Heuristics for Production Planning

You use heuristics for production planning (PP heuristics):

To create procurement proposals for uncovered product requirements in interactive planning or in the production planning run
To carry out other planning tasks for products or orders

For more information, see Interactive Planning or Production Planning Run.

Features

The following table contains standard heuristics that you use for procurement planning. You can use different heuristics to execute procurement planning with different lot-sizing procedures and MRP procedures.

Procurement Planning Heuristics

Name	Use/Short Description	Explanation
SAP_PP_002	Planning Standard Lots	You can use this heuristic to create procurement proposals for uncovered product requirements with standard lot-sizing procedures. The following variants exist for this heuristic: You use the standard heuristic SAP_PP_SL001 if you want to consider the shelf life data of requirements, stocks, and receipts during planning of standard lots. You use the standard heuristic SAP_PP_C001 if you want to execute planning of standard lots for products for which continuous requirements and receipts occur. Since the heuristic does not consider continuous receipt and requirements runs on dependent requirement level in multilevel planning, you should only use the heuristic for planning at finished product level. You should only execute the heuristic using an infinite detailed scheduling strategy. Note The planning of standard lots for continuous input/output does not consider capacity reservations. End of the note.
SAP_PP_003	Planning shortage quantities	You use this heuristic in the CTP Process. It is assigned to the planning procedure 3 (Cover dependent requirements immediately) in the standard Customizing. You can use this heuristic to create procurement proposals for uncovered product requirements or to reduce surplus product receipts.
SAP_PP_004	Planning standard lots in 3 horizons	You can use this heuristic to create procurement proposals for uncovered requirements in up to three consecutive planning horizons with various lot-sizing procedures.
SAP_PP_005	Part period balancing	You can use this heuristic to create procurement proposals for uncovered product requirements. The heuristic determines the procurement quantities, while taking account of the setup costs and storage costs.
SAP_PP_006	Least-unit cost procedure: External procurement	You can use this heuristic to create procurement proposals for uncovered requirements of externally-procured products. The heuristic determines the procurement quantities, while taking account of the storage costs and procurement costs.
SAP_PP_007	Reorder point planning	This heuristic creates procurement proposals if the available stock falls below the reorder point. The reorder point should cover the expected average material requirements during the replenishment lead time.
SAP_PP_013	Groff procedure	This heuristic is a variant of heuristic SAP_PP_006.
SAP_PP_Q001	Quota arrangement heuristic	You use this heuristic for products for which incoming quota arrangements are defined. The heuristic creates procurement proposals to cover uncovered product requirements. It considers the quota arrangement parameters specified in the quota arrangement. To create procurement proposals, the heuristic calls up the heuristic specified in the quota arrangement.

Note Note

For performance reasons, and to avoid requirements not being covered by planning, you should not call the procurement planning heuristic directly for mass planning of products in the production planning run. Therefore, if you want to execute procurement planning in a processing step of the production planning run for many products, you do not enter the procurement planning heuristic directly in the processing step. Instead, enter an MRP heuristic that calls the product heuristic of the products for procurement planning (see the next section and SAP Note 513827).

End of the note.

Heuristics for Process Control

Name	Description
SAP_MRP_001	Product planning (comp. according to low-level code) You use this MRP heuristic, for example, if you want to execute procurement planning according to low-level codes for many products (MRP planning run). The MRP heuristic processes the products in the sequence of your low-level codes. To call procurement planning for a product, the heuristic calls up another heuristic, such as the product heuristic entered in the location product master. The heuristic does not create any procurement proposals for the components of the products. Note The functions of an MRP heuristic include service functions such as package creation, parallel processing, and the extended log. This allows high-performing mass processing not only with procurement planning heuristics, but also with other heuristics. One example is the mass conversion of Supply Network Planning (SNP) orders into Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) orders in the production planning run (see below). End of the note.
SAP_MRP_002	Product planning (plan comp. immediately) You use this heuristic like heuristic SAP_MRP_001 for procurement planning according to low-level codes, for example. Unlike with heuristic SAP_MRP_001, the system creates procurement proposals or planning file entries immediately for the uncovered component requirements during planning of a finished product.
SAP_PP_022	Multilevel planning of individual orders This heuristic enables you to carry out multilevel planning of an order, taking into account the low-level codes. You can select resources, activities, or an order interactively, from the detailed scheduling planning board, and call the heuristic. The system then determines the dependent orders and carries out multilevel planning. The system uses the heuristic that you have assigned in the Heuristic Settings for Multilevel Planning. SAP recommends that you use the rescheduling heuristics Bottom-Up or Top-Down.
SAP_SNP_MULT	SNP-PP/DS conversion for many products You use this heuristic to perform a mass conversion of Supply Network Planning (SNP) orders into Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) orders in the production planning run. This heuristic is an MRP heuristic that calls the heuristic SAP_PP_SNGL for the actual conversion.
SAP_PP_I001	Heuristic for supersession chains This heuristic is used as a dispatcher in the planning of interchangeable products. It calls the relevant product heuristic for products in a supersession chain one after the other in the sequence defined by the supersession chain. You can only call this heuristic within the framework of an MRP heuristic.
SAP_CTG_DLG	Interactive CTP Heuristic This heuristic is used to simulate CTP to determine the new availability date for the sales order. When you accept the proposal from the interactive CTP heuristic by merging the simulation, the system invokes Back Order Processing (BOP). BOP updates the sales order with the new confirmation date and quantity.
SAP_PP_MRPDS	MRP-based Detailed Scheduling: Collective Order Heuristic This heuristic is used to create an order network in SAP APO based on the collective orders in SAP ERP. See also: MRP-based DS: Collective Order Heuristic

Note Note

Finite scheduling in the MRP run is not possible for new installations. For more information on finite planning, see also SAP Notes 459694 and 551124.

End of the note.

The following table contains standard heuristics provided by SAP that you use for other planning tasks. (These heuristics are sometimes also called service heuristics.)

Heuristics for Other Planning Tasks

Name

Description

SAP_PP_001

Change order manually

The system uses this heuristic automatically in the standard system if you change an order manually in the order view or in the product planning table. The heuristic makes the desired changes, such as a quantity or date change.

SAP_PP_008

Rescheduling: Bottom-up for continual input/output

This heuristic tries to reschedule the dates/times of stock transfer requirements and dependent requirements for products with continuous requirements and receipts, so that they are covered on time by existing receipts.

SAP_PP_009

Rescheduling: Bottom-up

This heuristic corresponds to the heuristic SAP_PP_008. However, you use it for products with discrete requirements and receipts.

SAP_PP_010

Rescheduling: Top-down

This heuristic tries to adjust the availability dates/times of receipts for products with discrete requirements and receipts, so that they cover existing requirements on time.

SAP_PP_011

SAP_PP_019

Deletion of Fixed Pegging Relationships

Creation of Fixed Pegging Relationships

SAP_PP_012

Changing order priorities

This heuristic adjusts the priorities of receipt elements to the priorities of the assigned requirements elements.

SAP_PP_014

SAP_PP_015

SAP_PP_016

Requirements ascertainment of planned independent requirements, adjustment of orders

You use these heuristics within sales order based planning, in which you only convert planned orders or purchase requisitions into manufacturing orders or into purchase orders, if these procurement proposals are used exclusively to cover sales orders.

With heuristic SAP_PP_014 you can determine open planned independent requirements for which there are no sales orders (SAP_PP_014). With heuristics SAP_PP_015 and SAP_PP_016 you can delete the planned independent requirements for which there are no sales orders and reduce the relevant procurement proposals accordingly.

SAP_PP_018

Creation of safety stock in LC

You can use this heuristic to create safety stock requirements in SAP liveCache (see also Pegging Relevance of Safety Stock).

SAP_PP_020

Stage numbering algorithm

You use this heuristic to determine the low-level codes of products.

SAP_PP_021

New explosion

You can use this heuristic to carry out a new explosion, independently of procurement planning. A new explosion is always necessary when the existing orders need to be adjusted to reflect changes in the master data. If you select individual orders, then only these orders are exploded again. This ensures that any existing planning file entries are not changed.

SAP_PP_SNGL

SNP-PP/DS individual conversion

You use this heuristic to convert Supply Network Planning (SNP) orders into Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) orders (see also Conversion of SNP and CTM Orders into PP/DS Orders).

SAP_PP_023

Propagation of Descriptive Characteristic Values

This heuristic allows you to propagate the descriptive characteristic values associated with a demand element to the dependent demand or stock transfer requirement of the receipt element pegged to it.

For more information, see the system documentation for the heuristics. To call up the system documentation for a heuristic, in Customizing for Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS), under Maintain Heuristics, select Information for the heuristic.