Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP-DS) was created as the production planning component of SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO), a supply chain planning tool in SAP Business Suite.

Its purpose is to generate procurement proposals that meet product requirements and to optimize the scheduling for resources. In SAP APO, PP-DS acts as a piece of the supply chain planning puzzle along with three other components: Demand Planning (DP), Supply Network Planning (SNP), and Global Available to Promise (GATP).

As SAP revamped its product positioning following the release of SAP S/4HANA, the PP-DS functionality was made available within SAP S/4HANA.

Production Planning vs. Detailed Scheduling

Customers use PP-DS for advanced supply chain management (SCM) processes, which essentially provides a unification of two operations: production planning and detailed scheduling. But when we separate production planning from detailed scheduling, what do these standalone processes mean for users? Let’s break them down.

The goal of production planning is to ensure that the right products and raw materials are accessible at the right time and place, to be delivered to customers or made available for production, respectively. Meanwhile, detailed scheduling supports the sequencing and scheduling of production operations by taking into consideration the available resource capacity (both machines and humans) and the availability of the materials. In addition, detailed scheduling is used to ensure the optimal usage of resources.

When PP and DS meet in PP-DS, users can generate procurement proposals and create optimized schedules for resources undergoing manufacturing operations. The key features of PP-DS include production planning heuristics, interactive planning tools, detailed scheduling heuristics, the PP-DS optimizer, interactive detailed scheduling tools, background planning and scheduling tools, planning procedures, and pegging relationships. So, why exactly is it helpful for you to execute these processes together in your SAP S/4HANA system?

PP-DS with SAP S/4HANA

SAP APO customers will find a sense of familiarity in embedded PP-DS as it brings the functionalities from SAP APO directly into SAP S/4HANA. The benefits of this? It makes the system a comprehensive planning and scheduling solution for the short-term planning horizon, and can support advanced planning algorithms and detailed scheduling. Advanced features are now more broadly available to supply chain professionals, who can enjoy a more simplistic approach to supply chain planning.

Embedded PP-DS helps customers reduce the back-and-forth steps involved during data transfers in SCM processes. Master data maintenance has been simplified within the system, maintaining only one version of data for both the system and embedded PP-DS. This means that for most data transfers, you won’t have to worry about creating an integration model like SAP APO requires.

Now that you know the benefits of using embedded PP-DS, the next step is learning how to implement it.

The PP-DS with SAP S/4HANA Book

The PP-DS with SAP S/4HANA book begins by explaining the individual concepts of production planning and detailed scheduling. Dive deep into the advanced features mentioned above that PP-DS brings to your SAP S/4HANA system, and learn how PP-DS fits into the grand scheme of supply chain planning.

See what’s changed between SAP APO and SAP S/4HANA and what the switch from the SAP APO component to embedded PP-DS functionality can do for your system. You’ll also receive insight on how PP-DS is simplified for SAP S/4HANA, along with deployment and architecture information.

Setting Up and Running PP-DS

Whether you’re starting a new implementation or migrating from SAP APO, this book covers required actions to take in both scenarios. You’ll look at your tools and options to get embedded PP-DS up and running in SAP S/4HANA.

The first step is to walk through master data planning concepts that will help you understand integration requirements for various master data objects.

The next step? Configuration processes! Activate PP-DS in SAP S/4HANA and fine-tune system settings, heuristics, planning procedures, order views, and more. Finish with instructions for setting up your detailed scheduling planning board and the PP-DS optimizer.

Review how to perform transactional data transfers between the ERP and PP-DS sides of the SAP S/4HANA system. From there, understand how each transaction data object is treated and what the limitations of integration are.

The book also provides instructions for users: a breakdown of running production planning and detailed scheduling operations. On the production planning side, walk through specific business scenarios based on industry requirements for PP-DS planning; these are necessary because the specific features cannot be attained by the ERP-side planning processes in the SAP S/4HANA system. Then learn about how detailed scheduling heuristics function, along with how to utilize the PP-DS optimizer for production scheduling.

Advanced Features and Functionalities

Once you have your PP-DS processes up and running, it’s important to keep track of planning and capacity issues. Learn how to do this with the alert monitor. You’ll explore how to create alert profiles and various options for monitoring these alerts.

While PP-DS offers standard functionalities, there are also features designed for industry-specific requirements and advanced scenarios. You’ll explore shelf-life planning, product interchangeability, characteristics-dependent planning, block planning, and push production.

Then, you’ll look at administration activities for embedded PP-DS, along with best practices for implementation maintenance. With this guide, you’ll learn to avoid performance problems and correct data inconsistences to keep your SAP S/4HANA system in shape.

Who Is This Book For?

This book is for planners and schedulers working in areas related to supply chain planning and manufacturing, such as SAP APO and SAP ERP Production Planning – even if you haven’t worked with PP-DS directly. However, for those readers already familiar with PP-DS, this book is a great resource in helping to identify key changes that embedded PP-DS brings to SAP S/4HANA.

About the Author

Mahesh Babu MG works as a services architecture expert in SAP Digital Business Services, Center of Expertise, where he currently leads the Manufacturing and Product Lifecycle Management team. He has more than 14 years of professional experience in SAP ERP, SAP APO, and SAP S/4HANA products across various industries with a focus on production planning, production planning and detailed scheduling, and the core interface.

This content was originally posted on the SAP PRESS Blog. Used with permission of SAP PRESS. All rights reserved.