Purpose

The data generated or changed by SAP APO in Supply Network Planning (SNP) or Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) is transferred to SAP R/3. This operation is called the publication of planning results. There are two types or publication in SAP APO: Direct publication and periodic publication. You can choose between the two by using transaction /SAPAPO/C4.

Prerequisites

For the publication types listed below, changes to documents that originate in SAP R/3 can be transferred to SAP R/3 without a distribution definition. SAP APO transfers these documents back to the SAP R/3 system from which they originate. In this case, the information about the SAP R/3 system from which they originate is saved when the documents are initially transferred from SAP R/3 to SAP APO ( lookup information ).

A distribution definition is not necessary for the following publication types:

Sales order

In-house production

External procurement

Production campaign

For all other publication types, SAP APO is unable to determine a target system unless a distribution definition is entered. That means that the objects concerned cannot be transferred to SAP R/3 even if they originate in SAP R/3. These objects are:

Confirmation for scheduling agreement

Planned independent requirement

Shipment

Delivery

Planning file entry (IS Automotive)

Confirmation (IS Automotive)

Confirmation of deletions (IS Automotive)

Reporting points (IS Automotive)

Reservations

If you want to process distribution definitions for a large number of locations, you can use transaction /SAPAPO/CP2. You can find this in the implementation guide in SAP APO under  SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer (SAP APO) Basis Settings Integration Publication Generate and Delete Distribution Definition .

First, under Publ. Type choose the publication type for which the settings should apply using input help (F4). You can choose from the following settings:

Every order is transferred to SAP R/3 in a queue that can be uniquely identified by its name (the GUID or the external order number). The block size is used to define the number of orders that are published to SAP R/3 in one block (and therefore also the number of queues). A block corresponds to a logical processing unit, also called a LUW (Logical Unit of Work). If a block contains a queue with errors, all queues (and therefore orders) in this block are not transferred.

This means that there are more potential negative effects of a faulty queue if the block size is larger because the entire block will not be transferred. Other queues with the same name in different blocks may also affected. In this case, these blocks are also not transferred (serialization effect). For this reason, you should try to use smaller block sizes.

Using smaller block sizes generates a large number of independent blocks that can be processed in parallel. This reduces the potential negative effects of a faulty queue. However, a large number of processes running in parallel leads to a heavier system load. To avoid overloading SAP R/3, you should only choose a very small value for block sizes (for example, 1) if you are using inbound queues for the communication between SAP APO and SAP R/3.

You should carry out your own tests to determine the ideal block size for your requirements. The default setting is 100.

Here, you can enter a fixed queue name for a certain publication type. Every object for this publication type is then sent to SAP R/3 with the same queue name. As only queues whose name begins with CF are sent by the SCM Queue Manager, you should adhere to this naming standard.

All objects of the same publication type are transferred sequentially. This means that an object with errors can block subsequent queues.

Due to the large serialization effect (all queues are assigned the same name!) this setting should not be used if possible. You are not allowed to use a wildcard such as asterisk (*) in this field.

As of SAP APO 3.1 Support Package 3, the Queue Name field no longer exists. If you already had an entry here, you need to delete it. For more information, see SAP Note 505190.

Any settings that you make here only apply to the publication type In-House Production . You can specify whether, and in what circumstances, changes to planned orders or production orders in SAP R/3 that lead to rescheduling in SAP APO are automatically retransferred to SAP R/3. Automatic retransfer is useful if the dates for the orders need to agree in both systems at a particular point in time.

You can choose between three settings:

Objects changed in SAP R/3 are retransferred to SAP R/3 only after online transfer to SAP APO (that is, after manual changes to the SAP R/3 order). There is no retransfer after the initial data transfer. This setting can also have a negative effect on performance. For example, this setting is not recommended if your business process uses a daily optimization run in SAP APO and SAP R/3 is to incorporate the results of the optimization run.

If you set this indicator, SAP APO publishes the planning results in uniform blocks. That is, the orders are sorted according to certain criteria (for example, location product) for the transfer to SAP R/3. As a result, a block only contains orders of one type (for example, all orders for a location product). However, there may not be more orders in the block than the maximum figure set under block size. The advantage of uniform blocks is that this method reduces errors in publication. For example, if master data errors lead to errors during posting in the target system, only those orders are affected whose products refer to this master data error. As orders for other products are published in another block when using uniform blocks, they are not affected by this error.

Depending on the combination of data, publishing orders in uniform blocks can mean that the system is not able to use the maximum block sizes and instead forms a number of small blocks. This can have a negative effect on performance. Currently, this function is only available for the publication types In-House Production and External Procurement .

Process Flow

In SAP APO, you can set whether the planning results are to be transferred directly or periodically, or whether the system automatically selects the current Customizing settings for SNP or PP/DS planning results.

Choose  Tools APO Administration Integration Settings User Settings or call up report /SAPAPO/RDMCPPROCESS (transaction /SAPAPO/C4).

Use input help (F4) to choose one of the following settings under Recording :