running correctly during the
run: Lists of users and processes running on the optimizer server
can be seen from transactions /SAPAPO/OPT03 and /SAPAPO/OPT12
respectively. It is recommended that these be checked periodically
to ensure that everything is functioning as expected.
After the planning run is finished: use transactions sm37, and
the optimizer logs in /SAPAPO/SNPOPLOG and /SAPAPO/OPT11, and the
resulting costs from the optimization run /SAPAPO/SNP106 to verify
that the run was executed without problems, and that the results
are as expected.
Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Moni-tor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
APO report SNP: /SAPAPO/RMSNPOPT
Deployment: /SAPAPO/RMDPLOPT
This report runs the opti-mizer in the background
SM37 Depending on your process.
Status Check if job is running as scheduled.
If the report is not scheduled as provided by Application
Support, schedule it accordingly.
Program scheduling management
Contact application support
Optimizer log /SAPAPO/SNPOPLOG
After every run
Status Review messages in log with red or yellow status
Application support
Contact process champion
Verify and maintain RFC connections
SM59 During installation or after config changes
Status Check that the TCP/IP connection to the optimizer server
is open and functioning correctly.
Program scheduling management.
Contact software monitoring team
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Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Moni-tor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
Spool file of optimizer run
SM37 After every run
Messages in spool file
Also check for application errors after the optimizer run.
Application support
Contact Process Champion
SNP Optimizer Resulting Costs, also for Deployment
Transaction /SAPAPO/SNP106
After every run
Results summary of the SNP Optimizer
Check for reasonability of the results: e.g., whether the
optimizer run has decided not to produce anything.
Application support
Contact Process Champion
/SAPAPO/OM_REORG_DAILY
/SAPAPO/OM_REORG_DAILY
During installation or after config changes
Among its other activities, this job will delete database
entries and files on the optimizer server which are no longer
needed.
Program scheduling management
Contact software monitoring team
Consistency check
/SAPAPO/CONSCHK
After each change to master data
This job will identify any inconsistent data prior to running
the optimizer run
Application support
Contact process champion
Optimizer Logs
/SAPAPO/OPT11
As required
Check for errors
Display and analyze logs in this section, if there is no result
delivered from the optimizer.
System and application monitoring teams
Depending on error type: system or application monitoring
team
User list for Optimizers
/SAPAPO/OPT03
As required
Displays a user list of optimization runs
Basis support Contact application team
Running optimizer processes
/SAPAPO/OPT12
As required
Displays a list of optimizer processes on the optimization
server
Basis support Contact application team
See general issues of Error Handling, Restartability and
Escalation below.
Business Process Step 6: Capacity Leveling The SNP heuristic
performs only infinite planning: that is, without considering the
available capacities of resources. In order to create a feasible
plan, it will sometimes be necessary to adjust the results of the
SNP heuristic to change the production times of quantities to
ensure that no resource is overloaded. SNP Capacity Leveling
underwent a complete redesign in SCM 4.0. The new version is also
available in APO 3.0 as of SP 22 and in APO 3.1 as of SP15 as an
alternative to the original version. Among other features, the new
version offers three different leveling methods - heuristic,
optimizer, and BADI. It is activated by creating a user parameter
/SAPAPO/SNPCAP with value 'X'. Both versions can be executed
interactively from transaction /SAPAPO/SNP94. Click on the icon
"Capacity Leveling" in Capacity View. The new version can also be
executed as a background job using transaction /SAPAPO/SNP05.
Further information on the new version, including full
documentation, can be found in release note 564702.Due to the
improvements made in Capacity Leveling regarding result quality,
performance, and stability we would like to encourage customers to
test the new version for their business scenario and to use it
instead of the original if it works well. As of SCM 5.0 a resource
can be also leveled with alternative resources in the same
location, depending on the existing alternative PPM/PDS For
performance, consider the recommendations in Note 493258. Use an
auxiliary table rather than the macro function for getting the
date, and use macro function ACT_VERSION instead of macro function
KEYFS_VERSION.
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Monitoring Activities for Capacity Leveling
Jobs for Running and Monitoring "Capacity Leveling" (APO) The
following table describes how to monitor the capacity run.
Capacity Leveling: execute transaction /SAPAPO/SNP94 and change
to data view SNP94(2). If the Capacity View shows any resource
overloads click on the Capacity Leveling icon in change mode. If
necessary, you can select those planning periods and/or products
that should be processed. In addition, the three alert macros may
be run either within interactive planning or in the background to
identify exceptional situations such as resource overload or under
load.
Capacity Leveling in Background (new version only): in addition
to launching the job, you should monitor the job using SM37.
Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Monitor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
Capacity leveling in interactive planning
Alerts Depends on business process
Alerts Look for fields which are colored red due to exceptional
resource situations. Run directly executable macros to measure
capacity under load and overload situations.
Application support team
Contact process champion
Capacity run in background (new version)
SM37 Depends on business process
Status Ensure that job is scheduled and runs without error.
Program scheduling management
Contact application support team
See general issues of Error Handling, Restartability and
Escalation below.
Business Process Step 7: SNP Interactive Planning In the
following we discuss transaction /SAPAPO/SNP94, as most customers
using CTM use this transaction for interactive planning. However it
is also possible to use PP/DS transactions like /SAPAPO/RRP3,
depending on the customer scenario, e.g. in some cases when using
CTM. In such a case, please refer to the Best Practice document
Manage Production Planning in SCM / APO. Within transaction
/SAPAPO/SNP94, you can do almost everything that SAP APO Supply
Network Planning offers. In particular, you can evaluate planning
results, compare different scenarios, enter management overwrites,
correct key figures manually, run macros, aggregate data, and
create or view alerts. Supply Network Planning supports online
simulation in multiple planning scenarios, consistent planning
throughout your enterprise, drilling up and down, and aggregation.
As of SCM 5.0, planning can be performed within aggregated data;
this is displayed accordingly in Interactive Planning For
performance reasons, any interactive processing of data should be
restricted to very small data volumes by specifying the selection
criteria as far as possible. This is independent of when this
planning step takes place, for instance before or after a planning
run. Tasks that can be performed without direct user interaction,
for example, because they take place at a certain point in the
business cycle where real-time feedback to online users is not
required, should be performed as batch jobs rather than
interactively. While tables of selection variants are usually not a
problem in release 3.0A and higher, a description of monitoring and
managing them is given in Note 376383. For systems with large
numbers of interactive users, periodically deleting unused
selections may become necessary. If you are using notes management
within interactive planning, we also recommend periodically
executing report /SAPAPO/TS_GEN_DOCTAB_CHECK to eliminate possible
inconsistencies in the notes. However, please read Note 332812
carefully before using this report to automatically correct
inconsistencies.
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Please note that, for performance reasons, SNP interactive
planning defaults to display mode when a user enters. This can be
changed by altering user parameter /SAPAPO/SDP94_D_MODE, as
described in Note 401830. Also in this note it is stated that it is
possible to write a BADI to override the default display. You might
want to do one of the two for a number of reasons; for instance,
when a user switches from display to change mode, the data must be
reread to set the appropriate locks. In some cases, you may wish to
define one or more separate planning books for use with SNP
interactive planning. Some hints on the design and usage of
planning books and macros for interactive planning can be found in
are listed below: (see also SAP Notes 398726 and 542341):
Create a separate planning book for each user that contains only
the views, macros, key figures, and any other views that are used
by that individual user. In addition, users who perform more than
one task type should consider creating more than one planning book
to accommodate each task type.
Minimize the number of default macros used for SDP interactive
planning; see if any of these can be executed less frequently as
start, end, or drill-down macros. In addition, each online user
should verify that the macros in her/his planning book are all used
regularly as part of the standard business practice and remove any
which are not.
Implement composite time bucket profiles with coarser time
buckets in the long-term past and future, and fine time buckets
only near the present time. For example, showing a year as 9 weeks
and 10 months will dramatically improve the performance without
decreasing the time period shown. Also, any users who do not
actively view and use historical data should consider the history
not shown flag as this allows macros to use the data without
loading the data onto the screen.
Each online user should create several selection variants to
restrict the number of characteristic combinations considered to
those which s/he needs for a specific task.
Monitoring Activities Apart from safeguarding the general
availability and consistency of the system components SAP APO, SAP
BW, and SAP R/3 OLTP, SAP recommends that you monitor the objects
listed in the following table in order to safeguard this business
step.
Jobs for Running and Monitoring "SNP Interactive Planning (APO)"
To ensure a timely and efficient notification of exceptions in
Supply Network Planning, schedule the following jobs to run on a
regular basis:
Send Alert Monitor mails with report
/SAPAPO/AMON_MAIL_BROADCAST. Depending on user profiles, mails are
sent with an overview of existing alerts. The responsible persons
then should call up the APO Alert Monitor, investigate the reasons
for the alerts and take corrective actions in order to keep the
production plan close to the needs of your company.
Delete Alert Monitor alerts with report /SAPAPO/AMON_REORG. It
deletes old alerts and is of particular importance if you use
alerts stored in the database. Information on database alerts and
dynamic alerts in Demand Planning can be seen in the APO Alert
Monitor and below.
Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Monitor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
APO Alert Monitor
/SAPAPO/AMON1
At least daily
Check for forecast alerts and SDP alerts and correct the
planning for the reported object appropriately.
Application support
Contact process champion
APO report /SAPAPO/AMON_MAIL_BROADCAST
This report ensures sending of mails about existing alerts.
SM37 Daily Status Check if job is running as scheduled.
If the report is not scheduled on a regular basis, schedule it
to run from between every hour to at least daily, depending on your
requirements.
Program scheduling management
Contact software monitoring team
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Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Monitor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
Alert Monitor mails
SO01 (or respective e-mail system)
Depending on your requirements, at least daily.
Check if the mail lists alerts that are important for you. Go to
APO Alert Monitor and process the alerts appropriately.
Application support
Contact process champion
APO report /SAPAPO/AMON_REORG.
This report deletes Alert Monitor alerts.
SM37 Weekly Status Check if job is running as scheduled.
If the job is not scheduled on a regular basis, schedule it to
run once a day.
Program scheduling management
Contact application support
See general issues of Error Handling, Restartability and
Escalation below.
Business Process Step 8: Execute Batch Macros In SNP, the usual
reasons for creating batch macros are either to perform
calculations and evaluations of alert situations, or to calculate
additional quantities and save them to time series key figures.
After the planning run and manual adjustment, it is often desirable
to monitor alert situations or calculate quantities in time series
key figures using batch macros run in SNP Planning Areas. For
manual corrections see Business Process Step 7: SNP Interactive
Planning. Some hints on the design and usage of macros for batch
processing:
Create a separate planning book for each macro background job.
The planning book should contain only key figures used by the macro
itself, and only macros executed as activities by the mass
processing job. The planning book should only contain one planning
view. A different planning book should be used whenever different
key figures are needed by two macros, and a different data view
whenever the time periods are different.
Remove all unused macros from planning books associated with
mass processing jobs, as they can be very performance-intensive and
are not helpful to your business process.
The planning book used for batch macros should have only the
functionality it uses: in the case of SNP macros, the planning book
should have no macros selected.
All macros in mass processing should be defined as manually
executable, and only in the planning book for the mass processing
job in which they are used. In general, you do not need automatic
macro execution for mass processing jobs. Furthermore, defining
macros as default macros and to be executed at another time is
redundant and extremely performance-intensive, since default macros
are executed upon entry, loading a selection, changing data, and
exit.
Create several background jobs with roughly equal numbers of
location products and run them in parallel. Make sure that no
individual location product belongs to more than one selection
variant, as this can cause lock issues.
If you need to run two macros on the same key figures with the
same level of aggregation, put both into one planning book and
execute them as two actions within the same background activity
(defined with transaction /SAPAPO/MC8T, see below). You thus save
the time needed for loading the data again.
For the high data volumes usually considered in background
processing, use database alerts rather than dynamic alerts.
When reading and writing alerts from the alert table in the APO
database (table /SAPAPO/AM_ALERT), minimize the number of steps
which manipulate alerts. Also, try to use Delete rather than Delete
in Context, and Add rather than Update in Context whenever
possible. For general advice on creating alerts in background jobs,
please refer to consulting Note 521639.
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Monitoring Activities Apart from safeguarding the general
availability and consistency of the system components SAP APO, SAP
BW, and SAP R/3 OLTP, to safeguard this business step SAP
recommends that you monitor the objects listed in the following
table. The frequency of executing these Supply Network Planning
batch jobs can vary significantly depending upon the business
process for which the scenario is built. Macros that check for
alert situations - particularly those related to Deployment and TLB
- may be executed as often as daily, while other jobs, such as
adjusting data released from DP to SNP, may only be executed once a
month. Accordingly, the frequency of monitoring the jobs and
deleting the SDP Job Logs depends on how often you run these
functions. For dependencies and concurrent execution of jobs, see
Operational Management Parallel and Concurrent Execution of Jobs.
Please also refer to Exception based Monitoring of APO Supply
Network Planning for the handling of alerts generated by a batch
macro.
Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Monitor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
APO report /SAPAPO/TS_BATCH_RUN.
This report performs specified SDP mass processing
activities.
SM37 Depending on your process.
Status Check if job is running as scheduled.
If the report is not scheduled as provided by Application
Support, schedule it accordingly.
Program scheduling management
Contact application support
SDP Job Log /SAPAPO/MC8K
After each run of /SAPAPO/TS_BATCH_RUN.
Red or yellow traffic lights shown
According to the warning or error reported (see message long
text).
Application support
Contact process champion
APO report /SAPAPO/TS_BATCH_LOGFILE
This report deletes old SDP Job Logs.
SM37 Depending on your process.
Status Check if job is running as scheduled.
If the report is not scheduled as provided by Application
Support, schedule it accordingly.
Program scheduling management
Contact software monitoring team
APO report /SAPAPO/AMON_REORG
This report deletes old database alerts of various types.
SM37 Depending on your process
Status Check if job is running as scheduled.
If the report is not scheduled as provided by Application
Support, schedule it accordingly.
Program scheduling management
Contact software monitoring team.
See general issues of Error Handling, Restartability and
Escalation below.
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Business Process Step 9: Exchange Requirements with Supplier In
some cases, it is desirable to exchange requirements with
suppliers. In SNP, it is usual to transfer the data periodically,
rather than immediately after planning is complete, as is the
default setting in PP/DS. These settings are maintained in
transactions /SAPAPO/SDP110 and /SAPAPO/C4 (the latter is user
specific). Note that, while the information is user specific, you
cannot use wild cards here, but must either specify the full user
ID or user entry * for all users not explicitly specified. In
addition, please refer to the corresponding documentation on CIF
functionality regarding transactional data transfers between R/3
and APO. A number of consulting notes exist regarding the transfer
of APO orders to and from R/3 in the context of exchanging
information with suppliers; for example, Notes 443500, 206679, and
432038.
Jobs for Monitoring "Exchange Requirements with Suppliers
(APO)
To ensure that the planning results are published to R/3 and
that the relevant data is consistent in both systems, certain jobs
must be scheduled on a regular basis. These jobs are:
Publish Planning Results with report /SAPAPO/RDMCPPROCESS. This
report evaluates the APO change pointers (not the same as ALE
change pointers!) that are written during planning activities. The
corresponding objects, such as planned orders, are sent to R/3.
Check Processing of APO Change Pointers with report
/SAPAPO/RDMCPPROCESS. This report verifies that all change pointers
are processed by checking that the list displayed in the report
/SAPAPO/RDMCPPROCESS is empty. If change pointers remain
unprocessed, contact the application support team to clarify
whether these change pointers are needed and why they are not
processed. Note: Deleting change pointers may cause
inconsistencies, as the corresponding order changes are not
transferred to R/3.
The jobs mentioned in the Manage APO Core Interface in mySAP
SCM, section Operation and Monitoring of the APO Core
Interface.
Monitoring Object
Monitor TA/Tool
Monitor Freq.
Monitor Time
Indicator or Error
Monitoring Activity or Error Handling Procedure
Respon-sibility
Escalation Procedure
APO Report /SAPAPO/RDMCPPROCESS
This report publishes the results of automatic and interactive
planning to R/3.
SM37 Depending on your needs, or at least once a week
Status Check if job is running as scheduled.
If the report is not scheduled as provided by Application
Support, schedule it accordingly.
Program scheduling management
Contact Application Support.
APO Report /SAPAPO/RDMCPPROCESS to display change pointers
SM37 Weekly Status Check if job is running as scheduled.
If job is not scheduled on a regular basis and periodic
publishing of data to R/3 is performed on the system, schedule the
job daily.
Program scheduling management
Contact Application Support
See general issues of Error Handling, Restartability and
Escalation below.
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Best Practice: Manage Supply Network Planning & CTM in SAP
APO (3.x) / mySAP SCM (4.x / 5.0)
2005 SAP AG
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Business Process Step 10: Load Data into BW As mentioned above,
every SAP APO system comprises a complete SAP Business Information
Warehouse System (BW), which should be used exclusively for APO
purposes. Though in this business process step data is extracted
from a separate BW system, all periodic monitoring tasks have to be
performed in the APO system as well as job definition and most of
the configuration tasks. In order to load the data into BW, the
data must first be extracted from the SNP planning area. Please
refer to Note 428147, which discusses limitations of this
functionality in detail. Note 507810 describes the complete
procedure for performing BW reporting on SNP remote cubes. The
function of creating, checking and test