Maintaining Networks and Activities

In the SAP system, the network is a special work order that uses a common structure with production or maintenance orders, for example. Each network has a unique identification assigned automatically by the system, depending on the ​network type ​(internal number assignment) or by the user when creating the network (external number assignment).

The network header of a network contains default organizational assignment data and control data that applies to the entire network (similar to the project definition for WBS elements). You can assign a network to a work breakdown structure or a sales order in the network header.

Activities form the basis for planning and executing networks. Each activity can be assigned to any WBS element (if it is an account assignment element). The network is scheduled at the activity level. Relationships determine the order in which activities are carried out. Consequently, relationships – and the duration of the activities – are essential for scheduling networks. You use activity elements to split activities into more detail or to enhance them.

Networks can be header-assigned or activity-assigned, depending on order type or plant. Normally, activity-assigned networks are used to gather costs for each activity. Header-assigned networks are only significant for assigning networks to sales orders (without WBS).

The SAP Project system has the following activity categories:

• Internally processed activities contain a work center at which the work is to be carried out. They include the working time and the duration of the activity. The assignment of the work center to a cost center provides an activity type and a rate so that planned costs can be calculated for the activity.

• External activities are used for procuring activities or services not procured within your company. Purchase requisitions are generated for externally procured activities that are processed in Purchasing. A differentiation is made between "external processing" and "service" for externally procured activities.

• , General costs activities, enable you to plan costs other than internal or external activities. For example, you can plan expenses or insurance costs using general costs activities.

Normally, activities are not organized randomly in a network. There are usually technical or content-stipulated dependencies between the activities. Relationships determine the chronological sequence of the individual activities in a network (or standard network) or different networks. You can enter additional data (such as a time interval of the relationship or reference to a particular factory calendar) in the detail screen for each relationship. The type of relationship defines how the individual activities are linked to each other.

Activities can be described as follows:

• The activity Assembly begins with the end of the predecessor activity Production.

• The activityPurchase order begins with the start of the activity Engin./Design.

• The activity Work Scheduling ends with the end of the activity Engin./Design.

• The activity Test Run ends with the start of the activity Approval.

In addition, you can define time intervals for the relationships, allowing you, for example, to control that the activity Assembly begins two days after the end of the activity Production, or that the activity Purchase order begins if the planned 20% of the design phase has been completed.

Activities are given detail by Activity Elements. For example, it is possible to complement an activity, which describes the transport of a material, with a cost element, which describes the insurance for that transport process.

You can also assign an external element to an internally processed activity for design services if, for example, an external provider should carry out a specific detail design.

Activity elements have almost the same functionality as activities. Types of activity elements include internal processing elements, external processing elements, and general cost elements.

All activity elements have a date reference to the activity to which they are assigned. This way, you are sure that each activity element can be planned independently while remaining bound by time to a superior activity.

The activity elements themselves do not affect scheduling. Therefore, they do not have any relationships or durations. Materials and relationships are assigned to the superior activity.

Activity elements are assigned to WBS elements if necessary. The assignment has the same function as the activities but does not influence the time scheduling of WBS elements. Work and capacity for resources can be assigned, but material components cannot. Relationships cannot be created from activity elements.

Alternatively to the network graphic overview in the Project Builder, which is based on outdated technology, you can use the app Project Network Graph to display network activities and their relationships as an interactive graph. The app lets you identify critical activities, their dependencies, and confirmation status and display detailed information for selected objects.

The information that should be displayed can be configured in the Customizing settings for the network.

The application offers the following key features:

• Display network activities for a selected project, network, or WBS element and their relationships in a graph view
• Group activities by network or WBS element
• Detect loops
• Navigate by successors and predecessors
• Highlight activities by selected criteria
• Search for activities
• Display detailed information for selected objects
• Navigate to related apps to view details of networks, network activities, and WBS elements
• Open an overview of objects assigned to the network activity: milestones, subnetworks, activity elements, material components
• Add and edit attributes of the network activity, including assigned objects, which are shown in the graph node in Customizing
• Switch between different view types

In the Customizing activity Configure View Type Cluster , you can configure how the project network graph should look and what information should be displayed.