Definition

An action point is a point at a production line or a work center at which an action can be triggered automatically in SAP APO.

If you do not use iPPE, you create action points in the master data of the Action Handler (transaction AHTGL02 and AHTGL01). Otherwise you can create them directly in iPPE (transaction PPE). For further information, see Maintain Action Points Without iPPE and Maintain Action Points with iPPE (Repetitive Manufacturing) or Maintain Action Points with iPPE (Shop Floor Production) .

Use

You use action points for the automated Action Handler with iPPE or without iPPE .

Structure

The action point has to be reported. If it is not reported, the notification of the succeeding action point cannot be posted, and an error occurs.

The action can but does not have to be reported. If it is not reported, the system does not carry out the actions which are assigned to it either.

The action can but does not have to be reported. If it is reported, the system carries out the actions which are assigned to it. If the action point is not reported, the system retroactively carries out the actions which are assigned to it when the succeeding action point is reported. In this case, the Action Handler subsequently creates the triggering event.

This setting makes sense if you cannot rely on notifications from action points due to possible sources of errors like a broken scanner, for example.

See Error Handling .

If you do not use iPPE, you do not only define the action points themselves but also the predecessor/successor relationships which determine their sequence.

Determining the sequence of action points is important if you want to save production tracking information and then display how many/which orders are being processed between two selected action points within a certain selection horizon.

If you use iPPE for repetitive manufacturing, each element of the line structure (for example, line network, line or line segment) can have a start action point at the beginning of the element and an end action point at the end of the element. The line structure then automatically determines the sequence of the action points.

If you use iPPE for shop floor production, you can assign an action point to each iPPE activity mode of the process structure. In this case, the relationships of the iPPE activities determine the sequence of the action points.

Integration

You can give the action points any name (description) you want to. You only have to ensure that the production control system recognizes the chosen spelling of the names, and that the relevant link is programmed in the production control system.