Production Planning - Successful Solutions for the Digital Transformation of Your Production Processes
Organize Production Planning Processes Digitally, Transparently and Competitively
New Possibilities in Production Planning
Production planning and operations play a central role in manufacturing companies. Shorter and shorter product life cycles, complex global supply chains, and a constantly changing sales market present them with new challenges. They must meet these adequately and in the shortest possible time. S/4HANA in manufacturing provides functionalities that enable companies to shape their Digital Transformation, thereby increasing the transparency of their processes and simultaneously reducing throughput times and costs. But the basic module Production Supply of our cloud logistics platform platbricks® can also increase process efficiency here.
Our Services for Your Success
We rely on best practices to achieve fast process implementations and refine them via fit gaps. However, during our many years of experience, we have also designed many customer-specific solutions that can be seamlessly integrated into the SAP standard. In addition to our own applications, reports, and KPIs, this also includes the development of production-related FIORI applications for mobile devices. In addition, we succeed in connecting further applications to your system landscape with our own cloud logistics platform, platbricks®.
Extensive Know-How in the Manufacturing Industry
Thanks to our many years of experience with production companies from various industries, we bring comprehensive know-how to the table - both with regard to SAP standard processes (R/3 and S/4) as well as individual processes and products developed in-house.
Cross-Competence Along the Supply Chain
In addition to our expertise in production-related processes, our specialists are also familiar with integrative topics in logistics as well as in controlling and financial accounting.
Concentrated Knowledge About the Right IT Infrastructure
With our many years of experience in the areas of hosting, PI/PO/CPI and our certification in the cloud area, we are also your perfect contact with regard to the connection of external systems to accompany you in the area of interface solutions. In doing so, we can design the end-to-end process completely and beyond module limits together with you.
Production Planning - Our Portfolio at a Glance
SAP Plan-To-Produce (SAP PP)
When mapping their processes in the system, manufacturing companies are often faced with the challenge of coordinating their material requirements planning with the operational work steps and, in parallel, taking into account capacity restrictions within the framework of resources. Basically, requirements planning across different time horizons is just as much a part of production planning as the decision for make-to-order or make-to-stock production or the subsequent settlement of production orders. To support customers in implementing their processes, SAP provides a suitable tool in the form of the manufacturing module. Since Plan-to-Produce is integrated with many other end-to-end processes, transparency is crucial for success.
SAP PP is also integrated with the following SAP modules so that the complete logistics value chain can be mapped seamlessly:
- SAP EWM (SAP Extended Warehouse Management)
- SAP SD (SAP Sales & Distribution)
- SAP QM (SAP Quality Management)
- SAP MM (SAP Material Management)
- SAP FI/CO (SAP Finance & Controlling)
Solutions such as Production Planning / Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS), which is closely integrated with the SAP PP module and is included in the core of S/4HANA, make it possible to extend the standard process to have detailed planning and optimization of production operations. Likewise, it is possible to connect MES systems to SAP and seamlessly integrate the data and feedback into the end-to-end process. Real-time integration of the data from the satellite systems simplifies process execution and lays one of the foundations for future analysis of the data for optimization, for example, through SixSigma or AI.
SAP Plan-To-Produce – Core Functions at a Glance
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Needs Assessment
- Determination of customer requirements
- Creation of planned independent requirements via product groups/products
- Offsetting forecast requirements against actual requirements
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Planning
- Determining capacities for resources
- Maintenance of production versions incl. routing and parts lists
- Order sequence planning
- Identification of capacity bottlenecks (also by simulation)
- Operation planning with graphical planning board
- optional: PP/DS for detailed planning (e.g. via heuristics)
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Execution
- Release of production orders
- Printing of papers accompanying production
- Material availability check
- Capacity availability check
- Goods movements
- Confirmations
- Optional: QM inspections during production or at goods receipt
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Accounting
- Completion of production orders
- Settlement of production orders
- WIP calculation
Production Planning/Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) in S/4HANA
Due to the replacement of SAP APO (Advanced Planning Optimizer), in connection with the introduction of SAP IBP (Integrated Business Planning) and SAP S/4 HANA, specific components have been removed from the former SAP APO and distributed to other solutions. For example, gATP (Global Available to Promise) and PP/DS (Production Planning / Detailed Scheduling) have been integrated into the Core of SAP S/4 HANA. SNP (Supply Network Planning) and DP (Demand Planning) have now found their place in SAP IBP.
In particular, the move of PP/DS into the Core results in various advantages, such as a significant reduction in interface effort, as data replication between the Core and PP/DS now takes place in one system. The focus of PP/DS relates to detailed planning in the context of production planning and includes the following functionalities, among others:
- Material and capacity consideration via pegging
- Time-based requirements planning
- Optimization procedures for careful planning
- Extended capacity planning
- Dynamic alerts
Materials, work centers, and capacities can be selected in SAP Core, which are transferred to SAP PP/DS via the CIF interface and can then be viewed there for further planning. The selection of master data to be transferred should primarily be limited to critical materials and dependent bottleneck resources to only have to carry out comprehensive, detailed planning for necessary scenarios.
SAP PP/DS – Highlights at a Glance
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Pegging
With the help of the pegging functionality, PP/DS establishes a link between inventory, receipt as well as demand elements on the product level, so that all changes on a certain MRP level can be taken into account and are also visible on all further levels.
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Interactive Planning
When PP/DS is used, a wide range of exclusive content for PP/DS can be accessed via the new SAP FIORI applications. This includes, among other things, a new graphical planning board that can be used to manually or automatically schedule operations via various modes. In addition, simulation results can also be saved and released later.
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Optimization / Heuristics
By using optimization functions and special heuristics, the new detailed planning functions can be used out-of-the-box to optimize lead times or setup costs, for example.
Digitally Supporting Individualized Manufacturing Processes - With the Arvato Visual Guided Assembly Solution
By accessing the new FIORI applications in the area of manufacturing, manufacturing processes can be used on mobile devices or the web for operational processing. Depending on the activity area, the end-user may need to access several applications.
This is where our Arvato Visual Guided Assembly Solution (VGA) comes in - a FIORI-based application that aims to support workers in their classic operational activities and keep them as simple as possible for them.
In addition to the classic functionalities such as recording confirmations or booking goods movements, our solution allows direct access to production documents (e.g., drawings, assembly instructions), which eliminates the need to carry and print documents. In addition, the Arvato Visual Guided Assembly Solution also supports the mapping of quality inspection during production, whereby corresponding inspection results can be recorded directly.
platbricks® Production Supply
The Production Supply module of our cloud logistics platform platbricks® ensures the balance between supply security, low inventories, and short response times in lean production, taking into account constantly growing complexity and increasing article diversity. Process efficiencies are improved through a continuous digitalization of your supply processes with platbricks, and costs are saved.
Production Planning - Frequently Asked Questions
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What Is Production Planning?
Production planning determines the scope and timing of the scheduling of production orders in the system under various restrictions (time, capacity, quantity). This is a fusion of planning and operational elements that ensure that production control is mapped under various aspects - resulting from an interplay of requirements from sales and preliminary planning as well as capacities of resources and requirements for materials on the production side - in a harmonized time sequence that takes all restrictions into account.
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Why Is Production Planning Important?
Production planning plays a decisive role when it comes to
- creating valid planning across different time horizons,
- to recognize bottlenecks at an early stage,
- minimizing throughput times and setup times,
- guaranteeing adherence to delivery dates
and to take countermeasures, if necessary, in order to cover demand elements as adequately and cost-effectively as possible, taking all these factors into account. -
What Is the Difference Between SAP IBP and SAP APO?
In the future, the functions of SAP APO (Advanced Planning & Optimization) will be integrated into SAP IBP and other solutions from SAP S/4HANA, which, in contrast to SAP APO, will be even more closely integrated into the core. The SAP APO modules "Demand Planning" and "Supply Network Planning" are largely congruent from SAP APO in SAP IBP. At the same time, other functionalities, such as PP/DS in the new SAP S4/HANA, can be used per separate license but in some cases do not yet enjoy the full range of functions of their SAP APO counterpart.
It is essential to take a look at the applications/modules used to date in SAP APO, which will reach its EOL in 2027, to think about a possible transformation. Customers who are considering implementing SAP APO are therefore advised to look directly at SAP IBP and the partially new functionalities to define the scope for the future range of functions.
Your Contacts for Production Planning