Realigning Data

While operating your organization, some business changes may occur, such as, changes in your organization's structures, new and discontinued products, changes in the locations of your plants or distribution centers. Such changes must be reflected in the planning data in your SAP Integrated Business Planning (SAP IBP) system. Realignment is the process of adjusting planning data, such as planning objects and key figure values, to reflect such business changes.

Basic Assumptions:

• The starting point of realignment is a business requirement to change data.

• Realignment can be a manually triggered process that changes planning data on an as-needed basis and it can also be set to recurring

• Realignment can change master data, planning objects, and time series based key figures,

• Realignment rules are usually defined by planners/business users.

• A realignment run is usually executed by an administrator/IT user.

Key Features:

• Selection by attribute, time, and key figures

• Mapping of attribute values

• Realignment of multiple (dependent) attributes on different levels

• Overwrite or sum key figure values of existing planning objects

• Create new planning objects

• Split and merge planning objects

• Initialize key figure values for new planning objects

• Log processing steps

Data realignment in SAP IBP – terminology

• Realignment project – contains a set of realignment steps that are executed in a defined sequence.

• Realignment step – the processing step of a realignment project containing the rules and control parameters to adjust planning data.

• Realignment run – execution of a realignment project. A realignment run is executed using the Realign Planning Data application job template in the Application jobs app.

The realignment of planning data in your SAP IBP system is set up in the Manage Realignment Rules app, and is executed as an application job from the Application Jobs app.

The realignment process is usually triggered manually when changes in your company's business warrant the adjustment of the planning data in your SAP IBP system. It is executed on an as-needed basis, and it can be used to change master data, planning objects, and time series based key figures.

In the SAP IBP system, the process is as follows:

1. Set up a realignment project and define realignment rules

   In the Manage Realignment Rules app, the demand planner sets up a realignment project that contains the realignment steps necessary to update the planning data. The planner sets the sequence in which the system must execute the steps, as well as the details of each step (for example, attribute mapping, selection options, and so on). The maximum number of steps in a realignment project is 255.

   Once the realignment project is set up, together with the system administrator, you can review the project steps and their settings. The system administrator then sets the status of the realignment project to Approved and runs the application job either in simulation mode or executes the realignment run.

   You can now rerun realignment projects with the status Successfully Executed without an additional approval step. Previously, realignment projects with this status had to be set back to the status Approved before they could be scheduled again.

   • Project List Screen

     In the Project List screen of the app, you can create new realignment projects, edit existing ones, copy and delete realignment projects, and search for them. You can also download or upload a realignment project to/from a CSV file.

   • Project Overview Screen

     In the Project Overview screen, you can do the following:

     • Define a realignment project name and add a description
     • Assign a planning area to the realignment project
     • Create, copy and delete realignment steps, add descriptions, and change the sequence of steps
     • Change the realignment project status
     • Review administrative information about the realignment project

   • Realignment Step Screen

     Here you define the name of the realignment step. The name should not be longer than 30 characters.

     Attribute Mapping

     The attributes you select under Attribute Mapping determine which master data types and planning levels the system will process. The system processes the following:

     • All simple master data types that contain all the selected attributes as non-root attributes

     • All compound master data types that contain all the selected attributes

     • All planning levels that contain all the selected attributes as root attributes. If no relevant planning objects exist on a processed planning level, no data is changed for this planning level.

     Consider the following rules when defining an attribute mapping:

     • Specify the attributes with their source and target values.

     • To map n source values to one target value, you can use the selection option Any.

     • The target attribute value must be different from the source attribute value.
     • You can use the same attribute multiple times, but the target value must be the same each time. This can be used to model merge scenarios.
     • If key figure values are adjusted, the same target value can be used at most in 100 mappings for the same attribute.
     • You can specify only non-root attributes of one master data type in one realignment step. The system evaluates the attribute mappings in combination.
     • To be able to display descriptions for the attribute values, ensure that a description attribute is assigned to the attribute in the master data type.

     Processing Options

     Here you can specify how you want your master data and key figures to be processed:

     • Adjust Master Data: The realignment run applies the defined attribute mappings to the relevant master data types.

     • Adjust Key Figure Values: The realignment run applies the defined attribute mappings to the key figures in the relevant planning levels.

     • Generate Missing Target Planning Objects: The system generates missing planning objects while adjusting key figure values.

     • Source Planning Objects: The system deletes obsolete source planning objects from the database.

     Selection

     Here you can restrict the records to be processed by adding further selection criteria. You can only select attributes that you haven't used with the selection option Equal to under Attribute Mapping.

     Key Figures

     Here you can select the key figures and specify how you want the system to process them:

     • You can choose to process all applicable key figures or select the key figures to be adjusted manually. You can only select key figures from the planning levels derived from the Attribute Mapping section.
     • When realigning key figure values, the system always considers the stored key figure value. If a key figure is calculated and stored, the calculated value is ignored.
     • If master data and key figures need to be adjusted, the master data changes are processed first.
     • You can also define how you want your key figures to be processed. For more details about the available actions, see the Web Assistant help by pressing F1.
       Note

       If one of the key figures you want to copy is fixed, the target key figures will also be fixed. This applies to all actions except Initialize target.
     • For key figure calculations that sum≤ up values, you can decide whether key figure values of source planning objects shall be adjusted by realignment. If you don't select Adjust Source Key Figure Value, the source planning objects are adjusted as follows:
     • Source_New = (100 – Percentage) * Source_Old IF Percentage <100
     • Source_New = 0 IF Percentage ＞= 100
     • Source_New = null IF Source_Old = null

       Resulting source key figure vales of "0" aren't deleted.

     • You can enter the percentage of the value of the source key figure you want the system to use during the calculation of the target key figure values.

2. Review the realignment rules

   In the Manage Realignment Rules app, the system administrator together with the demand planner review the realignment steps and the settings related to them. If all questions have been clarified and the realignment project is ready to be run, the system administrator sets its status to Approved.

   
3. Run the realignment project

   In the Application Jobs app, the system administrator sets up an application job based on the Realign Planning Data application job template to execute the realignment run for the realignment project. Once the application job is set up, the administrator can run the job.

   Before committing to the final realignment run, you can run the application job in simulation mode to assess the impact of the realignment run, for example, to see how many planning objects the realignment run creates. Executing a realignment project in simulation mode does not change any of the data or the project status.

   You can simulate one step, a sequence of steps, or all of the steps of a realignment project.

   A realignment run can only be executed for realignment projects with status Approved. This is not required when you execute the realignment run in simulation mode.

   Note

   In simulation mode, every realignment step is evaluated independently. Potential changes by previous steps are not considered.
   
4. Review the results of the realignment run

   In the Application Logs app, the system administrator reviews the processing information of the realignment run.

   Each realignment run, even in simulation mode, creates an application log with detailed processing information, such as the following:

   • Planning versions and scenarios processed

   • Affected master data

   • Affected planning levels

   • Affected key figures

   • Affected planning objects

   Object lists are provided as .csv attachments.

   The Search field can be used, for example, to display only messages of a specific step or to find information for a certain planning level.

   Recurring Realignment Functionality

   You can now rerun realignment projects with the status Successfully Executed without an additional approval step. Previously, realignment projects with this status had to be set back to the status Approved before they could be scheduled again.

1. Supported attribute types:

   • Attribute types NVARCHAR and INTEGER are supported.

   • Attribute types TIMESTAMP and DECIMAL are not supported.

2. Supported Master Data Types:

   • Simple and compound master data types are supported.

   • Reference, virtual and external data types are not supported.

3. Creation and deletion of Master Data Type records:

   • Simple master data types: Realignment neither creates nor deletes records of master data types. It may only change non-root attributes of existing master data types records. The reason is that the creation of master data type values is considered as a separate process that may involve different people/systems.

   • Compound master data types: If needed new records of compound master data type are created. The prerequisite is that the key attributes exist in the referenced simple master data type. No existing records of compound master data types are deleted

4. When copying key figure values, the system uses stored values. If a key figure is calculated and stored, the calculated values are ignored.
5. If master data and key figures are adjusted, the master data changes are processed first.
6. If no relevant planning objects exist at a processed planning level, no data is changed for that planning level.
7. Realignment steps are processed sequentially and changes are committed after each step.
8. If a realignment step fails, subsequent steps are not processed as they may depend on previous steps.
9. Key figure editability is not considered in realignment. For example, it is possible to realign past values of key figures that are only editable in the present or future.
10. Order-based key figures cannot be used in realignment.
11. Permission filters are not taken into consideration by realignment.