Supply Network Planning is used for long-term to medium-term planning. A major advantage of this component is the Sourcing function, which allows you to specify at which location the product is procured and how it is to be procured. Sourcing is optimized using functions such as deployment and the transport load builder (TLB). Bucket capacities, which show the most detailed level for day planning, are used for product planning in Supply Network Planning.

Vehicle Scheduling (VS) is a component for short-term planning. You can define planning horizons for both Supply Network Planning and VS. These horizons are dependent upon each other and must be planned separately.

In Vehicle Scheduling, the resources and transportation processes are maintained in detail to allow for very exact planning. When the orders from Supply Network Planning are converted to VS orders, the following occurs:

• The orders are put in a certain order
• The exact move time is determined
• Information and operations still required are added (data and operations that are not required for Supply Network Planning but are necessary for Vehicle Scheduling, such as loading activities).

• Data on the TP/VS tab

• Resources:

• In the resource master, vehicle resources for all vehicles

• On the Resources tab in the location master, handling resources

• In the Supply Chain Engineer, transportation zones
• In the Supply Chain Engineer, transportation lanes
• In the optimization profile for Vehicle Scheduling in SAP APO-Customizing, you have maintained the following data:

• Start Location

• Order categories: Sales orders, deliveries, VMI sales orders, stock transport order, stock transport requisitions

• The Supply Network Planning orders must be generated here