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Buffer Process with Container Resources (New) ( RELNAPO_310_PPS_CRES )

Buffer Process with Container Resources (New) ( RELNAPO_310_PPS_CRES )

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Short text

Buffer Process with Container Resources (New)

Use

  1. Purpose of the Buffer Process
  2. New Buffer Process Functions
    1. Displaying the Actual Fill Level through Integration with SAP R/3
    2. Alerts for Container Property Monitoring
    3. Improved Handling in the Detailed Scheduling Planning Board
  3. Buffer Process Prerequisites
    1. Planning Situation
    2. Master Data Modelling
  4. Buffer Process Planning
    1. Profiles for the Detailed Scheduling Planning Board
    2. Interactive Planning Procedure
  5. Restrictions

1. Purpose of the Buffer Process

If you plan your products at several manufacturing levels that follow each other, you may need to temporarily buffer the material produced at one level in a container until it is consumed by the subsequent level. The material is therefore filled into a buffer container at the producing level and then discharged from the same container by the subsequent level. This process is referred to as buffer process. It is particularly common in the process industries where mainly liquid materials are processed.
The buffer container is modelled as a container resource with storage characteristics in the APO system. As of SAP APO 3.1, the following planning functions supporting the buffer process are available:

  • The planned and the actual fill level of a container resource are visualized in the DS planning board.
  • Warnings that are specific to the buffer process can be displayed in the Alert Monitor.
  • Campaigns that are planned at several manufacturing levels and linked to each other through pegging relationships (campaign chains) can be determined automatically in the DS planning board and rescheduled manually in one planning step.

2. New Buffer Process Functions

As of SAP APO 3.1, the following new and enhanced functions supporting the buffer process are available:

2.a) Displaying the Actual Fill Level Through Integration with SAP R/3

Up to now, only planned receipts and demand were displayed in the fill level of a container resource. The system now also considers the actual fill level. It is represented by the stock that is relevant to the fill level in the storage locations of the SAP R/3 System. To do so, a storage location is assigned to the resource representing the container in the SAP R/3 System (storage resource). In the SAP APO System, the R/3 storage resource becomes a container resource with storage characteristics, and the relevant storage location is assigned to the container resource as a sublocation.

Every goods movement to a storage location in SAP R/3 affects the fill level of the relevant container resource in SAP APO. For this reason, the fill level curve now shows the sum of the planned and actual fill level.

To be able to use this function, you must have modelled the resources with storage locations correctly in the SAP R/3 System and transferred them to the SAP APO System. This requires the R/3 plug-in PI2001.2.

See : Paragraph 3.b) Master Data Modelling

2.b) Alerts for Container Property Monitoring

The buffer process assumes that the material produced at an initial level is filled into a container resource, and the same material is then discharged from the same container by a subsequent manufacturing level. Therefore, the following aspects must be taken into account:

  • Product Purity in the Container Resource
Products must not be mixed in a container resource.
  • Container-Conforming Pegging
Orders that are relevant to the fill level and are linked to each other at different manufacturing levels through pegging relationships:
  • Must be scheduled on the same container resource

  • Must be modelled in such a way that the filling and discharging activity take place at the same container resource

The system does not support the automatic container-conforming rescheduling of orders that are linked to each other through pegging relationships.
  • Fill Levels
Maximum fill levels and minimum quantities in the container resource must be taken into account.

The system supports buffer process monitoring by issuing alerts. These warnings help the production planner to react to problems when manually rescheduling in the DS planning board. The following alerts may be triggered:

  • Quantity Set to 0
This alert is issued when a product is to be filled into a container resource that still contains another product. The system sets the fill level to zero for the product that is still left in the container. Note, however, that the remaining quantity of this product still remains in the container resource. From the point of view of inventory management, however, both the old product and the product that was just filled in are posted to the stock. Depending on the amount of the product quantity remaining in the container, the production planner must therefore decide whether he or she wants to create an order to discharge the remaining quantity.
For the system to be able to display this alert, you must have set the Set Remain.Fill Levels to Zero indicator in the resource master of the container resource. If you react to the alerts accordingly, you can ensure that:
  • The fill level for the subsequent product is correct since the system simulates discharging the remaining quantity
    In this way, the minimum fill level and the maximum fill level are displayed correctly.

  • Product purity is complied with since mixing of different products is prevented

This alert is triggered for receipts only but not for demand.
  • Invalid Mix
This alert is issued if two or more products are contained in the container at the same time.
Note:
This alert is not displayed if the Set Remain.Fill Levels to Zero indicator has been set in the resource master and discharging of the remaining quantity is simulated.
  • Container-Conforming Pegging Violated
This alert occurs when two orders that are relevant to the fill level are linked to each other at different manufacturing levels through pegging but are scheduled on different container resources.
Example:
Through pegging, an order that fills container A is linked to an order that is to discharge the same product from container B. In this case, the production planner must manually transfer the product from container A to container B.
  • Maximum Quantity Exceeded
The quantity in the container resource is bigger than the maximum fill level defined in the resource master.
  • Stock < 0
The quantity in the container resource is less than zero.

2.c) Improved Handling in the Detailed Scheduling Planning Board

The following functions supporting the manual planning of the buffer process are available in the DS planning board:

  • Selecting Networked Campaigns (Campaign Chains)
SAP APO 3.1 comprises a function that you can use to select all operations, orders, or campaigns that belong to a campaign chain. By choosing Edit → Select → More → Networked Campaigns for objects you selected (order, operation, or campaign) in the DS planning board, you can automatically select the corresponding campaign chain across several manufacturing levels. In this way, you can reschedule an entire campaign chain using Drag&Drop.
  • Visualizing the Actual Fill Level
  • The maximum fill level and the minimum fill level can be displayed as a red line in the diagram section. Via the context menu, you can hide or show all curves.

  • In the table section, you can display the following additional fields for container resources:

- Maximum Stock Level
- Minimum Production Quantity
- Stock Unit
This is also the unit of the fill level.
  • If you double-click a horizontal fill level line, a dialog box appears with Information about the Product that is currently on stock.

  • If you double-click a filling or discharging line, a dialog box appears with Information about the Orders that are responsible for fill level changes:

- The products that are in the container at the moment.
- The relevant filling and discharging orders
In addition, you can carry out the following transactions in this dialog box:
- Display details about the order and operation along with the relevant network
- Select objects belonging to an order

3. Buffer Process Prerequisites

For the system to be able to support the buffer process from the planning point of view and create a feasible plan, the planning situation must be as described below and the master data must have been modelled according to the special features of the buffer process.

3.a) Planning Situation

  • You have carried out production planning for your products across several manufacturing levels and created demand and receipts for the material components.
  • You have carried out campaign planning for every single manufacturing level. Production campaigns in which the orders for a product are combined have been created. All orders of a campaign produce the same product and require the same material components.
  • The production campaigns of all manufacturing levels that are linked to each other through pegging relationships are called campaign chains. You have scheduled the campaign chains in such a way that the component requirement of all orders in a campaign is usually satisfied by exactly one preceding campaign. This means the network between the manufacturing levels should be as linear as possible.

3b) Master Data Modelling

You have created the master data (materials, resources, master recipes) in the SAP R/3 System and transferred them to the SAP APO System by means of an active integration model. You may need to correct the transferred master data there or add further master data. To represent the buffer process, the following settings must have been made for resources and PPMs:

Resources

  • The storage resources from the SAP R/3 System are created as multiactivity resources with storage characteristics (container resource) in the SAP APO System.
    The storage location assigned to the R/3 storage resource is transferred as the sublocation of the container resource. You cannot assign sublocations to a resource in the SAP APO System. The assignment is only created or changed while transferring resources from the SAP R/3 System.
  • You make sure that the following settings have been made for the container resources. Otherwise, you must make the settings later in SAP APO:

Since a buffer container can be filled and discharged at the same time, you must allow for as much capacity for the resource so that the filling and discharging activities can be scheduled as overlapping activities. While an activity, for example, fills the buffer container at one manufacturing level, another activity at the higher manufacturing level may simultaneously discharge material from the buffer container.
The amount of capacity is technically restricted (for example, the number of valves at a tank).
  • Sublocation

The storage location of the R/3 resource was transferred correctly.

The indicator has been set.
  • Dimension

You specify a dimension (for example, liter) in which the fill level is to be displayed.
  • Maximum Stock Level

The maximum stock level is also the maximum fill level in a buffer container.

The indicator has been set.
  • The buffer process requires the campaigns on the production resources to be uninterrupted. This means the following campaign requirements must be met:
  • The production campaign running on this resource must be uninterrupted, which means that the orders of a campaign must not be interrupted by an operation that does not belong to this campaign.

  • The setup order must be at the beginning and the clean-out order must be at the end on this resource.

  • If alternative resources are used, all operations of a campaign should occupy the same alternative resource.

Container resources, on the other hand, must not consider the campaign requirements to make sure, for example, that the container resource can be filled by an activity of campaign A while an activity of campaign B discharges material from it.
By setting the Campaign-Relevant indicator in the resource master, you can specify the resources for which campaign requirements are to be checked. The following applies to the buffer process:
  • At least one production resource must be campaign-relevant.

  • None of the container resources must be campaign-relevant.

Production Process Model (PPM)

  • One discharging or filling activity that takes place on a container resource is defined in the PPM.
  • The discharging or filling activity has a resource consumption greater than zero.
  • A product flow ID has been assigned to the discharging or filling activity. The product flow describes the timeline of the filling or discharging of the buffer container by the activity. This information is used for the fill level display.
    We recommend modelling the product flow and consumption type for the discharging and filling activity consistently.
The consumption type of the input or output product describes the timeline of the stock increase or decrease in the location by the activity. The stock is relevant for pegging.
For an input product, for example, we recommend setting up a removal as the product flow ID, whereas for an output product a filling should be defined. The point of time of the filling or removal (at the start, end, or continually) should also be the same.
Note:
In the master recipe of the SAP R/3 System, you can maintain a product flow ID for material components only. If you also want to transfer a product flow ID for the header material from the SAP R/3 System, you must add the header material to the header material's BOM as an intra material. The intra material is the BOM header material with the negative base quantity. This intra material is then converted into a product flow for the BOM header material by the APO Core Interface (CIF).

4. Buffer Process Planning

4a) Profiles for the DS Planning Board

For the DS planning board to support the interactive rescheduling of the buffer graphically and with specific functions, you must have maintained the following profiles:

Planning Board Profile

We recommend that the planning board profile contains the following charts:

  • Resource chart for campaigns and activities
  • Fill level chart for container resources with stock gradient
  • Product stock chart with order network

Strategy Profile

We recommend that the following settings are made in the strategy profile:

  • Scheduling Mode: Find Slot
  • Planning Direction: Forward
  • Consider Campaign Requirements
  • Always Consider Order-Internal Relationships
  • Consider Maximum Intervals
  • Consider Dynamic Pegging Within the Propagation Range
  • Retain Current Modes

Alert Profile

For the Alert Monitor to be able to inform you about requirement violations that occurred during buffer planning, the alerts listed below must be contained in the PP/DS profile. You must assign this alert profile to the relevant overall profile.

  • Order creates overcoverage
  • Order has undercoverage
  • Maximum quantity exceeded
  • Stock < 0
  • Invalid mix
  • Quantity set to 0
  • Container-conforming pegging violated

4.b) Interactive Planning Procedure

The following sections describe how you can proceed to plan the buffer process interactively. The buffer process starts after production planning has been completed. Orders are available in PP/DS. They may have been created:

  • By transferring them from the SAP R/3 System
  • By generating them during automatic production planning
  • By converting SNP orders
  • By creating them manually

Production campaigns have been created at all manufacturing levels (see section 3a) Planning Situation).

However, the fill levels of the container resources have not been taken into account in the planning executed so far. For this reason, problems have occurred by now which are displayed by alerts. You must now correct these errors manually in the DS planning board. You proceed as follows:

  1. You check the production plan.
Information about planning and planning problems is provided in:
  • The Alert Monitor

  • The fill level chart

  • The product stock chart

  1. You eliminate the problems manually by rescheduling. When solving the planning problems, you always consider the entire campaign chain. After each rescheduling step, you check in the Alert Monitor whether new alerts have been created and take them into account in your next rescheduling step.
First, you create available capacity by deallocating campaign chains or moving them to the future.
You process the troublesome campaign chains according to their sequence in time from left to right in the DS planning board. You start with the first inconsistent campaign chain and then move on towards the future. You alternate between forward and backward planning direction. This provides a good starting situation for detailed scheduling of the buffer process.
Depending on the planning problem, you can proceed as follows:
  • You manually reschedule the operations on a different resource (mode change) to ensure that the filling and discharging campaigns take place on the same container resource.

Note:
If mode linkage has been specified, note that you must manually change the mode for the subsequent campaign as well.
  • You manually reschedule the orders or operations to another date so that the consuming level is not produced until there is enough material in the buffer container from a planning point of view.

  • You select the entire campaign chain and reschedule it using Drag&Drop.

  • You change the sequence of the filling and discharging operations on the container resource to make sure that the maximum fill level of the container resource is not exceeded.

  • You create orders for remaining quantities in the buffer container to react to the Quantity Set to 0 alert.

5. Restrictions

Note the following restrictions:

  • Container resources and fill levels cannot be taken into account in SNP.
  • If the pegging relationships have not been scheduled container-conformingly, the system cannot automatically change campaigns to an alternative resource.
  • There is no planning support for the fill level. It is only visualized in the DS planning board and supported by means of warnings in the Alert Monitor.
  • The maximum fill level and product purity may be violated.
  • If you manually change or add material components in the SAP R/3 System, the product flow information for these components gets lost in the SAP APO System. You cannot manually create this product flow information in the R/3 order and transfer it to SAP APO.
  • If confirmations are made to a different container resource than the one that was planned originally, the goods movement is not automatically posted to the new storage location. In this case, you must manually change the storage location, too.

Effects on Existing Data

Effects on Data Transfer

Effects on System Administration

Effects on Customizing

Further Information






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This documentation is copyright by SAP AG.

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