Planning Area Administration 

Purpose

The setup of the Supply Network Planning (SNP) system environment is integral to successful planning. Planning area administration is the first step in this setup process.

Prerequisites

You have understood the differences between the different storage methods in Supply Network Planning and Demand Planning (DP), and know which functions are supported by which storage methods. For more information, see Saving Data in DP and SNP.

You have understood the role and purpose of the following:

·        Key Figure

·        Characteristic

·        Master Planning Object Structure

·        Storage Buckets Profile

·        Planning Area

·        Aggregates and Planning Objects

·        Planning Book

Note that the attribute object (for example, navigation attribute) is only used in Demand Planning. In SNP, you cannot create aggregate objects yourself, as opposed to Demand Planning, where you can do this. If you create and activate your own master planning object structure (see step 5 below), SNP aggregates are generated automatically.

Process

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       1.      For Supply Network Planning, we deliver predefined standard key figures and characteristics, which means that you do not have to create your own key figures and characteristics.

To display the characteristics in master planning object structures 9ASNPBAS and 9ASNPSA and key figures in the planning areas 9ASNP02, 9ASNP03, 9ASNP04, and 9ASNP05 on the SAP Easy Access screen choose Advanced Planning and Optimization  → Supply Network Planning → Environment → Current Settings → Administration of Demand Planning and Supply Network Planning.

       2.      You create storage bucket profiles on the SAP Easy Access screen by choosing Advanced Planning and Optimization  → Supply Network Planning → Environment → Current Settings → Periodicities for Planning Area. For more information, see Storage Buckets Profile.

       3.      You create planning bucket profiles on the SAP Easy Access screen by choosing Advanced Planning and Optimization → Supply Network Planning → Environment → Current Settings → Maintain Time Buckets Profile for Demand Plng and Supply Network Plng. For more information, see Planning Buckets Profile.

       4.      You create the planning versions that you want to use for SNP and assign them to a supply chain model. For more information, see Model/Version Creation.

       5.      SNP comes with the standard master planning object structures 9ASNPBAS and 9ASNPSA (for scheduling agreement processing).

You also have the option of creating your own master planning object structure. However, this does not have any advantages over using the standard master planning object structures. To create a new master planning object structure, on the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Advanced Planning and Optimization → Supply Network Planning → Environment → Current Settings → Administration of Demand Planning and Supply Network Planning. Then, from the context menu of Planning Areas, choose Plng Object Structures, alternate mouse-click the Plng Object Structures folder, and choose Create Planning Object Structure. If you select the SNP Planning indicator, the SNP standard characteristics are adopted into the master planning object structure automatically.

It is not possible to use additional characteristics in SNP. Do not change the delivered standard characteristics mentioned above either. In particular, you must not add navigation attributes to characteristics, as SNP does not support them (apart from the standard navigation attributes). This means that using navigation attributes leads to problems.

When you activate the master planning object structure, the system asks you whether you want the SNP standard planning level to be created. Confirm this to trigger generation of the SNP aggregates (that is, master data objects such as location product or resource). You have the option of creating the SNP standard planning level at a later point in Administration of Demand Planning and Supply Network Planning using the context menu function from the master planning object structure.

For more information, see Master Planning Object Structure and the Customizing documentation.

       6.      SAP delivers the following standard planning areas for SNP:

¡        9ASNP02 (order-based)

¡        9ASNP03 (for scheduling agreement processing)

¡        9ASNP04 (for optimization-based planning with time-dependent restrictions)

¡        9ASNP05 (for safety stock planning)

¡        9AVMI03 (for deployment heuristic with consideration of demands in the source location)

¡        9SSNP_PPDS (used by PP/DS deployment)

You can also create your own planning areas as follows: on the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Advanced Planning and Optimization → Supply Network Planning → Environment → Current Settings → Administration of Demand Planning and Supply Network Planning, and choose Edit → Create Planning Area.

To create an order-based SNP planning area, copy an order-based SNP standard planning area. This ensures that your own planning area contains all the key figures with their necessary attributes required in SNP. You can also assign additional key figures to your planning area, for example, to store data that is calculated by a macro. Note that you should not make any settings for the additional key figures in the key figure details since these key figures would then be created in liveCache time series objects.

For more information, see Planning Area and the Customizing documentation.

       7.      You set up your master data for SNP. For more information, see Master Data for Supply Network Planning.

       8.      You initialize the planning area by alternate mouse-clicking the planning area and choosing Initialize Planning Version.

Note that the context menu function for initializing is named Initialize Planning Version only if no time series key figures are included in the planning area.If at least one of these key figures exists in the planning area, the context menu function is named Create time series objects.

If you need to reinitialize a planning area after updating your master data or to extend the planning horizon, you do not need to deinitialize it first or delete the time series objects. The system recognizes new and deleted planning objects and updates them accordingly.

For more information, see Maintaining SNP Master Data and Time Series.

       9.      You create planning books and planning views. You can assign the planning books and planning views to individual users. For more information, see Planning Book.

SNP provides the following standard planning books and data views for the different types of planning. For SNP, we recommend that you use these standard planning books. If you need to create additional planning books, you should use the standard books as templates.

¡        9ASNP94 (Interactive Supply Network Planning and Transport Load Builder (TLB))

This planning book offers the standard functions for running interactive Supply Network Planning and the interactive Transport Load Builder.

¡        9ADRP (Distribution Resource Planning (DRP))

This user interface is almost identical to the interactive Supply Network Planning interface, the only difference being that here it is also possible to display distribution receipts and issues.

¡        9AVMI (Interactive VMI)

In addition to the typical SNP data that you can display, you can also display the values for your VMI receipts and demands (planned, confirmed, and TLB-confirmed).

¡        9ASA (interactive scheduling agreements)

You use this planning book to display and change all data that is relevant for scheduling agreement processing.

¡        9ASNPAGGR (Aggregated Planning)

You use this planning book to perform aggregated planning and planning with aggregated resources.

¡        9ASNP_PS (product interchangeability)

You use this planning book if you want to consider product interchangeability when planning.

¡        9ATSOPT

You use this planning book to define time-based constraints for optimization-based planning.

¡        9ASNP_SSP

You must use this planning book (or one based on it) if you want to apply certain standard safety stock planning methods. You can also use this book for extended safety stock planning.

¡        9DRP_FSS

You can use this planning book (or one based on it) if you want the deployment heuristic to additionally consider customer demands or planned independent demands in the source location. For more information, see Consideration of Demands in the Source Location.

¡        9ASNP_SHLF

You can use this planning book to propagate shelf life data and to display shelf life data and shelf life alerts. For more information, see Considering Shelf Life Data in SNP.