The planning process requires a planner to plan multiple materials, demand elements, and supply elements. Updating the demand scheduling dates and quantities based on a reality check is a primary task to ensure that the planning run takes care of the supply elements adhering to the updated values.

A typical planner working on an SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) system typically spends a considerable amount of time making decisions on allocations and updating quantity, dates, and other changes to various demand planning objects. Using the standard SAP system interface, updating a sales order line item schedule line parameter requires four clicks from the standard SAP Stock/Requirements overview screen. It is important that you have a robust and user-friendly interface to access and carry out the updates to improve productivity.

I cover how to design a Planner Workbench in ECC to help improve planning productivity, what elements need to be in the design, but I do not explain how to create it. Creating a Planner Workbench is a technical task using ABAP, and is out of the scope of this article.

A layout design involves determining an appropriate selection screen to select the planning objects and display the required planning objects fields to create views for you to work on. Figure 1 is an example custom layout created with ABAP development help.

Figure 1

Planner Workbench layout

At the top of the screen, the buttons help you carry out different activities within the Planner Workbench screen. The functions of the buttons are self-explanatory by their names, as shown in Table 1.

The Search function is an important activity to select the records on which you need to work. The general search function can be carried out by clicking one of the following radio buttons shown in Figure 1:

• Req Types and Sales Orders (Search for sales orders and planned independent requirement types)
• Req Types (Search for planned independent requirement types only)
• Sales Orders (Search for sales orders only)

After you select the Req Types and Sales Orders button and click the Save button (Figure 1), the screen displays the fields shown in the Selection Criteria section of Figure 2.

Figure 2

Selection screen parameters for planned independent requirement types and sales orders

The MRP Controller: (the planner) field is a mandatory field for selection criteria for all search options. The fact that the field is mandatory is indicated by the red asterisk beside the field name. This ensures that the search result includes only the objects that the planner needs. The search result for sales orders and planned independent requirement types can be further restricted for specific plants or materials by entering the required plant or materials values in the Plant: and Material Number: fields shown in Figure 2.

After you select the Req Types button and click the Save button, the screen displays the fields shown in the Selection Criteria section of Figure 3.

Figure 3

The selection screen for the planned independent requirement types

In Figure 3, the Req Type: and Req Plan: fields are the attributes of a planned independent requirement type. The CSD Date (committed ship date) field represents the requirement date of the planned independent requirement.

After you select the Sales Orders button and click the Save button, the screen displays the fields shown in the Selection Criteria section of Figure 4.

Figure 4

The selection screen for sales orders

In addition to the fields already explained, in Figure 4, you can also carry out a search with the filtering criteria for Sales Order Type, Sales Order Number, and SO item status.

Planning Activities Carried Out on the Planner Workbench Search Results

After you choose a specific selection option and click the Search button, the system displays the search results records that meet the selection search criteria. You then can carry out planning activities for these records.

To work on records, the first step is to identify the records on which you want to work. You can choose to work on all the records and then deselect them when needed. An icon is provided for this purpose.

To select all lines, click the icon that is before the Plant column in Figure 5 and choose Select All from the pop-up list of options. Deselect All deselects the lines. If lines are selected, they are highlighted.

Figure 5

Using the Select All and Deselect All options

Export the Planner Work Bench Records to Excel

You can export the Planner Workbench content to Excel in case you need to do a detailed analysis. To export the content from the Planner Workbench to Excel, click the Export button and select Export to Microsoft Excel (Figure 6).

Figure 6

Export the Planner Work Bench records to Excel

Update Parameters of a Sales Order Line Item in the Planner Workbench

To complete this step, select the sales order item by clicking the box icon at the left end of the line (Figure 7) and click the Edit button (not shown).

Figure 7

Select a record in the Planner Workbench

The editable fields for a Sales Order line item are Sch. Ship Date (CSD Date), Sch. Line Category, and Del. Block status. Shipping Notes (not shown) is a hyperlink that you also can edit.

In my example, update the Sch. Ship Date (CSD Date) field using the calendar or with manual input. Click the Sch. line Category field, and in the pop-up screen, change CN to ZP (Figure 8). This means material requirements planning (MRP) will consider the sales order as a demand and plan for it. (The values CN and ZP are custom configuration values that represent whether a sales order line item is MRP relevant [ZP] or not relevant [CN].) Click the Save button to save the updated field values.

Figure 8

Edit a record to update a planning field value

You can confirm that the sales order schedule line item is updated by executing transaction code VA03. This action opens the screen shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9

Display the updated CSD value using the Display Sales Order transaction

Other sales order fields can be updated to meet different functionality requirements. For example, you can unblock a blocked sales order line item. To complete this step, position your cursor on the Del Block Status field for the record that you want to select (Figure 10). Sometimes you may be involved in a business scenario in which an export document, or any other shipping prerequisite, may be pending and you need to make sure the sales order is not processed for delivery. To do this effectively, you can set a sales document line item status as Blocked so that no shipping can be done. When the document line item status is set as Blocked, the system shows an error message while attempting to carry out delivery of the item indicating that line item status is blocked.

Figure 10

Set the Del. Block Status field from Blocked to blank in the Planner Workbench to allow shipping of the sales order item

Similarly, when the sales order is ready to ship, you can set the status to Blank (means unblocked) so that item can be shipped. Click the Del. Block Status field for the record you want to select and then select Blank from the pop-up list of options. The Del. Block Status field now is blank (Figure 11).

Figure 11

Display the updated status of the sales order item in the Planner Workbench

Click the Save button or press Ctrl and S to save your data. The system then updates the sales order line item accordingly. To verify that the sales order line item has been verified, execute transaction code VA03 to display the sales order (Figure 12).

Figure 12

Display the updated status of the sales order using the Display Sales Order transaction

Another functionality for sales order updates is changing the shipping relevant information in the sales order. You can use this to convey to the sales order delivery processing personnel any technical requirement while shipping the product. The Shipping Notes link shown in Figure 13 in the Planner Workbench can be used for this purpose.

Figure 13

Use the Shipping Notes hyperlink to update shipping notes of a sales order item

Update the Parameters of a Planned Independent Requirement in the Planner Workbench

Similar to a sales order line item, you can update the parameters of a planned independent requirement from within the Planner Workbench. As you did when changing the Del. Block Status (Figure 10), select a line and click the Edit button. The Quantity Requested and Sch. Ship Date (CSD Date) fields become editable. Update the fields to the new values. For my example, change Quantity Requested from 50 to 52 and Sch. Ship Date (CSD Date) from 04/30/2015 to 05/04/2015 (Figure 14).

Figure 14

Select a planned independent requirement line item to update planning parameters

Click the Save button (not shown) or press Ctrl and S to save your data. After you save your data, the following message appears at the bottom of the screen: E102441:001: Updated Successfully.

To validate that the planned independent requirement was updated, display the planned independent requirement by executing transaction code MD63. In the initial screen (not shown), enter the concatenated value of the requirements plan and item number in the Reqmts Plan field and the number of the plant in the Plant field. Press Enter. The system then displays the Planning Table view of the planned independent requirements (Figure 15).

Figure 15

Display the Planning table view of an updated planned independent requirement

Click the Sched. Lines tab (Figure 16) to display the updated value of requirement date.

Figure 16

Display the updated ReqmtDate (requirement date) of the planned independent requirement

The system displays the updated values 05/04/2015 and 52 for the CSD and Quantity Requested, respectively.

Janev K. Veettil

Janev K Veettil has more than 15 years of SAP experience in SAP Production Planning and logistics modules. He has worked on various SAP implementation projects for different industries and his key focus is on manufacturing. 

 

You may contact the author at jveettil@deloitte.com.

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