Defining Detailed Scheduling Strategies

Use

You use different detailed scheduling strategies , which are specific to each planning problem, for the various planning tasks in Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) . To make sure that orders that you transfer from an OLTP system are scheduled successfully, you use a strategy that restricts scheduling as little as possible. If you use the detailed scheduling planning board (DS planning board) or the resource planning table to schedule the sequence of orders on resources interactively, you use more restrictive strategy settings that take account of the limited resource capacity, for example.

How you define the DS strategy depends on the application, as follows:

You use a strategy profile for many applications. These include the manual scheduling or rescheduling of orders in interactive planning or the scheduling of the orders you transfer from an OLTP system. The setting options in a strategy profile are not specific to one application, meaning that a strategy profile contains all the possible setting options. For each application, you use a special strategy profile in which you have only made the settings relevant for the respective application.

For heuristics, you define the strategy settings in the heuristic settings. These include the DS heuristics or the heuristic SAP_SNGL, which you use to convert SNP orders into PP/DS orders . Only the setting options that are relevant for planning with the heuristic are available for the strategies in the heuristic settings.

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The PP heuristics (SAP_PP_…) have a special role: After upgrading to SAP APO 4.0, you can either use a strategy profile or use the strategy settings in the heuristic. For more information, see Defining the Strategy Settings for PP Heuristics .

Activities

Defining Strategy Profiles

SAP issues standard strategy profiles.If you want to use your own strategy profiles, you have to define strategy profiles in Customizing for Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) or in the area menu for Production Planning under Environment → Current Settings

Heuristic Settings

You maintain heuristic settings in Customizing for Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) under Maintain Heuristics.

Strategy Settings for Background Processes

For each of the following applications, y ou enter the strategy profile that you want the system to use for the application in Customizing for Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling under Maintain Global Parameters and Default Values :

Scheduling orders that you transfer from an SAP R/3 system to the SAP APO system

Scheduling orders that you transfer with Business Application Programming Interfaces (BAPIs) from an OLTP system to the SAP APO system

Scheduling orders during the Capable-to-Promise process

Scheduling orders for conversion of ATP tree structures into PP/DS orders

Strategy Settings for Interactive Planning

You use strategy profiles to define the strategy settings for interactive planning.

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You can call heuristics in interactive planning. This section only deals with planning activities without heuristics. For more information, see Strategy Settings for Heuristics in Interactive Planning (see below).

You can change the strategy settings at any time in interactive planning . If you have changed a strategy setting in interactive planning, the system immediately takes the changed settings into consideration for your subsequent planning activities.

Application	Customizing	Interactive Change
Manually creating or changing orders in the Order view Product planning table	Enter a strategy profile in Customizing for Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling under Maintain Global Parameters and Default Values in the Interactive Planning field.	Change the settings of the active strategy profile under Settings →Strategy
Scheduling or rescheduling operations or orders in the integrated DS planning board (DS planning board in the product planning table and in order processing)	Enter a strategy profile in Customizing for Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling under Maintain Global Parameters and Default Values in the Integrated DS Planning Board field.	Change the settings of the active strategy profile under Settings →Strategy
Scheduling or rescheduling operations and orders in the directly called DS planning board ( manually or with the reschedule scheduling function).	Enter a DS strategy profile in the overall profile for the DS planning board. You define overall profiles in Customizing for Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling or in the area menu for Production Planning under Environment → Current Settings	Enter any DS strategy profile when you invoke the DS planning board. Choose another DS strategy profile or change the settings for the active DS strategy profile under Settings → Strategy in the DS planning board . You can also use the pushbuttons in the DS planning board to change the settings for the active strategy profile.
Order processing functions in the directly called DS planning board	Enter a PP strategy profile in the overall profile for the DS planning board.	Enter any PP strategy profile when you call the DS planning board. You can also change the settings of the active PP strategy profile for the functions Create Order and Change Order Quantity using the pushbuttons in the respective dialog boxes.

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text.

If you invoke the strategy settings in interactive planning, you can choose between two different views of the strategy profile. All settings are available in the expert view . In each application-specific view – the DS view for Detailed Scheduling (DS) and the PP view for Production Planning (PP) – only the settings that are relevant or recommended for the related functions are available.

Provided you only use settings that are available in the DS view or PP view , you can switch between the application-specific view and the expert view as often as you like. Otherwise, you can only call the expert view. For more information, see SAP Note 587095.

Strategy Settings for Heuristics in Interactive Planning

PP heuristics (SAP_PP_…)

See Defining Strategy Settings for PP Heuristics

Other heuristics

If you want to change the strategy settings for a heuristic in interactive planning, you choose the desired heuristic under Settings → Heuristics and change the strategy settings.

Strategy Settings for the Production Planning Run

If you enter a function or heuristic for a processing step in the production planning run, and this function or heuristic requires a strategy profile, you also enter a strategy profile for the processing step. These functions include the DS functions Reschedule or Schedule