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  Integrating SNP and PP/DS

Use

You use Supply Network Planning (SNP) to create a feasible, medium to long-term production and distribution plan for critical products (products with long replenishment lead times or products that are produced on bottleneck resources). This plan should ensure that the required product quantities in your supply chain are available at the right place, at the right time, without overloading bottleneck resources for production and transportation. A key task of SNP involves determining the optimum sources of supply. Based on cost aspects, SNP decides where, when, and in which quantities products should be procured, produced, or transported in the supply chain. SNP plans according to periods and quantity. Order dates are exact to the day and detailed order sequences are not considered.

You use Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) for detailed production planning; that is, for planning the lot sizes to be procured, for planning order dates to the second, and for planning order sequences on the production resources. Accordingly, in PP/DS you plan in-house production based on detailed, complete plans (production process model plans, iPPE process structures, or PP/DS runtime objects) and on resources with a time-continuous capacity. For SNP planning, on the other hand, you use rough production process model plans (PPM plans). These contain only a section of the BOM with the critical components. You use resources with a period-related capacity, where the smallest period is a day.

You separate the responsibilities for planning using the PP/DS horizon and the SNP production horizon. Planning within the PP/DS horizon is part of PP/DS planning and planning outside of the SNP production horizon is part of SNP planning, although the planning areas may also overlap. If, within short-term planning, you want to execute more detailed planning on receipts created by SNP, meaning that you want to plan them with detailed dates and a complete BOM, you must convert the SNP receipts into PP/DS receipts . PP/DS can either determine the lot sizes and sources of supply independently of SNP, or can copy the SNP lot size and source of supply decisions.

The following scenarios are possible for integration and task distribution between SNP and PP/DS:

  • SNP and PP/DS are responsible for different planning phases

    You execute medium-term planning with SNP and short-term planning with PP/DS. The planning areas do not overlap, meaning that the PP/DS horizon and the SNP production horizon are the same length. If the SNP receipts reach the PP/DS horizon, you convert the SNP receipts into PP/DS receipts.

  • SNP and PP/DS are responsible for different locations

    You plan the distribution centers with SNP and the production plants with PP/DS. You use the strengths of PP/DS (detailed production planning with complete BOMs and order sequences that are optimal for setup) for production planning. This degree of detail is not necessary for planning the distribution centers. In SNP planning, you only have to model the production capacities roughly in SNP to create plans that are also realistic with regard to production. SNP planning results primarily in stock transport orders. These orders are relevant to PP/DS if the stock transfer requirements concern production plants.

  • SNP and PP/DS have a common planning area

    Here, there is a common planning area for SNP and PP/DS in which SNP has planning control for certain finished products and their critical components; that is, SNP alone plans receipts and determines cost-effective sources of supply and lot sizes. You only use PP/DS to plan the receipts created by SNP in detail (that is, to complete the BOM) and to execute sequencing (for example, with setup time optimization). PP/DS copies the SNP source of supply decisions during conversion. For planning in-house production, this scenario requires the use of mixed resources and production process models.

Features

Planning Version

Since it is only possible to convert the SNP orders into PP/DS orders within one planning version, you must use the same planning version for SNP and PP/DS. You must set the following indicators in the planning version:

  • SNP: Change planning active

  • PP/DS: Change planning active

Horizons

The horizons have the following functions for SNP and PP/DS planning:

  • Within the PP/DS horizon, PP/DS can create receipts automatically. Outside the PP/DS horizon, you can only manually create receipts in PP/DS.

  • SNP plans outside the SNP production horizon, meaning that SNP can create receipts here. Planning within the SNP production horizon is fixed for SNP. SNP can no longer change an SNP order that has landed in the SNP production horizon. You have to convert it into a PP/DS order, if necessary.

  • PP/DS receipts are visible for SNP as aggregated receipts, but they cannot be changed. SNP considers PP/DS receipts as confirmed production during the net requirements calculation.

You enter the PP/DS horizon and the SNP production horizon in the location product master for the products that you want to plan using SNP and PP/DS. If you want the PP/DS horizon and the SNP planning period to always follow each other without a gap, you only enter the SNP production horizon in the location product master, and no PP/DS horizon. The system automatically uses the SNP production horizon as the PP/DS horizon. This is required in particular if you define the SNP production horizon in calendar weeks or calendar months. If you enter the SNP production horizon in calendar weeks or calendar months, the SNP production horizon always lasts until the end of the period that is defined by the number of calendar weeks or calendar months. Therefore, the SNP production horizon automatically gets shorter in the course of a period.

Resources

If you want to consider the resource loads caused by PP/DS orders in SNP planning, and adjust the SNP planning accordingly, you must use mixed resources (single-mixed resources or multimixed resources). In mixed resources, you define the bucket capacity for period-oriented planning in SNP and the time-continuous capacity for time-continuous planning in PP/DS. An SNP order utilizes the bucket capacity of a mixed resource and a PP/DS order utilizes the time-continuous capacity of a mixed resource. For SNP planning, the amount of bucket capacity utilized by PP/DS orders is displayed as an aggregated capacity requirement. SNP planning can therefore take account of the PP/DS orders. For PP/DS planning, the time-continuous capacity used by SNP orders is not displayed.

The system can automatically derive the bucket capacity of a mixed resource from the time-continuous capacity. Since you do not plan with so much detail in SNP, for example you do not use sequence-dependent setup times, you can reduce the bucket capacity derived using a loss factor. You obtain such a buffer for detailed planning in PP/DS.

Sources of Supply for In-House Production

To plan in-house production, for PP/DS you use PP/DS PPMs, PP/DS runtime objects, or iPPE access objects, and for SNP you use SNP PPMs. Since PP/DS plans in detail, the plans for the PP/DS sources of supply are more detailed than the plans for the SNP PPMs. PP/DS plans take account of all PP/DS relevant components and resources. For SNP, you use PPMs with simpler PPM plans with which you only plan the critical activities and components.

If you plan using PPMs in PP/DS, you can define in the conversion settings that PP/DS adopts the sources of supply defined by SNP. When an SNP order is converted, the system therefore uses the PP/DS PPM defined by the SNP order for the PP/DS orders. To make this possible, you must have entered the PP/DS PPM to be used by PP/DS in a manually created SNP PPM plan. Using PPM generation , you can also create SNP PPMs automatically from PP/DS PPMs. PPM generation can:

  • Use a PP/DS PPM, for which you have defined a lot size interval, to create a corresponding SNP PPM with the same lot-size interval.

  • Use a PP/DS PPM, which allows operations to be processed in different modes, to create an SNP PPM for each possible mode combination.

If you want SNP to specify the sources of supply during conversion, and you are planning with an automatically generated SNP PPM, the system automatically uses the basic PP/DS PPM.

You should be aware that PP/DS and SNP optimization interpret the lot-size intervals for PPMs differently in the definition of PPMs. You should reconcile the lot-size intervals of the PPMs to each other accordingly.

Recommendation Recommendation

Define the lot-size interval of a PP/DS PPM, for example, based on the process-related or technical creation restrictions. Use the PP/DS minimum lot size as the SNP minimum lot size. As maximum lot size, specify in the SNP PPM the total quantity that can be produced in one day.

Example: Color is mixed in a mixing pot. The mixing sequence is such that at least 200 liters of color must be mixed in the pot for one mixing operation. For the PP/DS PPM and the SNP PPM, this gives a minimum lot size of 200 liters. The mixing pot has a capacity of 1000 liters. This gives a maximum lot size of 1000 liters for the PP/DS PPM. To determine the maximum lot size for the SNP PPM, you must now consider the production time in PP/DS. If the mixing operation lasts for one hour, irrespective of the quantity, and the average working time is 18 hours per day, then the maximum lot size for the SNP PPM is 18 x 1000 liters = 18000 liters.

End of the recommendation.

See also

SAP note 481906