Outlining SAP S/4HANA Capacity Planning

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to outline SAP S/4HANA capacity planning

Check Capacity Planning in SAP S/4HANA: Introduction

The economic use of available resources is an essential objective for many areas of a company. For this purpose, SAP S/4HANA Capacity Planning is available.

As a planner in manufacturing, you are responsible for the optimal utilization of your work centers. The capacity load of the work centers should not be too high or too low in certain periods. In addition, the planned orders and production orders should be assigned to the work centers in an optimal sequence. To achieve these goals, you can use various tools in SAP S/4HANA for capacity evaluation and capacity leveling.

First, you must get an overview of the integration and the basics of SAP S/4HANA capacity planning.

The figure shows the integration of SAP S/4HANA Capacity Planning. Capacity Planning is integrated with the following applications in manufacturing: Sales and operations planning (SOP), long-term planning (LTP), master production planning (MPS), material requirements planning (MRP), repetitive manufacturing (REM), discrete manufacturing (SFC), and process manufacturing (PI). Capacity Planning is also integrated with sales and distribution, plant maintenance and customer service, and with the project system.

SAP S/4HANA Capacity Planning is available for the areas listed in the figure. In this course, we focus exclusively on the application in discrete manufacturing, that is, for planned and production orders. The tools and functions described herein are very similar and partially identical in the other areas.

Capacity Planning in Manufacturing

The figure shows the integration of Capacity Planning with Manufacturing. The details are explained in the following text.

The functions of Manufacturing form a complex process chain starting with the creation of requirements (planned independent requirements or sales orders) and ending with the goods receipts of the finished products.

Manufacturing is integrated into the functions of capacity planning, costing, inventory management, quality management and many other SAP S/4HANA applications. There are also various interfaces to external systems.

When you define sales quantities or create planned or production orders, capacity requirements are generated. These can be evaluated and leveled in capacity planning. By confirming the orders, the capacity requirements are reduced.

Capacity Planning in Manufacturing: Master Data and Orders

The figure shows the role of the master data routing and work center in capacity planning and outlines the basic capacity planning functions capacity evaluation and capacity leveling. The details are explained in the following text.

The master data of the work centers play a central role in capacity planning. In the work centers, their available capacities and formulas for calculating the capacity requirements of operations are defined. Work centers are assigned to the operations of routings.

Planned orders or production orders are created on the basis of routings. Based on the work center formulas, lead time scheduling takes place for the orders and capacity requirements are created for their operations.

The operations are scheduled infinitely. The non-working times of the work centers are taken into account, but not the capacity requirements of other orders. This can lead to capacity overloads.

In such situations, various tools are available for capacity evaluation and capacity leveling. In capacity evaluation, the available capacities of work centers are compared with the capacity requirements of operations. In capacity leveling, operations are scheduled finitely. They are dispatched to periods with free capacity. In this way, the available capacity is guaranteed.

Material Requirements Planning and Capacity Planning

The figure describes the fact that lead time scheduling is carried out in material requirements planning. An infinite available capacity is assumed. In a subsequent step, capacity evaluation and capacity leveling must take place if you want to avoid capacity overloads.

The figure, Material Requirements Planning and Capacity Planning, again describes the fact that lead time scheduling is carried out in material requirements planning. An infinite available capacity is assumed. In a subsequent step, capacity evaluation and capacity leveling must take place if you want to avoid capacity overloads.

Capacity Planning Tools

In the figure the Capacity Planning tools are listed. They are explained in the following text.

For capacity evaluations, several apps and evaluation reports are available. This enables you to analyze a capacity situation flexibly and effectively, depending on your current requirements.

For capacity leveling, you can use several apps and planning tables.

The Capacity Scheduling Table is a straightforward tool for the capacity leveling of planned, production and process orders. It is accessed via the SAP Fiori launchpad and provides a user-friendly interface that allows you to dispatch and deallocate bottleneck operations of orders transparently and easily.

The Capacity Scheduling Board is a tool to analyze the schedule of operations and to dispatch, reschedule, or deallocate individual bottleneck operations on pacemaker work centers in a graphical chart. It is accessed via the SAP Fiori launchpad.

The tabular planning tables give you a period-oriented, aggregate information on available capacities, capacity requirements, and capacity loads. In the tabular planning table, the capacity requirements of operations are dispatched to periods with free capacity. However, you cannot create a specific sequence for the dispatched operations within a period.

The graphical planning table enables you to carry out detailed planning of capacity requirements continuously over time. The requirements of operations are dispatched to individual capacities at exact times and in the sequence in which they are processed.

Note

The use right for the Graphical Planning Table expires on Dec 31, 2025. For this reason, the Graphical Planning Table is not covered in this course.

See note 2268050 for the following information:

Transactions CM21, CM22, etc with the Graphical Planning Table are still available in SAP S/4HANA on-premise edition, but not considered as the target architecture. The Graphical Planning Table is part of the SAP S/4HANA compatibility scope, which comes with limited usage rights. For more details on the compatibility scope and it’s expiry date and links to further information please refer to SAP note 2269324. In the compatibility matrix attached to SAP note 2269324, Graphical Planning Table can be found under the ID 451.

Transactions CM* will be replaced by apps like "Manage Work Center Capacity", "Capacity Scheduling Table", and "Capacity Scheduling Board".

Alternatively consider SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud DMC component Resource Orchestration REO. REO works on more granular data defined in Digital Manufacturing Cloud. In a job-shop environment for example work-centers could be defined in SAP S/4HANA and the individual machines only in DMC. Dispatching from the work-center level to the individual machine level is the domain of REO. Further information can be found on http://help.sap.com/dmc.

Use embedded PP/DS for complex scheduling problems, if for example planned and production orders of different BOM levels need to be synchronized, or if material availability needs to be considered in scheduling, or if multiple bottleneck resources must be aligned. PP/DS is embedded into S/4HANA. It is available on-premise. For details refer to note 2666947.

Recommended Actions:

  • Consider to migrate to the new apps "Manage Work Center Capacity", "Capacity Scheduling Table", and "Capacity Scheduling Board"
  • or evaluate REO
  • or evaluate (embedded) PP/DS.

    In this context, please also refer to course S4224 and the workshopS42245.

Example: Capacity Evaluation in the Stock/Requirements List

The figure,shows an example of a capacity evaluation that was called up directly from the stock/requirements list. The MRP controller displays the capacity loads of the affected work centers. Overload situations are recognized immediately.

The figure, Example: Capacity Evaluation in the Stock/Requirements List, shows an example of a capacity evaluation that was called up directly from the stock/requirements list. The MRP controller displays the capacity loads of the affected work centers. Overload situations are recognized immediately.

Updating the Data in Planned Orders and Production Orders as a Result of Dispatching

The figure shows which data is updated in a planned order and a production order when an operation is dispatched. In a planned order, the Capacity dispatched indicator is set. The planned order is also firmed. In a production order, the status DSPT Dispatched is set for a dispatched operation.

The figure, Updating the Data in Planned Orders and Production Orders as a Result of Dispatching, shows which data is updated in a planned order and a production order when an operation is dispatched.

In a planned order, the Capacity dispatched indicator is set. The planned order is also firmed. It cannot be rescheduled using MRP or any other type of lead time scheduling.

In a production order, the status DSPT Dispatched is set for a dispatched operation. It also cannot be rescheduled using lead time scheduling.

Rescheduling of dispatched operations is only possible using finite scheduling in a planning board.

Video Tutorial

Analyzing Available Capacities of a Work Center

Watch the following video to learn how to analyze available capacities of a Work Center.

Analyzing Work Center Data for Capacity Requirements in SAP S/4HANA

Watch the following video to learn how to analyze Work Center Data for Capacity Requirements in SAP S/4HANA.

Analyzing Routing Data Relevant for the Calculation of Capacity Requirements

Watch the following video to learn how to analyze Routing Data relevant for the calculation of Capacity Requirements.

Capacity Planning in S/4HANA: Master Data

Work Center Data Relevant for Capacity Planning

The figure shows work center data that is essential for capacity planning. Details are explained in the following text.

The figure, Work Center Data Relevant for Capacity Planning, shows work center data that is essential for capacity planning.

The standard values describe the times or activities that can be carried out at a work center. In the example above, the standard values setup timemachine time and labor time are assigned to the work center.

A work center can have several capacity categories. In the example, capacity categories 001 Machine and 002 Labor are assigned.

To each capacity category are assigned formulas for calculating the capacity requirements of operations. For an operation, the capacity requirements for the setup, processing and teardown can be calculated. The figure shows an example of such a formula.

For each capacity category, a daily standard available capacity is defined. The figure describes which elements are included in the calculation of the standard available capacity.

The factory calendar defines the workdays.

You can define time intervals in which the standard available capacity is overridden by specific available capacities, such as shift sequences or downtimes.

You can define several versions of available capacity, such as a standard available capacity, a minimum available capacity, and a maximum available capacity.

A capacity category must be defined as the scheduling basis. The available capacity of this capacity category is taken into account in scheduling.

You must also define formulas for calculating the duration of operations. For an operation, you can calculate the durations for the setup, processing and teardown.

Routing Data Relevant for Capacity Planning

The figure shows routing data that is essential for capacity planning. Details are explained in the following text.

The figure, Routing Data Relevant for Capacity Planning, shows routing data that is essential for capacity planning.

The operations of a routing are assigned work centers and control keys.

For each operation, the standard values are copied from the assigned work center. They are assigned the planned values for production by the work scheduler.

For each operation, furthermore, the interoperation times wait time, queue time and move time can be maintained.

For each operation, the control key defines whether the operation is relevant for scheduling and capacity planning and whether the operation is to be confirmed.

Planned/Production Order: Lead Time Scheduling

The figure describes which time elements are included in lead time scheduling of a planned order or production order. It shows the Lead time of a order broken down into increments from the float before production through the individual operations to the float after production at the end. Below that, the Lead time of an operation is depicted, consisting of queue time, setup time, processing time, teardown time, wait time, and move time. The image also includes tables explaining the meaning of different order dates, operation times, and time concepts. The time concepts are float times, operation processing times, interoperation times, and processing times in sales and distribution following the goods receipt of the order.

The figure, Planned/ Production Order: Lead Time Scheduling, describes which time elements are included in lead time scheduling of a planned order or production order. The float before production and the float after production are assigned to the material master of the product using a scheduling margin key.

Operation: Calculation of Durations

The figure describes the calculation of the durations for the setup, processing, and teardown times of an operation. They are calculated on the basis of the scheduling formulas of the assigned work center. The formulas can contain work center constants, operation values, as for example base quantity and operation quantity, and standard values as formula parameters. A capacity category of the work center must be defined as scheduling basis, and the control key of the operation must allow scheduling.

The durations for the setup, processing, and teardown of an operation are calculated on the basis of the scheduling formulas of the assigned work center.

Operation: Calculation of Capacity Requirements

The figure describes the calculation of the capacity requirements for the setup, processing, and teardown of an operation. They are calculated on the basis of the formulas of the assigned work center. The formulas can contain work center constants, operation values, and standard values as formula parameters. The formulas are defined for each capacity category of the work center, and the control key of the operation must allow the creation of capacity requirements.

Accordingly, the capacity requirements for the setup, processing, and teardown of an operation are calculated per capacity category on the basis of the capacity formulas of the assigned work center.

Video Tutorial

Creating Planned Independent Requirements

Watch the following video to learn how to create Planned Independent Requirements.

Scheduling a MRP Run

Watch the following video to learn how to schedule a MRP Run.

Evaluating Capacity Requirements

Watch the following video to learn how to evaluate Capacity Requirements.

Log in to track your progress & complete quizzes