APO PP/DS vs ECC PP-PI

[Former Member]

really fundamental question - why would I use PP/DS rather than PP-PI for scheduling manufacture. After all i have the MF50 planning book in ECC?

[Former Member]

Neil

Dogboy49 is absoultely right - un-met business requirements are the best reasons to implement any functionality in APO. Change management is simpler if the business case is strong and people don't need to be arm-twisted.

Having said that, in some cases, the business simply does not 'see' that they could be doing things differently or better. They might be stuck in a rut of 'this is how we have always been doing things around here'. In such cases, it might be helpful to explore functionality and see what benefits it could potentially bring to the business.

The reasons for implementing PPDS may include -

1. It has functionality that doesnt exist in ECC (for example, the PPDS Optimizer)

2. It has functionality thats better than in ECC (user-friendly, flexibility, scalability) (for example, DS Planning Board).

3. In the long run SAP is more likely to invest and upgrade functionality in PPDS compared to ECC PP.

This has to be weighed against the cost of implemnetation, hardware, support, etc (which can be pretty high). In some cases, you may actually loose functionality that you take for granted. So tread carefully.

Rishi Menon

[Former Member]

Neil,

The most successful implementations always start with un-met business requirements.  It sounds to me as though you think the current PP/PI solution you have implemented is meeting all of your requirements.

Questions such as the one you pose are not asked often enough.  The answer is, if you can't think of a reason to implement PP/DS (or any other SCM functionality), then you surely shouldn't do it. 

Best Regards,

DB49