Parameters of the S&OP Supply Planning Operator

January 18th, 2017

Authors: Volkmar Soehner, Christian Embacher, Thomas Heinzel, Stefan Wedner,

Michael Brueckner, Ina-Maria Hertweck

Change History:

January 18th, 2017:

- New parameter value PROPORTIONAL for parameter
NORMALIZE_RATIO_POLICY
- Section 2.2.5 for parameter NORMALIZE_RATIOS_ZERO_HANDLING_POLICY
added

January 22nd, 2016:

Corrections in section 2.8.4, added new section 2.8.5

January 12th, 2016:

Removed the necessity to enter some parameter values via one of the HANA
configuration files (“.ini-files”).

November 23rd, 2016: redesign of section 2.2 and new section 2.2.4 added for
Parameter NORMALIZE_RATIO_POLICY

December 14th, 2015:

New parameter “CARRY_OVER_NEGATIVE_PROJECTEDINVENTORY”

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1. Introduction
In IBP Sales & Operations Planning the SCM Planning Operator offers the user a set
of planning algorithms. Currently these are the S&OP Heuristic “Infinite without
Shortages” and the S&OP Optimizer. There exist several parameters to control certain
functionalities of the SCM Planning Operator, i.e. of heuristic and / or optimizer. This
means some of these parameters impact the heuristic only, other might have an effect
on the optimizer only and others are relevant for both.

This documentation describes the parameters of the SCM Planning Operator of IBP
S&OP.

The parameters of the SCM Planning Operator can be set in the screen depicted by
Figure 1. This screen can be reached via the Configuration main menu, then choose
“Manage Planning Operators” from section “Miscellaneous Settings”, then click on
“SCM”. The screen to enter and change parameters appears after clicking on “Define
parameters”:

Figure 1: Screen to enter and change parameter settings

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2. Parameters of the SCM Planning Operator
2.1 ALGORITHM_TYPE
Via non-optional parameter ALGORITHM_TYPE a user has to configure which supply
planning algorithm should be performed when calling the SCM Planning Operator.
Allowed values for this parameter are:

a) INFINITE_WITHOUT_SHORTAGE

This parameter value triggers the S&OP Heuristic „Infinite without shortages”. This
heuristic does not respect the following constraints:

- Finite resource capacities (capacity usage is computed, but resource

capacities do not limit production receipts)
- Projected Stock greater or equal to zero (Projected Stocks can be negative)
- Maximum Constraints

The following features are supported by the heuristic „Infinite without shortages”:

- Lead times
- Planning Units
- Multi-Level BOMs
- Co-Production
- Minimum Lot Size, Periodic Lot Size, Production Cycle, Periods of Supply
- Sourcing quotas are respected, i.e. demand is propagated according to the
quotas defined in the corresponding master data (sourcing rules)
- Key figure Inventory Correction
- Adjusted Key Figures
- Minimum Key Figures
- Key figure Inventory Target

b) COMPLETE_INFINITE, COMPLETE_FINITE

These two parameter values trigger a first version of a constrained heuristic, which
however does not provide most of the existing features, as for instance lead times,
Minimum Key Figures, Inventory Correction etc. SAP does not recommend to use this
beta version of a constrained heuristic. Please use the heuristic
“INFINITE_WITHOUT_SHORTAGE” instead.

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c) OPTIMIZE

This parameter value triggers the S&OP Optimizer. The optimizer computes a supply
plan based on cost key figures and respects all constraints mentioned above, except
for the sourcing quotas. The optimizer ignores quotas while computing a supply plan
as his objective is to minimize the overall costs. (Only when some special features are
used, even the optimizer requires quotas to be defined all sources of supply – see
section 2.2 below).

d) LOCAL

The Local Mode computes for each location product only the following key figures:

Deficit, Shortage and Projected Inventory

Other basic key figures, such as Net Demand is not updated and hence demand is not
propagated along sourcing rules to succeeding location products. The calculation is
performed “locally” at each location product without any impact on other location
products.

The Local Mode is intended to merely update the three key figures after a data upload
into IBP was performed, especially when Stock on-hand was updated. The Local Mode
updates Projected Stock for all periods, based on a newer Stock-on hand and based
on the given receipts and supplies. If consensus demand or any other input key figures
(like target stock, adjusted values, etc.) were changed as well, the local update would
not compute the impact of these changes.

e) COMPUTE_RATIOS

This parameter value triggers the computation of the quotas, as described in chapter
11 in the specification “Key Figures of the SCM Planning Operator”.

f) CHECK_MODE

This parameter value triggers certain checks against the input data, i.e. checks with
respect to master data and input key figures. These checks are performed
independently from the heuristic and optimizer by a separate operator call and do not
change any data. This operator call only returns messages for every violation detected
by the checks.

This document presents for every check its meaning (i.e. the condition which is
checked) and the message that is displayed on the UI, when a check fails (i.e. the
checked condition is not fulfilled).

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Check Message Message text
Id

Node (master data) based cycle check: 7002 Node based cycle check found cycle
for location <l> and product <p>
Checks for all location-products given by (connected component <id>)
master data, whether they form a cycle in
the SCM network. Location-products on a 7025 Node based cycle check found cycle
cycle which are connected with each other for location <l> and co-product <co>
(e.g. via a transportation lane) are grouped with main product <p> (connected
together in so called connected component <id>)
components. This is a check for cycles on
the level of location-products. It will report
a cycle if the location-products form a
cycle, although this cycle might not be a
real issue, i.e. the heuristic might not run
into an endless loop because quotas are
set in a proper way. Assume a cycle of two
nodes: an US and an European DC, in
spring US delivers to Europe, in autumn
the relation is the other way round. This is
a cycle on node (master data) level, but
not from the heuristic’s perspective.

Heuristic based cycle check: 26 Cycle in SCM network detected for

location <l> and product <p>
Checks whether the heuristic algorithm
detects cycles in the SCM network formed
by location-products. This check runs the
heuristic with the given planning data to
detect a node (e.g. location-product) which
has been visited hundreds of times by the
algorithm. A cycle detected by the
heuristic is always a cycle which the node
based cycle check would detect, too.

Node (master data) based isolation
check:
Checks for all location-products given by
master data, whether they are connected
with any customer sourcing rule within the
SCM network. If there is no connection,
they are isolated. Isolated location-
products which are connected with each
other (e.g. via a transportation lane) are
grouped together in so called connected
components. Isolated location-products
are not reachable by the propagation
algorithm of the heuristic and the
optimizer.
7003 Node based isolation check found
isolated location product sources for
location <l> and product <p>
(connected component <id>) which
was introduced by sourcing master
data
7026 Node based isolation check found
isolated location product sources for
location <l> and product <p>
(connected component <id>) which
was introduced by master data
LOCATIONPRODUCT

Key figure plausibility checks with 7006 No customer source found for
regard to master data: CONSENSUSDEMAND for customer
<c> and product <p>

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Check
Checks for a subset of the input key
figures whether corresponding master
data with regards to their planning level
keys exist. For example, if there is a
customer demand but no corresponding
customer sourcing master data, the check
will detect this and return an info message
about this matter of fact. A heuristic or
optimizer run would simply not consider
this customer demand.
The following key figures are checked.
The list of key figures checked in this way
will be enlarged as needed.
 ADJDEPENDENTCUSTOMERDEMA
ND
 ADJDEPENDENTCUSTOMERDEMA
NDDS
 ADJUSTEDCONSTRAINEDDEMAND
 ADJUSTEDCONSTRAINEDDEMAND
DS
 ADJUSTEDPRODUCTION
 ADJUSTEDRECEIPT
 ADJUSTEDTRANSPORT
 ADJUSTEDTRANSPORTDS
 COMPONENTCOEFFICIENT
 CONSENSUSDEMAND
 OUTPUTCOEFFICIENT
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Message Message text
Id
7013 No production source found for
ADJUSTEDPRODUCTION for source
ID <s> and location <l> and product
<p>
7014 No location source found for
ADJUSTEDTRANSPORT for location
<l> and product <p> and ship-from
location <lfr>
7015 No customer source found for
ADJDEPENDENTCUSTOMERDEMA
ND for customer <c> and product <p>
and location <l>
7016 No customer source found for
ADJDEPENDENTCUSTOMERDEMA
NDDS for customer <c> and product
<p> and location <l>
7017 No customer source found for
ADJUSTEDCONSTRAINEDDEMAND
for customer <c> and product <p>
and location <l>
7018 No customer source found for
ADJUSTEDCONSTRAINEDDEMAND
DS for customer <c> and product <p>
and location <l>
7019 No unspecified production source
found for ADJUSTEDRECEIPT for
product <p> and location <l>
7020 No location source found for
ADJUSTEDTRANSPORTDS for
product <p> and location <l> and
ship-to location <lto>
7027 No production source item master
data found for specified
COMPONENTCOEFFICIENT key
figure value for location <l> and
product <p> and component <comp>
and source ID <id>
7028 No production source master data
found for specified
COMPONENTCOEFFICIENT key
figure value for location <l> and
product <p> and component <comp>
and source ID <id>
 Check Message Message text
Id

7029 No production source master data

found for specified
OUTPUTCOEFFICIENT key figure
value for location <l> and product <p>
and source ID <id>

Master data plausibility checks: 7024 No sourcing master data found for
location <l> and product <p>
Checks the plausibility of master data. If a
location-product has no sourcing at all, the
check will detect this and return an info
message about this matter of fact

2.2 Parameters to control the quota checks

For each customer, transport and production source of supply the user has to specify
a quota, either a time-independent quota (via an attribute in the master data) or time
dependent quotas in a corresponding key figure. (Quota and ratio are used here as
synonyms.) Only for external sources of supply quotas cannot be specified as they are
computed dynamically by the operator.

Quotas are primarily used and required by the supply planning heuristic as the heuristic
propagates the net demand of each location product along all sources of supply which
are connected with that location product. The quotas define the ratio of the net demand
which is propagated along each source.

The optimizer, in contrast, decides to use alternative sources of supply based on costs
meaning that the cost-optimal alternative is chosen. Hence, the optimizer usually does
not consider quotas. However, if the key figure Adjusted Dependent Customer
Demand contains non-initial values or if the functionality subnetworks is used, then
even the optimizer considers quotas. (The reasons are explained in the documentation
about subnetworks.)

Based on their overall importance, the consistency of quotas is checked at each call
of the SCM Planning Operator (i.e. when heuristic, optimizer or check mode is called).
The parameters described in the following sections enable a user to impact these
checks.

2.2.1 ALLOWED_RATIO_DEVIATION
The SCM Planning Operator verifies (for each period and each location product) that
the quotas are consistent, which means that the quotas of all sources of supply
connected with one customer or location product add up to 100% - plus or minus an

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allowed deviation. With parameter ALLOWED_RATIO_DEVIATION a user can specify
this deviation.

If quotas are consistent, i.e. if the sum of all quotas connected with a location product
is in the (so-called epsilon) interval

[100% - ALLOWED_RATIO_DEVIATION; 100% + ALLOWED_RATIO_DEVIATION]

the SCM Planning Operator (i.e. heuristic and optimizer) will normalize the quotas so
that they add up to exactly 100.0%.

If quotas connected with one location product add up to a value below 100% -
ALLOWED_RATIO_DEVIATON the SCM Planning Operator would not consider the
entire Customer Demand of a customer product or the entire Net Demand of a location
product. Analogously, if the sum of all quotas is above 100% +
ALLOWED_RATIO_DEVIATION, these quotas are also called inconsistent and the
SCM Planning Operator would consider more than the requested Customer or Net
Demand. In general, both inconsistencies would be difficult to detect once a supply
plan was computed. For that reason quotas are checked at each call of the supply
planning operator to ensure their consistency.

As the purpose of parameter ALLOWED_RATIO_DEVIATON is to avoid error

messages caused by rounding effects, i.e. the sum of quotas is close to but not exactly
100% due to rounding effects, it is recommended to set a small value for parameter
ALLOWED_RATIO_DEVIATION. Allowed values are in the range [0; 0.1] meaning that
the maximum allowed deviation is 0.1 = 10%.

The default value for parameter ALLOWED_RATIO_DEVIATION is 0.001 which is

0.1%. This means if the user does not set explicitly a value for this parameter the sum
of quotas is checked to be within the range [99.9% ; 100.1%].

In case the net demand of a location product can also be sourced externally (i.e. there
is production source header with type U), the quota check won’t return a message if
the sum of the quotas is below (100% - ALLOWED_RATIO_DEVIATION). The
operator calculates the quota of this external source of supply so that the sum of all
quotas add up to exactly 100.0 %.

2.2.2 RATIO_CHECK_POLICY
Via parameter RATIO_CHECK_POLICY a user can turn off the quota check to make
the SCM Planning Operator tolerant towards inconsistent quotas, i.e. if their sum is not
within the epsilon interval [100% - ALLOWED_RATIO_DEVIATION; 100% +
ALLOWED_RATIO_DEVIATION].

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The default value of parameter RATIO_CHECK_POLICY is ERROR meaning that the
quota checks are performed and if inconsistent quotas are detected the errors for all
inconsistent quotas are returned before the SCM Planning Operator terminates –
without computing a new supply plan. (Quotas are called inconsistent if, for a location
product, they add up to a sum outside of the epsilon interval.)

If parameter RATIO_CHECK_POLICY is set to WARNING the SCM Planning Operator

will return a warning for each violation of the quota condition – and it will continue to
compute a supply plan with the given (possibly inconsistent) quotas. Note, in this case
it might happen that not the entire Customer or Net Demand of a location product is
considered by the SCM Planning Operator.

If parameter RATIO_CHECK_POLICY is set to OFF the quotas will not be checked at

all, no warning or no error will be returned in case an inconsistent quota is detected
and the SCM Planning Operator will compute a supply plan – with possibly inconsistent
quotas.

The purpose of the parameter RATIO_CHECK_POLICY is to allow user to call the

operator in an early phase of the implementation of S&OP, i.e. in a phase where quotas
are not yet set or imported consistently into S&OP. (The experience from quite a lot
implementation projects proved that it is a non-trivial task to set or upload the quotas
consistently for all sources of supply which are defined in the system.) In such an early
phase it is often more important to see soon first results of the operator, even if some
quotas are not yet set absolutely consistently. However, when approaching the go-
live, it is strongly recommended to switch the RATIO_CHECK_POLICY back to
ERROR. Otherwise, it will not become obvious when inconsistent quotas are in
or uploaded into the system.

2.2.3 RATIO_CHECK_INCLUDE_ZEROS
RATIO_CHECK_INCLUDE_ZERO is another parameter which allows a user to control
the ratio check. In detail, this parameter decides about how quotas are handled which
add up to exactly zero percent.

Quotas adding up to exactly zero percent do not cause a warning or an error -

independently of the value specified for parameter RATIO_CHECK_POLICY. This is
based on the fact that quite often a sum of zero percent does not refer to inconsistent
quotas but to a specific (intended) constellation. For example, if a product is produced
in a seasonal pattern, quotas in all periods out of the season might be intentionally
zero. The same is true if a sourcing rule is valid only until a certain period of the
planning horizon; its quota will be zero in all succeeding periods. And possibly there
are other use cases.

The parameter RATIO_CHECK_INCLUDE_ZEROS allows the user to turn on the

quota check for cases where the sum of the quotas of all sourcing rules of a location
product add up to exactly zero percent. If parameter
RATIO_CHECK_INCLUDE_ZEROS is set to YES, then the SCM Planning Operator

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generates for quotas adding up to zero percent a warning, an error or nothing –
depending on the value specified for parameter RATIO_CHECK_POLICY. This
means, with parameter value YES the quota check becomes stricter. A user might
choose this configuration if he does not expect use cases for which the sum of quotas
should be zero or he might choose this configuration temporarily to let the operator
verify the consistency of all quotas.

The default value of parameter RATIO_CHECK_INCLUDE_ZEROS, however, is

NULL (i.e. the empty string) so that the SCM Planning Operator does not return any
warning or error if the sum of quotas of a location product is (exactly) zero percent.

If the sum of the quotas is greater than zero, then the check is applied as described in
the previous section.

2.2.4 NORMALIZE_RATIO_POLICY (available as of IBP 4.0.2.3)

To maintain or upload consistent quotas often is a non-trivial task, especially at an
early phase of an implementation project – as mentioned in section 2.2.2. Parameter
NORMALIZE_RATIO_POLICY could be used in such an early project phase to
(quickly) set the quotas of all sources of supply consistently. This means, if the
parameter value is set to EQUAL (default is initial) the supply planning operator
computes all quotas so that

- the quotas of all sources connected with one customer or location product add
up to exactly 100.0 % and

- the quota of all sources connected with one customer or location product are
equivalent. (If, for example, a customer product has 4 alternative customer
source, then the quota of each source is set to 0.25.)

External sources of supply are treated like customer, transport or production sources
of supply, i.e. their computed normalized quota will have the same value as all other
sources connected with a certain location product.

Note: with parameter NORMALIZE_RATIO_POLICY set to EQUAL the operator

overwrites transiently all quotas, independently of what value was set before. So, even
if the user had entered quotas for some sources of supply the operator overwrites these
quotas with equally distributed values (so that all sources of supply which are
connected with one customer or location product do have the same value.) The quotas
are overwritten transiently, i.e. the changed values are not stored in the database while
the user saves his planning session.

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The benefits of setting parameter NORMALIZE_RATIO_POLICY to EQUAL are the
following:

- the quota check which is performed at each call of the supply planning
operator does not return any issue. Therefore, a user can run both, heuristic
and optimizer without fulfilling the time-consuming task to populate all quotas
consistently or with final values.

- all sources of supply which are defined in the system are used to compute a
supply plan

It is recommended to set parameter NORMALIZE_RATIO_POLICY to EQUAL only

during an early project phase. As soon as possible and in time before a go-live the
parameter value should be set back to initial so that the entire handling of quotas,
especially their import from another system is checked.

With parameter NORMALIZE_RATIO_POLICY set to PROPORTIONAL (available as

of IBP 1702) the quotas of all sources connected with one customer or location product
are adapted proportionally to their existing quotas so the sum adds up to exactly 100.0
%. By this the existing proportions of the quotas are kept. (If, for example, a customer
product has two alternative customer sources with quotas of 40 % and 20%, then the
quotas are adapted to 66.67% and 33.3%).

2.2.5 NORMALIZE_RATIOS_ZERO_HANDLING_POLICY (available as of IBP

1702)
Parameter NORMALIZE_RATIOS_ZERO_HANDLING_POLICY defines the handling
of zero quotas when normalizing quotas by using parameter
NORMALIZE_RATIO_POLICY (see section 2.2.4).

With parameter NORMALIZE_RATIOS_ZERO_HANDLING_POLICY set to

INCLUDE_ZEROS (which is the default value) the quotas of sources with value 0 are
included at the normalization process. (If, for example, a customer product has 2
alternative customer sources with 0 % and 20%, then the quota of each source is
adapted to 50 % in case EQUAL is used as normalization policy. In case
PROPORTIONAL is used the quotas are set to 0 % and 100 % as existing proportions
are kept).

With parameter NORMALIZE_RATIOS_ZERO_HANDLING_POLICY set to

EXCLUDE_ZEROS the quotas of sources with value 0 are excluded from the
normalization process. (If, for example, a customer product has 2 alternative customer
sources with 0 % and 20%, then the quotas are adapted to 0 % and 100 % in case

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EQUAL is used as normalization policy. In case PROPORTIONAL is used the quotas
are set to 0 % and 100 % as existing proportions are kept).

2.3 INITIALIZE_LEADTIME_HORIZON
Right at its start, the SCM Planning Operator initializes for all output key figures all
periods of the entire planning horizon. This means that an existing, i.e. the previously
computed supply plan is deleted (by overwriting zero values) if the user runs the S&OP
Heuristic or Optimizer to compute a new supply plan. However, key figures storing
transport supplies are not initialized within the first T periods, where T denotes the
transportation or lead time of the corresponding Transportation Rule. (The planning
horizon is chosen by the user before starting a planning session.) The background is
the following:

For transports between two locations the SCM Planning Operator considers the lead
time defined for the corresponding Transportation Sourcing Rule (T-rule) between
these two locations. This means, a transport starting at location L2 in period t arrives
at its destination location L1 in period (t + T) where T again denotes the lead time in
number of planning periods (days, weeks or months). So, for example, if the lead time
is 3 periods, this means that a transport which starts in period 2 at L2 arrives at L1 in
period 5 (= 2 + 3). As a consequence, the demand of L1 in periods 1, 2 and 3 can be
satisfied only by transports which have been scheduled to start in L2 already in periods
-2, -1 and 0, i.e. in the past from the perspective of the defined planning horizon (which
starts in period 1). The time span covered by periods 1, 2 and 3 – in this example – is
called the Lead Time Horizon (for this T-rule). It is the time span during which no new
transports can be planned at the receiving location as the sending date would have to
be placed in the past which is obviously not possible.

S&OP is usually used in a rolling horizon mode which means that as time moves on
the planning horizon is moved period by period into the future. Due to such a rolling
planning process all values of all key figures of the SCM Planning Operator are
automatically moved out of the planning horizon, each time the horizon is rolled one
period into the future. For transports with a lead time of at least one period this causes
a special effect, as first the period in which a transport starts is moved out of the horizon
whereas its arrival date still is within a period of the planning horizon. As a
consequence, transports started in the past (i.e. before the first period of the planning
horizon) still provide supply within the selected (rolled) planning horizon and hence still
should be considered, i.e. should not be initialized – in general. However, there might
be also use cases in which it makes sense to initialize transport supplies even within
the lead time horizon. For that reason a user can make the SCM Planning Operator to
delete these values prior to each planning run. To do so, parameter
INITIALIZE_LEADTIME_HORIZON has to be set to YES. The SCM Planning Operator
then initializes all values in key figure Transport Supply (and Transport Receipts) within
the Lead Time Horizon. To be more precise, the operator overwrites all values from
the first period of the specified planning horizon to the last period of the Lead Time

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Horizon by zeros. Values outside the chosen planning horizon are not changed
anyway, i.e. independently of parameter INITIALIZE_LEADTIME_HORIZON.

For more background about the meaning of the Lead Time Horizon we refer to the
documentation about Minimum Key Figures, chapter 2.

The default value for parameter INITIALIZE_LEADTIME_HORIZON is initial.

It is planned to extend this concept of initialization of values within the Lead Time
Horizon to the corresponding key figures related with C-rules, i.e. to key figures
Customer Receipts and Customer Supply. Currently the values of those two key
figures are not initialized within the Lead Time Horizon at each call of the operator.

2.4 COMPUTE_EXPECTED_SUPPLY
This parameter is explained in detail in the documentation about Planning Units.
Allowed values are: YES and initial. The default value for parameter
COMPUTE_EXPECTED_SUPPLY is initial.

2.5 RESET_ADJUSTED_KEY_FIGURES
If this parameter is specified and set to YES the SCM Planning Operator initializes all
Adjusted Key Figures, i.e. before doing anything else, the SCM Planning Operator
overwrites all periods of all Adjusted Key Figures by a NULL value (whereas NULL is
the empty string and therefore not the number zero). By default parameter
RESET_ADJUSTED_KEY_FIGURES is initial, i.e. not set to YES.

In case a user has selected one or several Planning Units for his planning session the
SCM Planning Operator initializes values in key figure Adjusted Transport if both
connected locations are in the selection of Planning Units or if the ship-to location is
part of one of the selected Planning Units.

2.7 BALANCE_RECEIPT_POLICY
When this parameter is set to STANDARD the S&OP Heuristic balances receipts
between alternative customer, transport, production or external sources of supply in
cases where the user has defined Adjusted or Minimum Key Figures which cause
insufficient or excessive supply on one or several sources of supply. This parameter
has an impact only for algorithm type INFINITE_WITHOUT_SHORTAGE.

Allowed values are: initial (which is the default value and means no balancing is
performed) and STANDARD.

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2.8 Supportability Parameters
This chapter describes parameters of the SCM Planning Operator which might be
needed / used during the analysis of an issue related to the S&OP Heuristic or
Optimizer. Usually, a user does not use these parameters, i.e. not without having
received the recommendation by the SAP support. Usually these parameters are set
only temporarily.

2.8.1 CREATE_OPTIMIZER_DUMP
This parameter is not set by default. It is specified and set to YES the SCM Planning
Operator creates a dump file which the SAP support might need to analyze an issue
related to the S&OP Optimizer. The dump file is written per default (see next
parameter) into the standard dump directory of the HANA database instance.

2.8.2 OPTIMIZER_DUMP_DIR
Via this parameter a user can specify the directory into which the SCM Planning
Operator writes the optimizer’s dump file - if it should not be the default directory which
is the standard dump directory of the HANA instance

2.8.3 MAX_NUM_LOG_MSG_PER_ID
This parameter limits the number of messages written by the SCM Planning Operator
into a log. The number of messages can be limited (for all message ID) via this
parameter. Its default value is 100 which means that the operator returns maximum
100 messages for each message ID.

2.8.4 Limit number of messages per message ID

It is possible to limit the number of messages for individual message IDs. To do so, the
user has to specify the message ID and the maximum number of messages. The
number overrules (for one message ID) the value defined via parameter
MAX_NUM_LOG_MSG_PER_ID which defines the maximum of messages for each
message ID.

For each parameter the user can only specify one parameter value – as shown by
Figure 1 in chapter 1 of this documentation. As an exception, parameter MSG_LIMIT
needs two values, i.e. the message ID and the maximum number of messages. To
resolve this problem you have to specify the message number as a suffix to the
parameter name. So, for instance, to limit the number of messages for message ID
7146 to 10 and for message ID 471 to zero (to suppress this message) enter the
following parameter names (which is the name MSG_LIMIT and the message ID
separated by a slash) and the corresponding parameter values:

Parameter name Parameter value

MSG_LIMIT/7146 10

MSG_LIMIT/471 0

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2.8.5 Parameters of the Optimizer
There are several parameters to control optimizer functionality. These parameters
need to have the prefex OPT/ and the parameter names are to be set right after the
slash. In addition, a parameter value can be or has to be set – as shown by Figure 1
in chapter 1 of this documentations. Examples for such optimizer parameters (and a
corresponding value) are:

Parameter name Parameter value

OPT/nTiersDemandNonDelivery 8

OPT/sTieringFunctionDemandNonDelivery 3

OPT/fTieringRatioDemandNonDelivery 4

2.9 Infinite Value for Coverage

Via the parameter COVERAGE_INFINITE_VALUE of the SCM Planning Operator the
user can specify the integer value to be returned in key figure Coverage (see
specification Operator’s Key Figures) for an infinite coverage, i.e. when a Projected
Stock covers more than the Dependent Demand of all future periods within the
planning horizon. Its default value is 999999.999999. In order to get a better readable
value with less digits the parameter could be set, for example, to 999.0.

2.10 CARRY_OVER_NEGATIVE_PROJECTEDINVENTORY
In IBP 4.0 this parameter is available as of IBP 4.0.2.3.

The S&OP Heuristic “infinite heuristic no shortages” will generate supply plans with
negative projected stocks if, for any reason, in a period the supply from a location
product is higher than its total receipts (and there is not enough stock on-hand from
the previous period to settle the difference). A negative projected stock indicates that
the affected location product has a problem as it cannot satisfy his entire demand. The
optimizer usually avoids negative projected stocks by supplying only the maximum
available quantity. (There might be some special and extreme cases in which even the
optimizer could return negative projected stocks.)

In case there is a negative projected stock in period t, the S&OP Heuristic uses as
stock on-hand for period (t+1) zero. If, however, parameter
CARRY_OVER_NEGATIVE_PROJECTEDINVENTORY is set to YES (default value
is initial) the heuristic carries over this negative projected stock, i.e. uses the negative
value in period (t+1) while computing the net demand of period (t+1). The effect is
shown by Figure 1 below.

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 Carry Over Negative Stocks

DC1 P1

D: 40 40 40 40 40 40
Parameter I: 00 -15 00 00 00 00
CARRY_OVER_NEGATIVE_PROJECTEDINVENTORY = initial N: 40 40 40 40 40 40
R: 40 25 40 40 40 40
AP: 25
S: 40 40 40 40 40 40

DC1 P1

D: 40 40 40 40 40 40
I: 00 -15 00 00 00 00
N: 40 40 55 40 40 40
Parameter R: 40 25 55 40 40 40
CARRY_OVER_NEGATIVE_PROJECTEDINVENTORY = YES AP: 25
S: 40 40 40 40 40 40

D: Dependent Demand R: Total Receipts

I: Projected Inventory AP: Adjusted Production
N: Net Demand
S: Supply

© 2014 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 1

Figure 1: Carry over negative projected stock

In the example of Figure 1 the (production) receipts in period 2 are fixed to only 25
units as key figure adjusted production is set to 25. As the heuristic satisfies
nevertheless the entire demand, the resulting projected stock in period 2 goes below
zero, i.e. it is -15.

With parameter CARRY_OVER_NEGATIVE_PROJECTEDINVENTORY set to initial

(upper area of Figure 1) the heuristic ignores the negative projected stock of period 2
while computing net demand in period 3. The net demand and hence receipts of period
3 are not affected by the projected stock of -15 in the previous period.

If, in contrast, parameter CARRY_OVER_NEGATIVE_PROJECTEDINVENTORY is

set to YES, the heuristic takes into account the negative projected stock of period 2 to
compute the net demand in period 3. As shown in Figure 1 the net demand (and hence
total receipts) is 55 units.

The parameter CARRY_OVER_NEGATIVE_PROJECTEDINVENTORY changes the

behavior for all location products in the planning area.

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2.11 Other Parameters of the SCM Planning Operator
The SCM Planning Operator offers further parameters. However, those which are not
explained in this document do have a very technical purpose and should be used only
after recommended by the SAP Support.

3.0 Sorting SCM Planning Operators in Excel Frontend

As of IBP 4.0.1.2 parameter SAP_UI_SORT_ORDER is offered to pin the position of
each operator in the drill-down menu showing all defined operators.

Figure 1: Drill-down box of button „Simulate“ – showing heuristic on top.

In order to pin the “Unconstrained Heuristic – Expected Supply” to the second position
(from top) in the drill-down menu (as shown in figure 1) the user has to set parameter
SAP_UI_SORT_ORDER to B – as depicted by figure 2.

Figure 2: Setting of parameter SAP_UI_SORT_ORDER

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If that operator should appear in that drill-down menu on the first position the parameter
SAP_UI_SORT_ORDER would have to be set to A. If it should appear on position four,
this parameter has to be set to D, and so forth.

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