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Function documentationDRP Horizons

 

This distribution requirements planning (DRP) function determines whether or not and to what extent the scheduling agreement releases and orders for certain globally defined horizons can be processed, that is, created, changed, or deleted in the particular horizon.

Criteria for time lengths of the horizons include supplier delivery times, transportation times, and freeze parameters.

Integration

Each DRP horizon is assigned its own stability rules. These define the activities that are allowed, restricted, or not allowed within certain DRP horizons, as well as the conditions for these activities.

Prerequisites

  • You have made the following settings in Customizing under Define Service Profile for DRP:

    • You have entered the start of the planning horizon under Horizons.

    • You have activated the Apply Stability Rules indicator under Stability Rules.

  • You have defined the length of the individual DRP horizons in Customizing under Make General Settings for DRP in the Horizons area. However, the system uses these values only if the horizon has a duration of zero at definition.

For more information about these settings, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Advanced Planning and Optimization under Start of the navigation path Supply Chain Planning Next navigation step Service Parts Planning (SPP) Next navigation step Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP) End of the navigation path.

Features

This figure shows the DRP horizons described below:

Freeze Horizon

  • The freeze horizon is composed of the following components:

    • DRP time of release

    • Duration of communication between ordering party and supplier

    • Correction freeze period

      You have entered the correction freeze period in the transportation lane master data for the transportation lane from the supplier to your location under Header Data.

    • Synchronization with the goods issue calendar of the supplier

    • Transportation time of the means of transport

    • Synchronization of start of goods receipt

    • Goods receipt processing time

      The system does not take this time into account for contract packagers (CPs).

  • Automatic changes are not allowed in this horizon. If changes are necessary, the system creates an alert.

  • The system calculates the freeze horizon from the components specified above. You can, however, extend the freeze horizon until a defined point in the future for a specific supplier and a specific product. In this way, you can prevent the system from changing existing schedule lines for this product or creating new schedule lines. If you want to extend the freeze horizon, you can enter the required end point in the product-specific transportation lane master data as a dynamic freeze horizon. The system then compares the date you specified with the end date calculated for the freeze horizon and selects the later date as the actual end date of the freeze horizon.

Freeze Horizon for Repair-or-Buy Planning and Kit-to-Stock Planning

If you are using the repair-or-buy function or the kit-to-stock function, the system schedules the freeze horizon for products that you repair or kits that you create by scheduling the delivery time and the buffer for the horizon in which no repair or kitting orders may be generated.

You define this buffer in the location product master data on the SPP DRP tab page in the Buffer for Horizon: No Repair/Kitting Orders field.

For more information about how the system calculates the delivery times for repaired products and for kits, see Calculation of Lead Times in DRP in the section Lead Times for Repaired Products and Kits.

Limited Freeze Horizon

  • This horizon spans the supplier delivery time. This is determined in the master data and includes the following components.

    • DRP time of release

    • Duration of communication between ordering party and supplier

    • Planned delivery time minus the transportation time of the means of transport

      The planned delivery time includes the delivery time agreed on with the supplier and the transportation time of the means of transport.

    • Synchronization with the goods issue calendar of the supplier

    • Transportation time of the means of transport

    • Synchronization of start of goods receipt

    • Goods receipt processing time

      The system does not take this time into account for contract packagers (CPs).

  • Only limited automatic changes are allowed in this horizon, depending on the stability rules.

  • The system uses stability rules.

Plan Submission Horizon

  • From the end of the limited freeze horizon to the end of the plan submission horizon, the system sends all scheduling agreement releases to the supplier.

  • Almost all automatic changes are allowed in this horizon, depending on the stability rules.

  • From the end of the limited freeze horizon to the end of the plan submission horizon, the system uses simplified stability rules.

Planning Horizon

  • This horizon incorporates the whole planning time of a product.

  • From the end of the plan submission horizon to the end of the planning horizon, all automatic changes are allowed.

  • From the end of the plan submission horizon to the end of the planning horizon, the system does not use stability rules.

For more information about the procurement lead times described above, see Procurement Lead Times in Service Parts Planning.