SAP APO Overview
Vijay Job,SCM Lead Consultant
 Contents
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Supply Chain Management
Why SCM over and above ERP
Advantages of APO
APO Architecture
APO Components
What is live Cache
Data Mart Configuration
InfoObjects
Data Storage in APO
Planning Architecture
Master Planning Object Structure
The Supply Chain: from Original Supply to
Final Consumption
INFORMATION FLOW
Transfer
Supplier
Transfer
Manufacturing
Transfer
Distribution
Transfer
Retail Outlet
Consumer
CASH FLOW
Supply Chain Optimization
Increase Customer Responsiveness at Least Cost
R
 SAP AG
Coined by consultant Keith Oliver, of strategy consulting firm Booz
Allen Hamilton in 1982.
Supply chain management (SCM) is the process of - planning,
implementing and controlling the operations of the supply chain
with the purpose to satisfy customer requirements as efficiently
as possible.
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Begins and ends with the customer.
SCM spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-inprocess inventory, and finished goods from point-of-origin to
point-of-consumption.
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Confidential © Copyright 2008 Wipro Ltd
Supply chain management (SCM) is the process of planning,
implementing, and controlling the operations of the supply chain
with the purpose to satisfy customer requirements as efficiently as
possible.
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Supply Chain Management encompasses the planning and
management of all activities involved in sourcing, procurement,
conversion, and logistics management activities. It includes
coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be
suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and
customers.
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Supply Chain Management integrates supply and demand
management within and across companies.
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Confidential © Copyright 2008 Wipro Ltd
 Innovation….Companies
today are being
forced to adapt to changes in the
marketplace in order to preserve profitability
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Changing consumer buying patterns
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Evolving trade channel complexity
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Polarization of markets
Shortened cycle times
Shift in balance of power
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Increased number of SKUs
Changing brand loyalty / retailer exerting greater
influence
Increased demand for value added programs
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VMI / custom packs
 Dramatically
lower inventory levels and
reduce working capital
 Improved customer service
 More accurate forecasting
 Lower cost sourcing of finished goods and
raw materials
 Optimizing decisions in an increasingly
complex business environment
 Reduce manufacturing cycle time
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Deliver reliability
Responsiveness/ flexibility
Supply chain activities can be grouped into:
Strategic – Network optimization, partnerships, product design, IT
infrastructure, Make or Buy decisions.
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Tactical – Sourcing, production & inventory decisions, Transportation
strategy, benchmarking with competition
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Operational level – Daily production & distribution planning, master
planning, production scheduling, forecasting and demand management.
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Confidential © Copyright 2008 Wipro Ltd
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APO Advanced Planning and Optimization is the planning
component within
the mySAP SCM solution. APO is
an acronym for advanced planner and optimizer. This is a
large component of sap's new dimension products.
APO is an entire suite of supply chain planner applications
that increase overall knowledge of the supply chain and
provide forecasting, planning and optimization.
APO is not a standalone application and requires a
backend erp system such as SAP R/3 for the execution. SAP
R/3 communicate with APO using the Core interface
Functionality (CIF) which supplies SAP APO with the master
and the transaction data in the real time
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High performance using liveCache technology
Global server: integrates multiple OLTP systems
Collaborative planning via the internet
Simultaneous material and finite capacity requirements
planning
Cross-plant optimization of the resource load
Sequence and setup time optimization of orders
Transportation optimization with route planning
Evaluation and analysis of orders
Seamless integration between APO and R/3
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First Demand Planning - Of course R/3 provides
Demand Management and also Statistical Forecasting
tools. However the architecture in APO-DP is totally
different and based on characteristic value
combinations with liveCache for very fast data
access. This allows easy aggregation and
disaggregation. Moreover once you create the CVCs
they can be modified easily with the associates
transaction data using Realignment. The macro
functionality in DP provides quick and user-friendly
computations on the transaction data. Moreover the
Statistical Forecasting toolset in APO-DP is more
comprehensive to that in R/3. Not sure if MLR is
possible in R/3. Promotion planning and Life-cycle
planning are some nice features in APO-DP.
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Supply Network Planning in APO can be mapped
to DRP in R/3. But then APO offers planning
cross-plant for a complete supply chain network.
SNP in APO offers basic Heuristic-based planning
(quite similar to R/3 DRP) along with advanced
planning features like Optimization and Capableto-Match (order-based planning for prioritized
demand matching). Moreover Deployment and
Transport Load Builder functionalities provides
automatic planning in case of short supply
followed by consolidation of deliveries according
to transportation capacities.
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Simultaneous material planning and finite
capacity planning of production, storage and
transportation.
Planning of critical components that use
bottleneck resources.
Cross plant optimization of resource utilization.
Prioritization of requirements and receipts .
Detailed distribution planning.
Collective conversion of stock transfer
requisitions.
Decision support with What-If.
Optimizes plan in line with business goals
Seamless integration between APO and R/3
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APO PPDS is very close to R/3 Production Planning functionalities and relies on
the same set of master data transferred from R/3 to APO via CIF. However the
multitude of Heuristics (both Production Planning and Scheduling) provides
automation and gives more time to the Planners and Schedulers in focusing on
more important tasks. The Detailed Scheduling functionality especially
Planning Board in APO is a rich graphical and intuitive application for carrying
out sequencing of activities. Likewise the Product Planning Table and Product
Overview features of APO provides a cockpit view of the Production Plan and
allows drilling down to exceptions.
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Cross plant planning: Production locations are connected, Products und
Assemblies planned together
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Simultaneous material and capacity requirements planning
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Multi level capacity requirements planning; bi-directional propagation of
order changes.
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Extensive detailed scheduling and optimization possibilities
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 Global
multi-site real time ATP.
 For production, ATP utilizes PP/DS
functionality to check against the actual
order network, thereby including all capacity
constraints.
 Applying rules-based ATP is the basis for
checking for alternative products in
alternative locations as well as for
considering production across all product
levels.
 Integration with legacy system.
Availa
Supply Production Detailed
ble
Network Planning Scheduling
Planning
To
Plannin
Promis
g
e
SC Cockpit
APO
liveCache
Solvers
Demand
BW
APO
Application Link Enabling
Model Generator, Mapping, Connectivity
OLTP
R/3
R/3
Legacy
Non R\3
Non R\3
OLTP
OLTP
OLTP
R/3
APO
R/3
APO
LIS
Flexible Planning
Standard SOP
BW
Demand Planning
(DP)
Global Available-toPromise (Global ATP)
Sales
Demand Management
Material Requirements
Planning (MRP)
Capacity
Requirements
Planning (CRP)
Supply Network
Planning (SNP)
Production Planning
and Detailed
Scheduling (PP/DS)
SC Manufacturing / Procurement
Transportation
Planning & Vehicle
Scheduling (TP/VS)
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Demand Planning (DP)
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Supply Network Planning (SNP)
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The Demand Planning component is a toolkit of
statistical and collaborative forecasting techniques
that helps you create accurate forecasts and plans
Using the Supply Network Planning and Deployment
component you can develop a model of your entire
supply network and plan based on all its constraints
Production Planning / Detailed Scheduling
(PP/DS)
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This component can generate production plans and
schedules that optimize resources
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Global Available To Promise (GATP)
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Transportation Planning / Vehicle Scheduling
(TP/VS)
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The Global Available To Promise component uses a
rules based strategy to ensure you can deliver what
you promise to your customers
This component helps you to select the optimum
transportation route and schedules vehicle resources
Supply Chain Cockpit (SCC)
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The Supply Chain Cockpit is a graphical instrument
panel for modeling, navigating, and controlling all the
links in the supply chain.
Key Processes - Distribution Planning
C u s t o m e r s
 Supply and Distribution
Network Planning
 Supply Network Planning
and Optimization
Distribution
Centers
 Supply/Demand balancing
 Vendor Managed Inventory
(VMI)
ManufacturIng Units
R
S u p p l i e r s
 SAP AG
SNP Distribution Network
Customer
demands
Distribution
Centers
Plants
Suppliers
R
Transport Order
 SAP AG
Production Order
 Available
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to Promise
Global
Rules Based
 Product
Allocation
 Material Substitution
 Vendor Managed Inventory
liveCache Technology
Application Server
 Avoid disk I/O through shared,
buffered data
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Hold all application data in memory
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Address large memories
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Ready to run on 64-bit systems
ABAP-Application Program
exec sql.
Execute procedure “Schedule_order”
( OUT : var1,
IN
: table1,
IN
: var2)
endexec.
 Optimized data structures
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Support application-specific data
structures (e.g. store BOM as a
tree rather than a relational table)
 Built-in business functionality
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Run application logic where the
data is stored
Aggregate OLTP database
information in main memory
 SAP AG
Optimized Method Coding
Schedule_order
Optimized Data Structures
liveCache
R
Live cache
Time series objects
Data Stored in Bucket
with no reference to
order
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Live cache
Orders
Data Stored with
reference to the orders
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Storage method
suitable for operative
planning
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Storage method suitable
for tactical planning
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Usual method for saving
current DP data
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Confidential © Copyright 2008 Wipro Ltd
Info Cube
The data is stored in
an Info cube
•
This storage method
is suitable for data
backups, old planning
data and actual sales
history
•
Info Object within BW
 Business evaluation objects are referred to as the Info objects in
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-
the BW
Info objects are divided into :- Characteristics
Key figures
Units
Time Characteristics
 Info objects have three basic functions
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Component of an Info source, as a field of a structure
Formation of an Info cube by representing key figures and
characteristics
Complete an info source with Master data and Hierarchies
 Planning
objects are called as characteristics
 Characteristics are discrete names
 Standard characteristics are predefined in
APO
 Custom characteristics can be created
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 Data
is represented as a numerical value
either a quantity or monetary value
(Forecast, Safety Stock, etc..)
 Different data storage can be used to store
key figure
 Standard key figures are predefined in APO
 Custom key figures can be created
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Star Schema Properties
1.
Data storage optimized for
reporting by “Star Schema”
2.
3.
4.
5.
One business process is
modeled at a time
Related Characteristics
structured together in
Dimensions
The Key Figures, KPI’s and other
calculations form the Facts
This structure is the same for all
Application Areas
Example: Sales Data Model
Queries that can be addressed are:
Who did we sell to?
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What did we sell?
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Who sold it?
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Sales quantity?
Who is our competitor?
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When did we sell?
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Sales comparison
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Trends
Reasons for Rejection
Info Area
Info Cubes
Info Objects
Catalogs
Key Figures
Characteristics
Update Rules
Info Source
Metadata
Transfer Rules
R/3
Source System
Legacy
BW
Excel
APO Server
InfoCubes
Staging Engine
Update Rules
Communication structure
Transformation rules
Transfer Structure
Transfer Structure
InfoSource
Transfer Structure
Transfer Structure
Extract Source Structure
Extract Source Structure
OLTP System 2
OLTP System 1
Master Planning
Object Structure
Planning Area 1
Planning Area 2
Planning Book 1
Planning Area n
Planning Book 2…
Data View 1
Data View 2….
 Contains
plannable characteristics for one or
more planning area
 Specific characteristics are required for
Supply Network Planning
 Structure on which all other planning object
structures are based.
 Prerequisite for being able to create planning
area
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Pre-defined
InfoObject can
automatically be
added
Map existing
InfoObjects to
Planning Object
Structure
 Central
data structure
 Groups together parameters that define the
scope of planning activities
 Determines where and how planning results
are saved
 Contains Characteristics and Key Figures
 Maps where key figures for the planning area
are stored (InfoCube, Orders in liveCache,
Time Series in liveCache
 Planning Areas can be relevant for DP and
SNP at the same time
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Planning Area Administration
Central point of control:
Planning Area
configuration
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Key Figure
Characteristic
Attribute
Master Planning Object
Structure
Aggregate
Storage Buckets Profile
Planning Area