APO-Demand Planning

Positioning of APO within SAP's Solutions

APO (Advance Planning and Optimization) is the production and
transport planning tool within the mySAP Supply Chain
Management (SCM) solution:
R/3
BW
APO
(Production and Transport Planning)
(Production and Transport Execution) (Reporting)
SAP's SCM Solution Component Overview
SCM

OLTP (R/3)

Global
ATP
Information
Warehouse
(SAP BW)








Demand Planning
Customer
orders
Production
Scheduling
Inventory
management
Supply
Network
Planning
Supply Chain Cockpit
Deployment
PP / DS
Transportation Planning
Transportation
processing
LIS, CO-PA
HR, FI
Key
Performance
Key figures
(KPIs)
Historical
data

SCM
Event Management
Inventory
Collaboration Hub
XI-Server

XML/Mail
I/O








F&R
RFID
High-Level Business Process Planning Functions
Planning Horizon
Demand Planning (DP)
Supply Network Planning (SNP)
Production Planning (PP)
Detailed Scheduling (DS)
Deployment
Transport Load Builder (TLB)
or:
(production plants)
(distribution centers)
Interfaces to SAP R/3 or R/3 Enterprise
Vendor
Material Master
Capacity
Routing and BOM
Customer
Plant
Resource
Production Process
Model
Product
Location
Initial Data Transfer
Sales Order Planned Order
Stock
Purchase req. Purchase order
ORDERs (PchOrd, PurRqs, SalesOrd,
PlOrd, Stock .)
..
Initial Data Transfer
Incremental Transfer
Real-time
Transaction Data
Master Data
Transaction Data
Incremental Data Transfer
Job or Real-time
R/3
APO
CIF
Interfaces to Non-SAP Components
SAP APO




SD
LO
HR
SAP R/3
Non-
R/3 System
BAPI
BAPI
BAPI
CIF
(Core Interface)
BAPIs

Business Background

Demand Planning (DP)
Forecasting of market demand for your company's products.
This component allows you to take into consideration the many different causal
factors that affect demand. The result of APO Demand Planning is the demand
plan.
User-specific planning layouts and interactive planning books enable you to
integrate people from different departments, and even different companies, into
the forecasting process.
Using the DP library of statistical forecasting and advanced macro techniques
you can create forecasts based on demand history as well as any number of
causal factors, carry out predefined and self-defined tests on forecast models and
forecast results, and adopt a consensus-based approach to reconcile the demand
plans of different departments.
To add marketing intelligence and make management adjustments, you use
promotions and forecast overrides. The seamless integration with APO Supply
Network Planning supports an efficient S&OP process.
Typical DP process
SCM R/3 System
Sales Information
System (SIS)
Perform Material
Requirements Planning
(MRP)
Manufacturing /
Purchasing

Demand Planning
Data Load into APO Data
Mart
Execute Consensus Meeting
Release to R/3 or SNP
* Alternative steps, capacity constraint-based planning
Confirmation of Final Forecast
BW
Collaboration Partner
Forecast /
Promotion Data
Collection/
Distribution
Legacy / Flat File
Extract Data
Update Info cubes
SNP *
Constrained Demand Plan
Forecast Accuracy Reporting
Execute Forecast Run
Execute
Promotion
Planning
Determine
Realignment
Procedures
DP data model
No master data is required for demand planning!

- Plant
- Material



All we need are characteristics and key figures








Demand Planning Process

1. The planning area is the basis for all activities in APO Demand Planning. It is a
collection of parameters that define the scope of all planning tasks. The planning area
is linked to the data mart. You load into the data mart the actual history (for example,
bookings, shipments or billings) that wlll be used to create the DP master data and
generate the demand forecasts.
2. Map the structure of your company (for example, regions, divisions, brands,
products and customers) for planning purposes in the DP master data.
3. Configure the layout of the planning screens for the different parties who will
participate in demand planning by designing planning books. Define macros to
perform calculations, carry out tests, and warn you of exceptional situations.
4. Define forecast models for time series forecasting, causal analysis and/or
composite forecasting.

5. Create a forecast of market demand using a top-down, middle-out, or bottom-up
approach. Choose from a wide variety of forecasting methods and techniques. See
6. Forecast new products and discontinued products by applying lifecycle planning
and "like" modeling techniques.
7. Plan promotions and other events. Examples of promotions are free-standing
inserts, coupons, discounts, product displays, trade shows, dealer allowances,
coupons, contests, and advertising.
8. Fine-tune the demand plan by adding management overrides and modifications.
9. Reconcile the demand plans of different departments by merging the plans into a
one-number, consensus forecast.
10. Simulate different planning scenarios.
11. Monitor exceptional or critical situations through the Alert Monitor.
12. Make the demand plan available in SNP by releasing it. The demand plan is
often unconstrained by any production or distribution restrictions. This step can be
completed by either the demand planner or the SNP planner.
13. Make the SNP plan available to DP by releasing it. The SNP plan takes into
account any production or distribution restrictions. A comparison of the two plans
could lead, for example, to the opening of a factory to meet demand in a new market
region.
14. Store the forecasts made at different times for a period.
15. Update the actual data.
16. Verify the accuracy of the forecast; for example, by comparing it with the
constrained forecast from SNP, with actual data and with other demand planning
versions that you did not release to SNP.
17. Revise the master data to reflect the addition of new products, customers, and
so on.
18. Refine the forecast models in the light of knowledge gained from forecast
accuracy checks. Add new models for new products and product lines.
Administrative tasks
Demand Planning

Infocube
R/3
Plant
Material
liveCache
Timeseries
APO
Location
Product
OLTP
APO
BW
APO DP
SNP
CIF-interface
liveCache
Order
BW
APO
Important Reports
/SAPAPO/TS_LCM_CONS_CHECK
Consistency Check for Existing Time Series Network
/SAPAPO/TS_LCM_PLOB_DELTA_SYNC
Adjust time series objects
/SAPAPO/TS_PSTRU_GEN
Regenerate dynamic programs
/SAPAPO/TS_PSTRU_TOOL
Toolbox for Planning Object Structures
/SAPAPO/TS_PAREA_EXTR_MGM
Extractor checker
/SAPAPO/OM_REORG_DAILY
Periodic (Daily) Reorganization of COM Objects in liveCache
Important Tables
Planning Area
/SAPAPO/TSAREAKO TS Designer: Planning Area
/SAPAPO/TSPAPLOB TS Designer: Planning Area -
Plng Object Struct. (Key Fig)
/SAPAPO/SDPTSTR Time Streams for SNP/DP
POS (Planning
Object Structure)
/SAPAPO/TSPLOBPO TS Designer: Planning Object
Structure Characteristic
/BIC/F<POS name> Generate InfoCube for internal
use
/SAPAPO/TSPAPLO TS Designer: Planning Area
Planning Object (Version-
Depend.)
/SAPAPO/TSPLOBTE Technical Field - Planning
Object Structure - System-
Depend.
RSDDIMEIOBJ InfoObjects per dimension
(where-used list)
Planning Book
/SAPAPO/PBMVW Existing Planning Books
/SAPAPO/SDPTBPOS Position Table for Time
Buckets Profile in SNP/DP
/SAPAPO/PBMLKEY Planning Book Worklist (Key
Figures)
Selection Variants
/SAPAPO/TS_SELKO Header Selection Variants
Forecast
/SAPAPO/DP440G Master Forecast Profile
/SAPAPO/TSPLBAKT
Background Planning Activities
/SAPAPO/TSAKTMSG Error Handling in Background
Processing
/SAPAPO/DP440P Univariate Forecast Profile
Macros
/SAPAPO/PBMADVM Defined Macros in Planning
Book
/SAPAPO/ADMAKRO Advanced Macros
/SAPAPO/FUN_STEP Macro steps
/SAPAPO/FUN_RES Results of Macro Steps and
Conditions Within the Step
Batch Job
/SAPAPO/TSPLBAKT Background Planning Activities
/SAPAPO/TSPLB Background Job for Planning
Area
Alerts
/SAPAPO/AM_ALERT Alert Monitor Alerts
Release
/SAPAPO/TSUPREL Release Profile: Demand
Planning to SNP
Important Programs/Functions
Reading / Writing Data
Function /SAPAPO/TS_DM_GET
Function /SAPAPO/TS_DM_SET
Reads Data according to the key figure attributes from InfoCube or liveCache (Timeseries or orders).
Interface
IS_READ_OPTIONS
IT_SELECTION
IT_GROUP_BY
IT_KEYFIGURES
CT_LINES
CT_COLS
ET_TAB

/SAPAPO/PROGNOSE
Forecasting