Transaction Data with CDP Characteristics 

In this section, you will find information on the following topics:

·        Transferring Classifications and Configurations

·        In-House Production Orders with CDP Characteristics

·        Production Order with Block Planning

·        Integration of Production Order with Product Variants Including PPM of Configurable Material

·        External procurement orders with CDP characteristics

·        Batch Selection at the Sales Order for CDP

Consider any existing release restrictions specified in SAP note 601885.

Transferring Classifications and Configurations

The SAP APO Core Interface (CIF) on the SAP R/3 side enables you to transfer characteristic value assignments for:

·        Batch stock

·        Sales order

·        Production order

·        Material variant

·        Purchase requisition

·        Purchase order

Although mandatory in the SAP R/3 System, class types are not planned for CDP in the SAP APO System. If the requirement and receipt for configurable products are pegged on several levels, the requirement must be directly classified. Ensure that the same class with the same class name that the receipt was classified with is also assigned to the requirement.

In SAP R/3, it is possible that the class of a receipt product for a production order (class type 300) is not the same as the class of a batch (class type 023). In the SAP APO System, however, the receipt elements and all demand elements that are linked to the receipt elements with pegging relationships, are classified in the same way. Therefore, in SAP R/3, you must indicate that the class of a configurable product (material) and the class of a batch are identical. The characteristic values of these classes are transferred to the SAP APO System.

Take the following points into consideration when you create your characteristics and classification system in SAP APO:

·        In the SAP R/3 System, use single-value batch classifications and configurations, as only single-value characteristic value assignments are defined in SAP APO.

·        Multiple classification is generally not permitted - only one SAP APO-relevant class can be assigned in the SAP R/3 System. Classes with the same name are only permitted if one class is assigned to class type 300, and the other class is assigned to class type 023.

·        For integration with SAP R/3, CDP only supports single-level configurations.

·        Possible object dependencies in SAP R/3 and the default values within the characteristics and classification system are not supported. Instead, you define characteristic propagation for the production process model (PPM) in SAP APO using the propagation definition.

·        For numeric characteristics, SAP APO always uses the number format (15 digits, including three decimal places). If you have defined characteristics in the SAP R/3 System in a format with more than three decimal places, change the number format accordingly.

·        Products, classes and characteristics (with the relevant organizational areas) must be selected in the same integration model when transferring the batch valuations.

In-House Production Orders with CDP Characteristics

In-house production orders with CDP characteristics are usually created in SAP APO as planned orders, and converted to production orders (process orders) during the transfer to SAP R/3. A prerequisite for integration with in-house production is SAP R/3 4.5B.

With the CDP propagation rules in the PPM, the system can derive new characteristic value assignments and characteristic requirements for input and output nodes of an SAP APO order. These value assignments and requirements are usually transferred back to the SAP R/3 System with the order. The value assignments at the output nodes are stored in SAP R/3 as configurations, and the requirements at the input nodes are stored in SAP R/3 as batch selection criteria. For all nodes that have characteristic value assignments set, the material must be configurable or a material variant in the SAP R/3 System. A configuration profile must be assigned to the material, and the characteristics used must be assigned to the variant class of the material. If characteristic requirements are used, a corresponding class for batch classification must be assigned to the material.

When defining the PPM in the SAP APO System, note that reconfiguration is not supported in the SAP R/3 System. For product variants, you can only use variant configuration.

For configurable materials in the individual customer segment: If the material number matches the assigned sales order item, the characteristics from the sales order are referenced in SAP R/3. Potential differing values in SAP APO are not taken into account. In the SAP R/3 System, the characteristic values are only copied from SAP APO in the case of a material number in the individual customer segment that varies from the sales order. Make-to-stock production with configurable materials is not allowed in the SAP R/3 System.

In the cases where configurations are created with CDP characteristics, additional characteristics that are unknown to SAP APO are copied. In make-to-order production during the class consistency process, SAP APO characteristics without value assignments are enriched with those from the sales order item in the SAP R/3 System.

SAP APO transfers an order in the individual customer segment to the SAP R/3 System. The material number of the order to be created is not the same as the number of the sales order, however the variant class is the same. SAP APO transfers the Length characteristic with a value of 100; the Surcharge characteristic is not SAP APO-relevant and is therefore not transferred to the SAP R/3 System. In the sales order, however, the characteristic has a value assignment. The new configuration inherits this value assignment from the sales order.

All characteristics must therefore always have value assignments in SAP APO, as they are otherwise overwritten with values in the SAP R/3 System.

As the SAP R/3 planned order cannot have its own configuration, orders with CDP characteristics are created in SAP R/3 as production orders. Technically, in the case of a value assignment to input or output nodes, this means that the conversion indicator is set. In turn, this means that such orders never exist as planned orders in the SAP R/3 System. Using a Customizing setting, however, you can ensure that only orders with conversion indicators are transferred to the SAP R/3 System. To do this, choose Supply Chain Planning → Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) → Global Settings → Maintain Global Parameters and Defaults from SAP APO Customizing. Under Create/change orders, Transfer to OLTP in-house production, choose Transfer Only for Orders with Conversion Indicator. For more information, see Transferring Orders into the SAP R/3 System.

Using CDP rules, you can delete distant components or operations from the super explosion, depending on the characteristics. These are then also deleted from the SAP R/3 order. A parallel maintenance of object dependencies in the SAP R/3 System is therefore not a good idea.

CDP characteristic values transferred from SAP APO cannot be changed in the SAP R/3 System.

Production Order with Block Planning

If no suitable block is found during the transfer of block-planned orders from the SAP R/3 System, for example, during an initial data transfer, block planning in SAP APO is then not considered.

Integration of Production Order with Product Variants Including PPM of Configurable Material

In SAP R/3, you create a BOM/routing and a production version for the configurable material. No BOM or routing is created for the material variants, just a production version. This must have the same name as the production version of the configurable material, and refer to BOMs and routings of the configurable material.

In the integration model, you must specify that a PPM is only transferred for the configurable materials, not for the product variants. You can therefore ensure that only one PPM exists in SAP APO for the configurable product and the product variants refer to this.

If you do not filter the transfer of PPMs for product variants, you have the following possibility (as long as you do not have any further selection macros in SAP APO): If you have maintained object dependencies for BOMs and routings of the configurable material, then the object dependency is evaluated in the transfer of PPMs for product variants. In SAP APO, a correctly configured PPM is created.

External procurement orders with CDP characteristics

As of SAP R/3 ECC 5.0, a prerequisite for the integration of CDP characteristics for external procurement orders is SAP R/3 Plug-In 2004.1.

If you want to use object characteristics in Purchasing, you require SAP R/3 ECC-DIMP 5.00 or higher and SAP R/3 Plug-In 2004.1.

In external procurement orders, only value assignments of output nodes are transferred to the SAP R/3 System. Characteristics of subcontracting components are not transferred.

You can create purchase requisitions with own configuration (as opposed to the planned orders in in-house production orders).

There may be an external procurement of a configurable material or of a material variant with a value assignment in stock that varies from the material master (but not with in-house production orders). For referencing or inheritance, the same rules apply as for in-house production orders.

CDP characteristic value assignments to purchase requisitions are stored in the purchase requisitions in the SAP R/3 System as (own) configuration. If all SAP APO-relevant characteristic value assignments have value assignments to the purchase requisition, you cannot change these values in either SAP R/3 or SAP APO.

Batch Selection for CDP

If you have specified selection criteria for batch selection of the sales order item, you can transfer them from SAP R/3 to SAP APO and define them there as characteristic requirements for Characteristics-Dependent Planning (CDP). As well as single values, the system supports either an interval for numerical characteristics or multiple values (see SAP note 526883).

If a sales order item has selection criteria for batch selection and configuration data, and pegging with characteristics is used, these characteristic value assignments and characteristic requirements must not contradict each other.

A prerequisite for the transfer of selection criteria for batch selection is SAP R/3 Plug-In 2003.1 as of R/3 4.6B. In the integration model, you must have selected Classes/Characteristics and set the Transfer batches of material indicator for the batches to be transferred to the material. In SAP APO Customizing under Basis Settings, you must have set CDP as a class system.

You can use batch selection characteristics in SAP APO only for sales orders and deliveries. A scenario with batch selection characteristics without using configuration is therefore only useful at finished product level. See SAP note 526883.

Transfer of Characteristic Requirements to Stock Transfer Documents

In the case of stock transfers, SAP APO can transfer the characteristic requirements of the demand to stock transport requisitions or stock transport orders, in order to ensure that characteristic requirements are available for planning across plants.   

For more information, see Transfer of Characteristic Requirements to Stock Transfer Documents.