Details of the Planning Run Profile

Supplier Constraints

This constraint is relevant for the supplier and specifies how many units can be delivered by the supplier during certain periods. You can maintain supplier constraint values in the SAP Integrated Business Planning, add-in for Microsoft Excel.

Capacity Constraints

This constraint is relevant for resources and specifies how many units can be produced during certain periods. Available capacity per resource is maintained in SAP ECC. In addition, you can maintain capacity constraint values in the SAP Integrated Business Planning, add-in for Microsoft Excel using the corresponding key figures.

Allocations

Allocations are used to strategically assign supply to selected customers. For certain periods (for example, each month), a particular amount of supply is reserved for selected customers and their sales orders. You can maintain allocation constraint values in the IBP Excel add-in using the corresponding key figure.

Lot Sizes

Lot Sizes define the lower (min) and upper (max) limit of order and thereby define a constraint for a single order. Lot Sizes are maintained in SAP ECC and are stored in SAP IBP on Production Data Structures and Transportation Lanes.

Max. Receipts/Requirements

In some situations, the planned quantity of a supply element might not meet your requirements, or you might have more information than the raw numbers in the system. By defining Maximum Receipts/Requirements, you can define an upper limit for orders and thereby introduce a constraint. You can maintain Maximum Receipts/Requirements values in the add-in for Microsoft Excel.

Planning Start

The planning start defines the point in time that planning runs consider as now. The planning runs will not create orders before the given planning start. Therefore, the planning start defines a constraint. The planning start is defined for each planning run. In case the planning version is configured for flexible planning start, it can differ from job execution time.

As seen in previous chapters, each of the Order-Based Planning Runs has one or more constraints.

There are constraints in all the Order-Based Planning Runs.

Supplier Commit

Business Requirement

At the beginning of the planning process, it is not yet clear if a supplier can deliver the required amount, and initially, the supply shall be planned infinite (supplier constraints switched off).

After confirmation from the supplier (indicating, for example, that there may be less supply than required), in a second iteration, the plan shall be calculated in a finite approach (supplier constraints switched on).

Remark: Workaround today is to work with 2 versions – one with maintained supplier constraint key figure, the other one without.

Unknown Capacity

Business Requirement

At the beginning of the planning process, it is not yet clear if the required capacity for resources (for example, Production, Storage, Transportation) will be available, and initially, capacity is planned infinite (capacity constraint switched off).

After getting confirmation on the capacity in a second iteration, the plan shall be calculated in a finite approach (capacity constraints switched on).

Planning with Subnetworks

Business Requirement

Example: Planner wants to propagate demands to factories infinitely. Factories start to plan and analyze what is achievable (finite).

Changing Bottlenecks

Business Requirement

Use switches to identify bottlenecks that could be eliminated and plan these infinitely. At the same time consider constraints that persist.

Explorative Analysis of Planning Results

Business Requirement

If planning results are not as expected, this can have multiple reasons, including constraints. Switching constraints on or off and analyzing the impact on the results of the planning run is a means to investigate the root cause for unexpected planning results.

Phased Implementation Approach

Business Requirement

Especially at the beginning of an implementation project, customers might follow a phased approach for the introduction of planning features. Providing the capability to switch constraints on or off is supporting this approach.

The switchable constraints available are activated by default. You can switch them off on the new Switchable Constraints tab in the Planning Run Profiles app.

• All constraints are by default "Active". The only exception is Detailed Planning and Scheduling Horizon
• If for a specific constraint type the "Inactive All" option has been selected, all constraints of this type will not be considered during a planning run
• If for a specific constraint type the "Inactive (Rule-Based)" option has been selected, you need to maintain rules that define for which objects (for example, Supplier and Material) the constraint type shall not be considered during a planning run

Using segments and segment conditions, you can configure rules for switching constraints, based on a flexible set of attributes. You can see which attributes can be used in segment conditions in SAP IBP Help Documentation.

An example is shown in the following figure:

• Due to significantly increased demand, we reached out to SUPPLIER72 and requested to provide an unlimited supply
• SUPPLIER72 committed to delivering whatever we need
• Any constraints that have previously been in place shall no longer be considered for SUPPLIER72

As shown in the following figure, the supply planning run enables the setting up of the three planning scenarios.

The supply planning run using the optimizer does not consider the allocation constraint, regardless of the switchable constraint setting.

In the new Demand Selection tab for planning run profiles, you can make settings for Sales Orders and Sales Order Deliveries, Forecasts or ignore Independent Demand.

Sales order fulfillment options impact Supply Planning and Deployment Runs as shown in the following figure.

The behavior of Update Sales Order and Forecast Fulfillment in the Demand Selection Tab of the Planning Profile is shown in the following figure.

The demand selection in planning run profiles has an impact on the planning relevance of demands shown in the Projected Stock app.

A new value for the Planning-Relevant column has been introduced: No - based on-demand selection.

The behavior is shown in the following figure.

Together with the settings for Demand Selection, Switchable Constraints, and Multiple Forecast Key Figures or other settings, the supply planning run enables you to set up additional planning scenarios as shown in the following figure.