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Demand Planning Configuration
Demand Planning Configuration
In this document, I will present the required configuration steps in detail and also their
relevancy with demand planning
• OLTP: Current planning data from your R/3 system such as Sales
Orders, Stock, Production/Purchase Orders. This data uses the CIF to
populate SAP APO.
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Before configuring the above said requirements, it is important to determine what the
characteristics are and key figures are.
Let us take an example of Honda Company. The car by itself is a Finished Product and
then the nature of the car (Product Category) like Sedan or an SUV and again it is further
divided into standard luxury Sedan or a limited edition (Product Hierarchy) one and so
on.
So if we look into the above example, Product, Product category, product hierarchy all
form the Characteristics.
The Number of cars to be produced and the number of parts required to produce a car
all form the key figures (Example 100 cars to be produced in Honda plant A, the 100
forms the key figure)
All characteristics are selected in Planning Object structure and All Key figures are
selected in Planning area of APO DP
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Once in the screen, select from the selection list “Planning Object Structures” as shown
below.
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Note: The objects starting with 9A (9AAPOCRM, 9ACBAS) are SAP/System defined
objects.
For our example let us create an object with the following characteristics
1. Brand ZV_BRND
2. Product 9AMATNR
3. Location 9ALOCNO
4. Customer ZV_CUST
5. Sales org ZV_SORG
For the Key figures we would have to get back to planning area screen and copy some
defined key figures from 9ADP01.
From the drop-down menu, select Planning Area and then double click on the planning
area 9ADP01
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Click on the Key figs tab to see the available key figures.
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To create the Planning Objects structure we first need to create the info objects in BW/BI
(Business warehouse/Business Intelligence)
You have several ways to enter BW in SCM, from the same screen click on
or on the command line (in the Menu section) enter /o/rsa1 ->
be to
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To create Info area, right click on Info provider and select create info area
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This will create a transport object and should be treated as a transport request to be
release via se09/se10
For this, select info objects, and right click on your info area and select create info
objects catalog
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Next we need to create 2 infoobject catalogs, one for characteristics and another for key
figures
In the next screen click on activate icon to activate the char info obj catalog.
The system will ask for package details. For test purpose we shall assign it
to /SAPapo/demand_planning
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Once the required info for the transport is entered and saved you would see the char
info objects created as shown below
In the same manner create another catalog for Key figures. Once both are completed
you should be able to see them under the infoobjects
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Next and the last step in this BI are to create info objects for the characteristics and
keyfigures. (The characteristics that we discussed in the planning objects and keyfigures
in the planning area are to be created here.)
Characteristics Key figures
Brand ZV_BRND ZV_DEPDM Dependent Demand
Product 9AMATNR ZV_TOTDM Total Demand Plan
Location 9ALOCNO ZV_MANCOR Manual Correction
Customer ZV_CUST ZV_PLNDPR Planned Price
Sales org ZV_SORG ZV_PROM1 Promotion 1
ZV_SLSFR Sales Forecast
ZV_STFR1 Forecast (Stat.1)
ZV_STFR2 Forecast (Stat.2)
9ATOTFC Total Forecast
ZV_SLHIST Sales History
ZV_MANFIX Fixing Values
In the next screen enter the characteristics that we would like to have
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Once you selected enter it would take you to the screen where you would enter the
attributes of the characteristics like data type and Length.
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For ZV_BRAND, I have selected Char and length to be 10. Click on the activation icon on
the top. You should be able to see that the Version and Object status are in Active state
as shown in the fig.
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Enter the quantity and unit of currency in the next screen. Demand Planning is always
with 0unit.
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Please note that the key figures can be added here at any point of time. But it should be
avoided to change in the Master planning objects.
Once the BW part is complete, our next step is to create the Master Planning Object
structure
T.Code: /n/SAPapo/msdp_Admin
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Once in select the Planning objects structure right click on the planning objects structure
folder and create
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In the next screen enter the long text and also select the planning object structures.
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Once all the object structures are in, Activate. This inturn will activate an infocube in the
same name in BW.
With this we complete the first step in Demand Planning i.e, Master Planning Object
Structure
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The storage bucket profile is also called Periodicities for planning area.
The path for creating the storage bucket profile is SAP menu->Demand planning
->Environment->Current settings ->Periodicities for Planning Area
T.Code: /n/SAPapo/tr32
Here we enter at what period we would be planning the DP. Like weekly or monthly or
yearly
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For this we need 2 types of profile, one for future and the other for history
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T.Code: /n/SAPapo/msdp_Admin
Enter the T.code and right clock on Planning Area to create the planning area.
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Once you click enter you will be taken into the detail view of the Planning Area.
Select the Key Figs tab and add all the key figs that you have described
In the locking logic, unlock the deactivate the “Activate livecache Lock”
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Next step is to create Time series objects for the planning area.
Right click on the created planning area and select “Create Time series objects”
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The date entered in the planning version is like a safety cap. If we give
a range of 10 years, then we do not need to go and change it every 18
months and also once the first 18 months planning is done, and if we
did not give that vast time period, then the there is a huge gap and
discrepancy created. At any point of time it should have 2 years of
past history and 18 months of future history.
So enter the required planning time period in the Time period section
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Once you clicked on the execute icon, It would through the following error
This is because we did not maintain the characteristic combinations. This is nothing but,
a combination of (values) key figures and characteristics. To maintain these values, go to
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the planning objects, select the one that we created ZV_POS, right click ->Char.
Combinations->Maintain
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Here you have two options to enter the data, If you select “Single characteristic
combination” In APO itself you can create the location, Product Brand, Customer and so
on. This is helpful if you wanted to enter 1 or 2 set of data (1 or 2 row).
To enter more than one record at a time you can select “create characteristics
combinations”.
For our example I am selecting the create characteristics combinations”. This will take
you to the next screen where you can load data
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There are several options to load the data again. The “Create manually” option will let
you enter the data one by one. The “Load to worklist” and “Generate Immediately”
options would let you upload the file in several ways, using info cube, from CSV file,
using BAdI or even from other Planning objects.
To load from ECC to SCM you would first have to enter the data in the
Info Cube (BW) and then transport from BW to SCM.
In real time scenario the data are uploaded from Info providers. The
reason is there might several changes to the master data and hence
maintenance is easier with info providers.
For our example I am selecting the option of loading from a file. This file will be created
with format shown in the next figure.
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C:\Documents and
Settings\Owner\Desktop\DP_POS_Data.txt
Make sure that the columns and rows match. You might have to “tab”
twice in your keyboard to adjust the key figures as per the columns
Once you see the data entered. Click on and generate combinations by clicking
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To view in detail, go back to the previous screen. Select the option Yes and proceed
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Select Display Characteristic Combinations and in the next screen click on the execute
icon. This will display all the uploaded data
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Please note that the BOM Char Comb ID column will not be displayed
as it is Internal
Now that the Combinations are maintained go back and activate the Planning Area.
Right click on the created planning area and select “Create Time series objects” and
enter the required details. Take care of the start and End date of Time period.
Once you clicked on the execute icon, It will be activated this time
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This finishes the setup of planning area. The next step in the DP configuration is the
Planning books and data view.
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Planning book is the most important tool for demand planner. The data for planning is
derived from the planning area. Although the Demand Planner does not maintain the
Planning area, the data stored in the Planning are maintained by him.
T.Code: /n/SAPapo/SDP8B
Once you enter the T.Code, Enter the name of the planning book. Let us name our
planning book as ZV_PLGBK and click on create
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In the next screen enter the planning book description and planning area. The
navigational views in the same screen represent the planning model type and the screen
selections associated with it. Select all the views and continue.
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For our example I am selecting all the key figures from the planning object and
characteristics from the planning area.
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The next step is assigning Data view for the Planning book.
Here, the Planning start is the day on/from which you want the planning to start. If lef
blank the planning will start automatically from today (default value).
Offset field represents the buffer period given in days (offset in buckets). This represents
the number of days afer which the DP to be started. For example if the Planning start is
10-oct-2009, and offset entry is 10, then the DP would start on 21-oct-2009.
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The TB represents the Time bucket profile that we assigned to planning area. The visible
and Input fields are related to the Time bucket history profile, whether you wanted to
view past history and if so from when and whether you wanted to manually enter/add
history data in the planning book if so from when.
For our example I have given from October 2007 onwards.
The Table1 field represents a name for this Data View table.
Once you click continue, you would again see the key figures, but this time it is from the
Planning book. You are the key figures here to add it to the data view. Again for our
example, we select all the key figures. Please note that the characteristics are
not/cannot be selected, only the key figures. Once selected, click complete to activate
the planning book.
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Now to see how all the description/data entry we did in the previous step, go back to
the same transaction
Enter the Planning book name we created and the corresponding forecast in the data
view. Click on Edit
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The table name we gave DP_FCST1, the fields we described in the data view, TB past and
future and it will also be in Edit mode as during the planning book creation we selected
the input option for TB past.
Please note that whenever we change the TB history and future, same is affected here.
For example, Go to /SAPAPO/TR30 - Maintain Time Buckets Profile for Demand Plng
and Supply Network Plng and change the month and week in the TB profile,
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This completes the creation of planning book and data view. The next is creation of
Forecast profile.
6. Forecast Profile
In order to do the Demand planning we need to forecast. For that forecasting we need
to assign some algorithms/formulas to a profile. This assignment is done in the
forecasting profile. This forecasting profile is assigned to the planning area.
Once in, select the Planning Area and enter a name for the forecasting profile.
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The forecast figure key represents the key figure to which the calculated forecast to be
saved. For our example let us take ZV_STFR1.
The forecast horizon represents the restricting period for this master forecast profile.
Here u can either enter the “From” and “To” or you can just enter the period as shown
in the figure above.
The next step is to select a model for the master profile to do the forecast.
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For our model parameters, we choose Moving Average and for Forecast errors we
choose, all the error type.
Once the details are entered on this screen click on the to save this
profile. Then go to the main profile tab and assign this profile there.
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This completes the configuration required for the Demand Planning concept. From this
we would be seeing the processes in DP or Interactive Demand Planning.
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