SAP SOP Capacity Planning

Flexible planning, as a result, proposes quantities that are required for production in the future forecasted period. Though it would be insane if the planners disregard the capacity available with them to manufacture these proposed quantities, therefore SAP provides capacity planning as well along with the sales planning and the combination of which is appropriately called Sales and Operational planning. Thus with an option to evaluate the capacity requirements and the capacity loadings vis-à-vis the available capacity, the plan becomes more successful and acceptable across the organization. 

It should also be noted that the capacity evaluation is carried out for the future period requirements (production requirements).   

To enable carry out such capacity analysis, a master data for the capacity requirements for production of a base quantity of the material or product group is required, this master data is called the task list; it can either be a routing, a rate routing, a recipe, or a rough cut planning profile. Normally a rough cut planning profile is created for the material-plant combination since a rough estimation of the capacity investments is the ask in such long term planning or medium term planning tools.   

Though a very important point that requires attention is that not every information structure that is created or used in SOP, has plant as a characteristic; in such cases the assignment of a resource becomes very difficult; to tackle this issue a planning plant should be entered in the “set parameters for information structure and key figures” configuration (transaction code MC7F) or it can be entered in the “set planning plant for SOP” configuration (no transaction code, but the SPRO path is Production > SOP > Master Data > Assignment of Validation Rules to Key Figures > Set planning plant for SOP). 

Therefore it becomes a great idea to include the plant as a characteristic in the information structure. With the “plant” included in the information structure and percentage splits given to them for disaggregation and aggregation purposes, the process of process of capacity evaluation is simplified. And if plant is not included, then you may need to set up the rough cut profiles for information structure’s characteristics combinations. 

If you are planning to use the Routings or Rate Routings or Recipes instead of a rough cut planning profile, then in the configuration for “setting parameters for information structure and key figure configuration” (MC7F), a key figure should be entered in the “capacity figure” field, whose planned figures (from the planning table) would be considered in capacity planning. Though it is wise to have this configured with the “production key figure” or any other required key figure, even if you are not using the routings or rate routings or recipes for capacity evaluation.   

Rough Cut Planning Profile, through the use of transaction code, MC35, is created for a material at a plant or a product group at a plant or for the characteristics combinations of an information structure. 

In this example, a Rough Cut Profile is created for the information structure’s characteristics combinations. The work center/resource, which would be used in capacity planning, is selected in the resource table. The work center provides the available capacity in the capacity evaluation in the planning table.  

Enter the time span in the “general data” screen; the value of the time span would eventually become the time slots in workdays managed in the resource table. This time span is the time required to produce the base quantity mentioned. The profile status and usage and the lot size applicability is also entered. 

The time entered in the columns of the resource table would be the time required to produce the base quantity, i.e., if the time slot is 1 day for a base quantity of 1 unit, then in the resource table you would be entering the time required to produce 1 unit. Though confusing, but if you enter the amount to produce 1 unit in multiple columns of the resource table, then the addition of that many work day columns would be required to produce the base quantity. 

In the resource table, you can include multiple work centers, these work centers will be shown in the planning table along with the capacity situation. 

Again if you are still confused in reading the resource table, it simply means that to produce 1 unit, if values in 2 columns as 1.5 and 2, it means that it would require 2 working days to produce the 1 unit (entered in the base quantity) with 1.5 hours on the first day and 2 hours on the second day. I guess you should only enter one value in one column, making it less confusing to work with. 

Another Important Example of a Rough Cut Profile:

 Though one should note that with such a rough cut planning profile as shown below, you might notice that the capacity situation would only be loaded for a day in a month.

Therefore to avoid this condition, there is another example of a rough cut profile shown below. In this example, you would notice that the loading is for a time span of 30 work days and base quantity (quantity slated for production in the time span) is 375 pieces and in a month’s time span, you would be investing 720 hours in production of 375 pieces. Such an arrangement would load your work center for a span of 30 work days. 

The next step is to execute the capacity planning in the planning table (MC93 or MC94). Use the path Views > Capacity Situation > Rough Cut Planning > Show to display the capacity situation. 

Like in events, the calculations or planning does not show up unless you make a change in the key figures and save it and then come back and reinstate the values. One could write a macro to subtract and add key figure values when opening the planning book. The planning situation is shown in the planning table, by opening up a separate box with capacity related key figures; this separate box below the original key figures would align itself with the periods, showing the capacity loads for the quantities in the first box. 

Any overloads are shown by a message – “Caution: overload in the period” as demonstrated in the screens below. 

To check the pegged requirements in the planning table, you have to keep the cursor on the intersection of the period column and the capacity requirement row. This intersection cell will show the capacity requirement for the given period in the column. With the cursor on this cell, you can check the pegged requirements. The path to check the pegged requirements is View > Capacity Situation > Pegged Requirement.  

Additional Points to Note: 

One may have to configure the material and plant wise distribution, just to let the system know the materials and their distribution quotas across the plants, this configuration is required for transfer of requirements to demand management when “plant” is not included as characteristics in the information structure (no transaction code available for this configuration – Path: Production > SOP > Functions > Define Proportional distribution across plants). 

Follow the topics for SAP SOP in the sequence Mentioned Below

SAP SOP Creating Self defined information Structure

SAP SOP Set Parameters for Info Structures and Key figures

SAP SOP Create Update Rules for Information Structure

SAP SOP Updating SOP data in an Info Stricture

SAP SOP Creating Planning Hierarchy

SAP SOP Creation of Planning Type

SAP SOP Creation of Macros for Planning Type

SAP SOP Understanding Versions in SAP SOP

SAP SOP Overview of Planning Tables

SAP SOP Creation of SOP Events

SAP SOP Forecasting

SAP SOP Mass Processing

SAP SOP Capacity Planning

SAP SOP Transfer Key Figure Data to Demand Management

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