SAPexperts _ 7 Customizing Tips to Make a Good Interactive Planning Table Great!

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7 Customizing Tips to

Make a Good Interactive

Planning Table Great!

by Wolfgang Eddigehausen

December 15, 2004

SAPexperts/SCM

The standard interactive planning

able that ships wi th the Supply

Network Planning (SNP) module in

APO works just fine out of the box,

but there's plenty of room for

mprovement. Fortunately, you cancustomize it in a number of ways that

ot only make it look terrific but also

add value and functionality for

planners.

Key Concept

The interactive planning table in

SNP is the primary interface

planners use to monitor their supply

chain. It displays mission-critical

information such as inventory

levels, manufacturing and

transportation schedules, and much

more.

The task of any planning table is to

provide users with a c lear view of a

product's planning condition while

ighlighting areas that require special

attention. The SNP inactive planning

able provides planners with this typeof insight and can be enhanced to

meet many of your particular

business demands. (For more details



Figure 1

Customized SNP interactiveplanning table

about SNP and the interactive

planning table, see "Aggregated

Planning Redux: More Relief for

Aggravated Planners." )

By adding new key figures, tweaking

existing names, and making other

modifications like elements that

change to indicate critical conditions,

he interactive planning table in

Figure 1 has been customized in a

way that makes the interface an even

more useful tool. These changes are

ot d ifficult to make.

will show you how to adjust the SNP

nteractive planning table so it is

easier to read as well as more user

riendly. Starting with the standard

elivered planning book (9ASNP94)and the view SNP PLAN, you can

provide users with the enhancements



and functionality that allow them to

ocus on areas that are unique to

your company.

NoteThe enhancements in this article

should be seen as suggestions thatyou can further modify to suit your individual requirements.

. Create your own planning book. In

most cases, custom planning books

are set up at implementation. If not,

hen you need to do so before youcan customize your own planning

book.

NoteExcept where indicated otherwise,the menu paths described in thisarticle are located in the APO treestructure.

Follow Supply Network Planning>

Environment>Current

Settings>Design Planning Books or

se transaction code

SAPAPO/SDP8B. Create a planning

book (e.g., PBSNP) and data viewe.g., PBSNP(1)) by copying these

with reference to the standard book

9ASNP94) and data view (SNP94(1)).

Specify the newly created planning

book PBSNP and click on Edit. In the

Planning book tab (Figure 2), rename

he planning book in the Planning

book text field. Then repeat the

process for data view 1 on the Data



Figure 2

Planning book text fieldallows you to rename

customized planning book

Figure 3

Dialog box in Planning

wizard confirming

customization

iew tab. Select the Key figures tab

and click on Yes in the Planning

wizard dialog box that asks Should

planning book and data view be

completed? and save (Figure 3).

n the same transaction, select the

Assign Planning Area option under

Edit. In the next pop-up screen, the

ystem displays the first existing

planning area alphabetically, not the

one currently assigned to the

planning book. Select planning area

9ASNP02 and click on Enter. Then

click on Back and exit the transaction.



n the final step, follow Supply

Network

Planning>Environment>Current

Settings>Macro Bui lder or use

ransaction code /SAPAPO/ADVM.

Select the planning book view

PBSNP(1) and click on Execute. Next

click on Generate Macros, followed

by Back, and exit the transaction.

2. Rename key figures to suit your

ystem. There is nothing wrong with

he key figure names that SAP uses,

but they may not be in line with the

ocabulary at your company.

Moreover, it's not always clear what

he corresponding name in R/3 is for

a certain object. While I can't offer

you any hard-and-fast rules, the

ollowing sample scenario should

provide you with some food for

hought when it comes to

establishing a naming scheme that

your users wi ll value.

After a deployment run, orders are

ent to R/3 where they create

purchase requisitions. SNP planningesults, however, are not transferred

o R/3. You can rename the key

gures DistrReceipt (Confirmed) and

DistrDemand (Confirmed) so that it is

easier to understand what they are

called in R/3. Remember, it's often the

mall things that make the biggestmpact.

Use transaction code



SAPAPO/SDP8B or follow menu path

Supply Network Planning>

Environment>Current

Settings>Design Planning Books.

Specify planning book PBSNP and

click on Edit. Choose key figure

9AFSHIP (DistrReceipt (Conf irmed) )

on the Key Figure Attr ibutes tab and

et the Free Text radio button. Next,

efine the new name DistrReceipt

P/Req).

Now, select the key figure 9ADMDDF

DistrDemand (Conf irmed)), and set

he Free Text radio button. Define the

ew name DistrDemand (P/Req Rel) .

Click on the Save Settings button,

elect the Key figures tab and click

Complete. As described earlier, click

on Yes in the Planning wizard pop- up

box and save.

3. Make sure planning periods meet

your requirements. The response time

of an interactive planning table is

irectly proportional to the number of

periods shown in its grid. The more

tems in the grid, the longer theesponse time. You should closely

crutinize the number of periods

being displayed and create planning

bucket profiles with the optimum

umber of periods.

Follow the menu path Supply Network


Settings> Maintain Time Bucket

Profiles for Supply Network Planning



Figure 4

Define new time bucket

profiles

or use transaction code

SAPAPO/TR30. Enter the name of the

planning buckets profi le in the Time

buckets prfl ID field (PBP) and its

escription in the Short text field (8

eeks in Days) (Figure 4).

Then press Enter on the keyboard.

Type 8 in the first line of the Number

column and W in the Display

Periodicity field. Pressing Enter again

opens the second line of the

isplayed table and populates the

Basic Periodicity field by

automatically matching the settings of

he Display Periodicity field in the firstne. Again, set the Number field to 8

and in the second line enter T in the

Display Periodicity column. Click on

ave.

Now, select Supply Network



access the next screen via

ransaction code /SAPAPO/SDP8B.



Figure 5

Update the Data view tabwith the new time bucket

profile

Specify planning book PBSNP and

click on the Edit button. On the Data

View tab, set the TB profi le ID (future)

eld to PBP (Figure 5). Select the

Data view PBSNP(2) and repeat this

ast step. Continue to the last tab and

click on the Complete button. Once

again, confirm the save query in the

ialog box by clicking on Yes.

NoteWhen generating a macro, thesystem considers the number of periods defined in the planning bookusing information in the time bucketprofi le. Because it has beenchanged, it is advisable toregenerate the macros using thenew time bucket profile, otherwiseyou may receive incorrect results.

4. Hide non-essential key f igures. In

most cases, not all of the key figures

available are necessary. Key figures

or joint production, for example, or



hose related to target stock levels

are somewhat extraneous because

only a handful of companies use

hem. Others, such as the ATD

eceipts and ATD issues key figures,

on't need to be moni tored because

or the most part they only support

background planning jobs. The two

key figures that I just noted are only

sed in a deployment planning run

and do not require a place in your

SNP interactive planning table.

You can suppress the display of

nwanted key figures rather than

eleting them to avoid future

problems if you decide to display

hem later. Here's how to hide key

gures related to stock levels.

Follow the path Supply NetworkPlanning>Environment>Current


se transaction code

SAPAPO/SDP8B. Specify planning

book PBSNP and data v iew PBSNP(1)

and Edit. Next, click on the Target

Stock Level row, and right-click onhe same row to activate the context-

ensitive menu (Figure 6). Chose

Selected rows in the menu and then

Hide.



Figure 6

Right-click on a row to

activate the context -sensitive

menu to access settings

To make a row vis ible again, click on

he name SNP PLAN located on the

op left of the screen. Right-click on

he cell to activate the context-

ensitive menu, and select Manage

Hidden Rows. In the upcoming

creen, drag the rows you want to

isplay from the Hidden Rows folder

o the Shown Rows folder (Figure 7).



Figure 7

The Manage Hidden Rows

screen allows you to display

rows after they have been

hidden

5. Refine the Days' supply key figure.The Days' supply key figure displays

he number of days that the current

ay's stock will last after all known

uture requirements and demands

ave been factored in, such as

orecast or actual sales. This key

gure's shortcoming is that it roundso the next full day, and some

ndustries require more precise

orecasting. You can create a new

nit of measure that adds one

ecimal to the Days' supply value and

se that instead of the SAP supplied

UoM.

n the mySAP SCM tree structure,

elect Tools>Customizing>IMG>Edit



Project or use transaction code

SPRO. Click on the SAP Reference

MG button and select General

Settings>Check Units of

Measurement. Select the Time

imension and click on the Units of

Measurement button. Press funct ion

key F7 (Create) and define the

ollowing in the next screen:

Internal Unit of Measurement DS

Commercial Format DS

Technical Format DS

Decimal Places 1

Numerator 86,400 Denominator 1

Measurement Text (Line 1) Days

Measurement Text (Line 2) Days

ISO Code Day

Commercial Measurement Unit "On"

On the keyboard, press Enter and

confirm the onscreen warning

message (ISO code DAY is already

sed for measurement uni t D) bypressing Enter again. Click on the

ave icon and the warning message

will appear again. You must conf irm it

again by pressing the Enter key. Exit

he customizing transaction and

eturn to the APO tree structure.

NoteBecause this definition is acustomizing task, it may require arequest number if your systemrequires change requests.

Select Supply Network

Planning>Environment>CurrentSettings>Design Planning Books or

se transaction code



SAPAPO/SDP8B and specify

planning book PBSNP. Click on Edit ,

elect the Key Figure Attributes tab,

and choose the key figure Cover to

maintain the Days' supply value.

Change the Unit of Measure from D to

DS. Click Save Settings and continue

o the Key Figures tab. Click on the

Complete button and click on Yes in

he dialog box to save.

6. Add an Available Stock key figure.

The main goal of every planner is to

ensure that enough stock is available

at any time on any day. "Available

tock" is defined as the projected

physical stock minus the safety stock

equirements.

Unfortunately, no key figure exists for

available stock. You can create oneand make it so i ts field color changes

o reflect stock levels when displayed

n the planning table. If, for example,

he projected physical stock level

alls to zero or below, the color

changes to red. Yellow indicates

ome projected physical stockemains, but it is below the safety

tock requirement. If you do not like

isplaying colors, you can still use

he macro to calculate the available

tock. It can also be used to add a

warning icon to the backlog key

gure whenever a backlog exists.

Via transaction code /SAPAPO/SDP8B

or following Supply Network



Figure 8

Planning> Environment>Current

Settings>Design Planning Books,

pecify planning book PBSNP and

click on Edit. Select the Key figure

attributes tab and type in the name of

he new key figure Available. Set the

Free Text radio button and define the

ew name Available Stock.

Then press the Enter key on your

keyboard, set the UoM from product

master flag and click on the Save

ettings button. On the Key figures

ab, drag the newly created key figure

AVAILABLE from the Planning book

st on the right to the Data view list

on the left in the Assign key figures to

ata view area (Figure 8). Determine

ts appropriate location wi thin the list

and place the new key figure in the

esired position. Click on the

Complete button and confirm the

ettings by clicking on Yes in the

ialog box noted earlier.



Move the new key figure to

the desired position of the

Data view list

Figure 9

Modify the Days’ supply

macro by adding the

Available Stock step

You have created the new key f igure

o display the available stock. Now

et's define the algorithm to calculate

he available stock, and also the

conditions under which the colors are

et.

Use transaction code /SAPAPO/ADVM

or follow Supply Network

Planning>Environment> Current

Settings>Macro Builder. Select the

planning book view PBSNP(1) and

click on Execute. Modify the existing

macro Days' supply. Add the new

tep Available Stock (Figure 9), then

add Highlight Available Stock (Figure

0) and cl ick on Generate Macros toenerate them. Click on the Back

button to exit the transaction.



Figure 10

The second step added to

the Days’ supply macro is

Highlight Available Stock

7. Highlight non-working days.

Monitoring multiple sites across an

nternational supply network requiresaccommodating workdays, holidays,

on-workdays, etc. that are not

consistent in all locations. You can

ndicate non-workdays by displaying

he key figure Total Demand with a

reen background via a macro that

ses is the shipping calendar definedn the Location Master Calendar tab.

Use the transaction code



Figure 11

Modify the Determine

Workdays macro by adding

the Highl ight Non-Workdays

step

SAPAPO/ADVM or follow Supply

Network Planning> Environment>

Current Settings>Macro Builder and

elect the planning book view

PBSNP(1) and cl ick on the Execute

button. Modify the existing Determine

Workdays macro by adding the new

tep Highlight Non-Workdays in the

ame way you modified Available

Stock (Figure 11). Click on the

Generate Macros button to generate

he macros. Then cl ick on the Back

button and exit the transaction.

Documents

SAPexperts _ 7 Customizing Tips to Make a Good Interactive Planning Table Great!