SAP Routing & Recipes

Routings is a type of Task List in SAP and it defines the sequence in which a product is manufactured for a Discrete manufacturing order (also called as Production Order). Routings are used in SAP PP/REM. 

Similarly Recipes are also Task Lists in SAP defining sequence of manufacturing operations, for a Process manufacturing order (also called as Process Order). 

The operations in a Routings are assigned to Work centers/Resources, PRT (Production Resource Tools), Inspection characteristics (for Quality Inspection), BOM components (components required for manufacturing the end product) and Trigger points (to trigger certain manufacturing orders)

It defines the order in which the operations need to be processed so as to produce a material.

Routings are task list and they are categorized as Routings, Rate routings, Reference operation sets, Reference Rate Routing. 

Example – 

Routing – For Material M1 at Plant 0001 

Material M1 at Plant 0001

•     Operation = 0010: Work center = WC1: Components-C1, C2, C3:  PRT0001

•     Operation = 0020: Work center = WC2: Components- C3, C4:  PRT0002:

•     Operation = 0030: Work center = WC3: Components- C5,

•     Operation = 0040: Work center = WC4: Components- C6

Routings are task list and they are categorized as Routings, Rate routings, Reference operation sets, Reference Rate Routing.

Routings –  

A Routing is used for specifying the sequence of operations to be used for production, Routing is used in SAP PP. The operations in a Routings are assigned to work centers, PRT, inspection characteristics.  

You can create material specific Routings by creating the Routing for a material and plant combination.  

You can also create a Routing without specifying the material or the Group number and after creation the system will allocate a Routing Group number generate internally (you can also provide an external Routing number before creation in the selection screen). Once such a Routing is created you can allocate this routing to all the products which are manufactured with the same production processes and activities through the same set of work centers, production resource tools (if any) and Inspection characteristics (if any). After creation of such a Routing, you can recall the routing in the change mode through the Group number. Once you allocate such routing to many products, any change in the routing is also applicable to all the allocated material Routings.  

Transaction code to create, change, display Routings – CA01, CA02, CA02 

Task list type = N 

Reference Operation sets – 

If certain sets of operations are used frequently in many Routings, they can be created separately in transaction code CA11 {Change/Display: CA12/CA13).  

You can call such reference sets of operations in any Routing, to simplify the creation process of Routing. After calling a specific set of operations you need to unlock that set and make it free for use in the Routing under creation. Once you unlock that set in your Routing you would remove the link with the reference operation set. You can change these operations in the Routing under creation, once you unlock the reference set. 

You cannot assign a material to be produced to a reference operation set. It can have neither parallel nor alternative sequences. 

Task list type = S 

Rate Routing – 

A routing for whose operations the production quantity and a fixed duration has been defined. Thus the production rate is also defined. 

Rate routings are used when you plan on a quantity basis, for example in repetitive manufacturing. It can have parallel sequences.  

The transaction codes to create a Rate Routing are CA21 (Change/Display: CA22/CA23) 

Task list type = R 

Reference Rate Routing -  

Similar to the Reference Operation sets, the operation sets created as Reference rate Routing can be called in the creation of Rate Routing to reduce the efforts of creation. 

The transaction codes to create a Reference Rate Routing are CA31 (Change/Display: CA32/CA33). 

Task list type = M 

Work center or Resources 

Each of the operations in a routing or a recipe is assigned with a work center and this work center in turn is assigned with a cost center that carries the activities (like Labor, Utilities, Machine, etc). 

The standard values parameters & the cost centers, assigned to the Work Center or Resource, defines the formulas for manufacturing (machine or labor) execution times and the activity rates (ex: $/hour) to execute the operation. It help in analyzing the capacities that would be consumed to manufacture a product, it defines the operation start & finish times and it also defines the costs that will be incurred and registered at the cost center.  

The work centers are assigned in the Routing operation overview screen. 

Note – You can create an operation without a work center, but there would be no standard value activities resulting in no scheduling, no capacity allocations and no costing for such operations.  

PRT – Production resource tools 

Production resource tools can also be assigned to the operations specifying the use of tools such as jigs and fixtures (as an example) and that their consumption is logical when you carry out work at the operation. To assign PRT to the operation you need to create them first.  

Assignment of PRT is not a mandatory task. 

Inspection Characteristics 

You can assign inspection characteristics to the operations specifying that you are going to carry out “In-process production order inspection”. To assign inspection characteristics to the operations you need to create quality inspection characteristics first and then assign to the Routings. 

BOM components 

The Routing operations are assigned with BOM components so that:  

a)      Backflush – Components which are marked as backflush are supposed to be issued automatically to the Production order at the time of Order confirmations. Thus all the components which are marked as backflush should be assigned to respective operations.  

b)      Requirement date – If components are allocated to an operation, the system can derive for you a requirement date of the component for the production order. This requirement date can help the material’s management team and the shop floor operator to make the raw material available on the operation start date. 

Note - If component are not allocated to the operations, then the SAP automatically allocates all the BOM components to the first operation. This also means that all the backflush materials would be automatically issued when you confirm the first operation. And this also means that all the raw materials would be available for production on the start date of the first operation. 

Standard Sequence – Default Sequence - The Operations in a routings are processed one after the other unless otherwise you add an alternate sequence of operations or parallel sequence of operations. 

Alternate Sequence - In an alternate sequence you are replacing the certain operations with a different set of operation/s. Lot sizes can only govern the selection of the alternate route, this lot size range is different than that entered in the Routing header though they should overlap and should not be vaguely different. 

Parallel Sequence - If in the production process, certain operations are to be processed along with each other or simultaneously then you need to introduce parallel sequences for those set of operations. The operations introduced in the parallel sequence and the operations in the standard sequence might have different lead time, thus to align the standard sequence with the parallel sequence we need to introduce floats at the start or end of the standard or parallel sequence. To this purpose, you create an alignment key for the standard sequence and every parallel sequence. 

Allowed Material Types for the Task List -  

Here you can configure the allowed Material Types for the task List such as Routings, Rate Routings, Reference Operation sets, Rate Reference operation sets, Receipes etc.  

SAP nevertheless has already preconfigrued with standard material types and Routing types, though if you want to add more material types to the list you can do so.  

Transaction code - OP50 : The following are pre-configured by SAP, though you can add more.  

Routing Selection Screen:

Enter Material Code / Plant –  

Enter the material code and the plant code for which you want to create the Routing. All the Materials in a plant that are to be produced need a Routing. 

Enter Group – 

Entering a Group Number is not mandatory, if you have not entered the Group Number, SAP will generate one for you after you press the save button for creation. 

Enter Key Date - 

The Key date that you would enter should be a date on which your work centers and cost center and BOM is valid. You should make sure of such information. And if you enter any date on which any one of them is not valid, you would end up with errors or warnings. 

Routing header screen:

Group Counter –  

A Group Counter is similar to BOM alternates. It defines the Routing alternates. A Group Counter “01” means that it is the first alternative routing. When you want to add one more alternative to the group you can do so and the next routing alternate will be “02”. It is also possible to use alpha numerical 2 characters value like AA, 2A.  

A Routing is always defined by the material number of the routing, the plant of the material, the group number and the groups’ counter number.  

Criteria to have multiple Routings for a material –  

a)      Due to the change in production process methods

b)      Use of different work centers.

c)      Changes in production methods or routes due to production lot sizes, i.e. production order quantities.

d)      Seasonal changes in production routes or production processes.

e)      Etc…. 

Usage –  

It is a mandatory field and it defines the area where the Routing is going to be used. If a Routing is to be used only in the area of production, then you can pick a value = “1” and if it is to be used in plant maintenance then you will assign an usage = “4” (you can use usage = 4 when you are creating a maintenance plan task list)  

Planner group -  

This is a non Mandatory field.  

A Planner group field value identifies a group of planners responsible for maintaining the Routing. This is absolutely not mandatory and not required for entry unless and until you want to classify the routings through this key.  

From Lot Size – To Lot size –  

In this field you can define a lot size range for which the Routing is applicable. Many a times the production routes or the production methods or the production processes change due to change in production quantities, thus to accommodate this you can enter a lot size range.  

When a lot size of production is not a factor to have multiple routings for a product, you can have one single lot size from 0 to 99,999,999.  

An Example on How Routing Lot Sizes are used –  

If you create a Material Routing with a Routing Group Counter 01, having a Lot size from 0 – 10000 and then if you create a production order for a quantity of 10001, this Routing will not be pulled in to the production order. 

On the other hand, if you create one more Material Routing with a Group Counter 02 for a lot size 10001 – 99999, then this Routing Counter 02 will be pulled in the above production order.  

Similarly if you create a Production order with order qty of 9000, the Routing with a Counter 01 will be used for production.  

Thus we can summarize that Routing Lot Sizes are one of the factors which make to create more than one Routings for the same material (through the use Routing Group Counters) 

Lot Size UOM –  

The Lot Size UOM is normally the Base UOM of the material for which you are creating the Routing. It is defaulted in the Routing from the material master.  

Inspection points –  

If you plan to use SAP QM “In-Process Inspections” with quality inspection planned at various Routing operations, then you have to identify an inspection points.  

In the case of ‘In-Process Inspections’, you can carry out quality inspections at an operations numerous number of times, i.e., for example, if you produce 20 out of 100 quantities of the order you can carry out a inspection recording, and similarly if you receive 5 more you can carry out inspection at that point of time for the same production order operation and if you receive the remaining 75 against the same order you can again carry out an operation inspection using an inspection point.  

An Inspection point defines the administrative data of inspection that would be carried out at a given point of time. SAP provides the following user defined fields that would clearly identify your inspection point – (the following is just an example)  

You should configure such a required combination for header data entry for each inspection (inspection point) and choose freely defined inspection points – value “100” in the drop down.  

Inspection point definition if not entered here, is fetched from the plant level settings. Thus you can afford to forget an entry here if you have set at the plant level for use for the in-process-inspection of all the products in the plant.  

Note – I would not go through the pains of In-Process inspection as in-process-inspections do not govern usage decision on the material produced. SAP QM in-process inspections are only for information purpose. Therefore if you want to decide the usage of a material and at the same time record quality inspection results you can use inspection at Goods receipt. Therefore the following 2 fields also are not be important if you are not using in-process inspection.  

Partial Lot assignment -  

This is also SAP QM related information used for in-process-inspection. You can have the partial lots generation methodology defined for each of the material in the Routing and if you want to use the default settings made for QM at the plant level in SAP QM Configuration then you can choose so. The partial lot assignment for each inspection point with batch creation or without batch creation seems logical choice for in-process inspection. 

Partial lot assignment during result recording is an optional tool. 

Dynamic Modification – 

If you are planning to use SAP QM Dynamic Modification for in-process-inspection to tighten or reduce the inspection scope, then you have to choose a level at which it is carried out – inspection lot or inspection characteristics level. The system evaluates the number and results of the last checks with this rule. From the inspection severity determined this way it lays down the inspection scope for the individual characteristics using the sampling procedure. 

Routing Operation Screen -    

When you press DETAIL à OPERATIONS on the header screen, then you would reach the operations overview screen. Where you can enter the following:

The Operation related data can be changed in the production order where it is used. 

Operation number - 

SAP provides a sequential operation number, but if you don’t like this you can overwrite it with you own numbering scheme. 

Sub-operation – 

Enter a sub-operation number if you have any. You cannot assign material components, production resources/tools or inspection characteristics to sub-operations, though you can assign all this to the superior operation.

A sub-operation can be costed, but can only be scheduled relative to superior operation. You can cumulative standard values from sub-operations on the corresponding operation. 

A Sub-operation can be processed externally. 

Confirmations can be made at the sub-operation level. 

Note - Normally in SAP PP, I have seen people rarely using sub-operations. 

Work Center – 

Enter a work center number where the operation is going to be carried out. Once you enter the work center for the operation, the operations adopts the control key value, the standard text descriptions, the standard value key and the parameters inside them, the capacity generation formulas, the scheduling generation formulas and the costing requirement generation formulas. 

Though for every operation it is not mandatory to enter a work center. 

Note – Identifying which operations are to be included in the Routing is very important and as a consultant you should decide, on various criteria such as machining time, bottleneck operation, costing relevancy, whether an operation should be included in the Routing. 

Control key – 

Control keys are normally pulled in from the work center, if you have entered a default control key there. Control keys are really important keys in SAP PP. 

A control key governs the following controls for a production order Routing: 

• Whether a work center at an operation should be scheduled.

• Whether a work center at an operation should be subjected to cost derivations.

• Whether a work center at an operation should derive the capacity requirements.

• Whether a work center at an operation can have auto goods receipts posted from it. Such work centers are the last work centers in a sequence of operations laid in a routing or recipe. 

• Whether a work center at an operation can be subjected to quality inspection through the use of quality inspection characteristics assigned in a quality inspection plan. 

• Whether a work center at an operation is externally processed and not processed in house; in which case a purchase requisition will be created to send the process out for production, please note that if you are sending the process out for production, the purchase requisition is not created for any material code but it is created for the process description without the material code in the requisition. 

• Whether a work center at an operation should be allowed to carry out confirmations and if confirmations are allowed whether these confirmations types be operation wise confirmation or milestone confirmations.

Milestone confirmation means that if you confirm a certain operation in a task list, it would automatically confirm all the operations above it till it meets another milestone operation placed above in the sequence or in other words it will confirm all the operations from this milestone operation to an earlier milestone operation only.

•  Whether you can print confirmations.

• Whether you can print this work center when you are printing shop floor papers for the production order. 

Standard Text – 

Standard text identifies a text that is frequently used to describe certain processes. Instead of including a Operation Description you can assign a Standard text and the description will be pulled in. 

Not so important field - 

Operation Description - 

Operation Description, describes the operation or sub-operation. This text is copied into the first line of the long text for the operation or sub-operation. 

Entering an operation description is not mandatory, but the Routing would look descent and informative. 

Routing Operation Detail Screen -    

When you select the operation/s and press DETAIL à OPERATIONS on the Routing Operation overview screen, then you would reach the operations screen. Where you can enter the following information:  

Base Quantity –  

Enter a Base quantity for entering the standard values.  

Standard Values –  

The Standard value key assigned to the work center will bring in the parameter assigned to it and you have to enter value for them. Entering the values for the standard value parameters is important to run the scheduling/capacity/costing formulas.  

For Example –

Interoperation times -  

Inter-operation times are included in the operations to increase the total lead time. It behaves as offset times.  

Maximum Wait time – It is the longest time that may pass before the material is processed in the next operation or order. In short it is an additional time between two operations. A wait time would increase the operation lead time.  

Minimum Wait time = It is the Shortest time that must pass before the material can be processed in the next operation or order. In short it is an additional time between two operations. A wait time would increase the operation lead time. Scheduling is always based on the minimum wait time. 

Standard Queue time = Time an order normally waits at the work center before it is processed. If the lead time of an operation must be reduced, the system can shorten the standard queue time as far as the minimum queue time. A queue time would increase the operation lead time. 

Minimum Queue time = Shortest queue time an order waits at the work center before it is processed. If the lead time of an operation must be reduced, the system can shorten the standard queue time as far as the minimum queue time. A queue time would increase the operation lead time.  

Standard Move time = Time normally needed between the current operation and the next one for the move from one work center (location group) to another. Move time does not increase the operation lead time but increases the total lead time of the order.  

Minimum Move time = Shortest time needed between the current operation and the next one for the move from one work center (location group) to another. Minimum move time from one operation to other is used if you are applying reduction strategies. Move time does not increase the operation lead time but increases the total lead time of the order. 

Note – Normally consultants don’t use the interoperation times, but if you insist you can do so. If it is a client requirement I would just use the move time which would not play around with the operation lead time but will just increase the total order processing lead time.  

& if you are confused on what is min and max and standard times just have the same values in both the fields.  

Reduction strategies - Also there is really no need to use reduction strategies in the operations (which would complicate lead time calculations).  

Splits –

An operation is split if it is carried out on several machines or by several persons at the same time (see figure). This is only used in Routings and not in Recipes.

Splitting an operation has the following effects on the operation dates:

• The processing time/execution time becomes shorter.

• Setup and teardown must be carried out more than once for the operation.  

If you want to use splits you should select the check-box indicator called – “Required Splitting” 

If you are using splits then the scheduling generation formula in the work center should be divided by the number of splits you enter here. 

Note – When you are using Splits in a Routing, you can also mention a minimum processing time if you don’t want the scheduling formula to reduce your total operation processing time (due to division by the number of splits) below a certain minimum processing time value.  

Note – I haven’t seen many consultants use this. You can leave this field alone. 

Overlapping –  

Overlapping reduces the total lead time by starting the processing of the next operation before the current operation is finished. It does this by the use of minimum send ahead quantity after which the overlap should start and minimum overlap time.  

Continuous Flow overlaps – When such overlap is triggered between 2 operations and both the operations are set for “continuous flow overlap”, the system calculates the lead times of both the operations individually after the overlap is complete and changes the lead time of the operation with the lowest lead time of the two to the lead time of the operation of the maximum lead time. In other words if there are 2 operations, 0010 has lead time 1 hr and operation 0020 has lead time 2 hrs, operation 0010 will adopt the lead time of the operation number 0020.  

Note – When you are implementing fresh at an organization, it becomes too complicated in introducing overlapping and splitting. You can do so slowly once you have implemented SAP and the users have become proficient enough (may be 2-3 years after go-live).  

External Operation Processing –  

When you are sending out an operation or sub operation for external processing to an external contractor, it also means that you are just send a partially finished header material to the subcontractor. Thus if you have provided all the purchase related information in the operation detail – external processing section, the system will create a Purchase Requisition (PR) for the operation (the PR is not created for a material code but it is created for a text of the operation); this may seem odd as there would be no Material code on the PR.  

The following information is mandatory for external processing –  

• It is also mandatory for you to maintain a Control key for the operation or Sub operation that allows “external processing”.  

• The components allocated to such subcontracting operation are assumed to be sent to the external vendor for processing. There can be a situation where some of the components which are allocated to the operation are not being sent to the vendor. In such as case you can predefine such components which are to be sent to the vendor with Material Provision indicator = “L” in the BOM à Item à Status Long text screen or You can do so in the “Component Allocation screen” by choosing Extra à BOM and assign a value = L in the material provision indicator for those components to be moved to the vendor. (L– to be provided to the vendor) 

• Create and assign a Purchase info record for a subcontracting type for a particular vendor and with a correct purchasing organization. This Purchase info record should not be created for a material code but can be created for a material group or just directly enter the sort string,  material group, planned delivery time for purchasing to identify the vendor while creation of the PR. You can also define a net price, price unit to make things easier for the purchase order creation.  

Scrap Percentage in the Operation detail – General Data Section 

A Predefined percentage scarp is assigned for the operation, if you know a fixed percentage by which production at the operation is reduced.  

The Scarp percentage reduces the production order quantities that is supposed to be produced at the operation; thus transferring a reduced amount to the next operation. Scheduling, capacity requirement generation and costing is affected proportionately for the operations involved.  

User Specific fields –  

User defined fields are configurable. You can use user defined fields as process or production specific information or you can use them as parameters in scheduling, capacity or costing formulas since we have only 6 parameters possible in the work center standard value key. User defined fields can be used in operations and sub-operations.  

These configurable fields are placed under a field Key that acts as place holder for these user defined fields. The formats of these fields are given below:  

• Up to four general fields for any text: You can use them to store information about people responsible, substitutes or telephone numbers, for example.

•  Up to two quantity fields: You can assign additional formula parameters to the quantity fields in the field key. With the help of formula parameters you can use the values of the quantity fields in work center formulas, to calculate processing times, capacity requirements and costs. In addition there is also a field for the unit of each quantity field. Default values and their units which you have maintained in Customizing for formula parameters are transferred, but you can change this data. If you have entered data in the quantity fields and then change the field key, the old values remain unchanged.

• Up to two value fields: In addition there is also a field for the unit of each value field.

• Up to two date fields: Here you can enter internal start dates, for instance.

•  Up to two checkboxes: You can use these to indicate whether an operation is to be included in evaluations in the Info System, for instance.  

Component Allocation to Routing/Recipe -   

The Routing operations are assigned with BOM components so that:

a) Backflush – Components which are marked as backflush are supposed to be issued automatically to the Production order at the time of Order confirmations. Thus all the components which are marked as backflush should be assigned to respective operations.

b) Requirement date – If components are allocated to an operation, the system can derive for you a requirement date of the component for the production order. This requirement date can help the material’s management team and the shop floor operator to make the raw material available on the operation start date.

Note - If component are not allocated to the operations, then the SAP automatically allocates all the BOM components to the first operation. This also means that all the backflush materials would be automatically issued when you confirm the first operation. And this also means that all the raw materials would be available for production on the start date of the first operation.

Method: To Allocate component to the operations, you have to press the "CompAlloc" Button or Use the path

in the Operation Overview or Operation detail screen - Goto >>> CompAlloc Gen or CompAlloc Optn. 

Select the components and press "New Assignment" >>> A Pop-up Box will open up, which will ask you to

enter the Operation number to which you would want to assign the components to.  

See the Screen shot below:  

Material Allocation to Routing/Recipe -    

SAP Provides you with a facility to add header materials to the created Routing or Recipe (task list). In other words, you can just create one Routing/Recipe for one material and then go on assigning header materials to the task list; this will indirectly mean that the task list which was applicable for the original material is now applicable for the header materials assigned as well.  

Assigning materials to a task list extends the task list to the other materials as well provided they also have exactly the same process of manufacturing, going through the same flow of operations.  

Method: You can press the Material Assignment Button in the Routing/Recipe Header Screen, which you open up a pop-up box that allows you to enter the material codes and the plant code (of the materials) to which you want to extend the task list to.  

See the Screenshot below for further explanation: 

Saving the Task list - 

Saving the task list at the end would generate a Routing Group Number for the Routing Group. Even saving the recipe at the end would generate a Recipe Group Number.  

Note: If you have not assigned an external Routing Group Number in the beginning (in the selection screen), then the system generates the Routing Group Number, which is an internally generated number. 

See the Screen Shot below and notice the Group Number at the bottom of the Screen:  

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