Use of planning characteristics in APO DP

[Former Member]

I am using APO DP V5.

In my planning object structure I have the following planning characteristics:

- product

- product group

- customer

Suppose I am extracting history data (based on despatches) from an attached ECC system.

As I see things, I have two alternatives for the extraction of 'product group':

1. Extract the product group when I extract the despatch data from ECC

2. Model the product group as an attribute (display) of the product InfoObject, maintain this attribute as part of APO master data, and then read the product group from the product master data when I extract the despatch data from ECC.

What is 'best practice' in this situation.

Thanks, Bob Austin

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hai Bob,

We follow option 2 in our case. while uploading the data extraction file, master data attribute (infoobject) in APO will be checked through update rule, while uploading to infocube. I guess, this is the recommended practice.

Regards,

Murali.J

[somnath_manna]

I guess by extraction of 'product group' from ECC you mean the value of product group (along with product and customer) for loading to Infocube in APO.

If "Product Group" is a characteristic as you mentioned in your Planning Object Structure then you need to do Alternative 1.

With alternative 2, the product group becomes an attribute (or navingational attribute in APO) which can be used as a planning level as per your definitions of planning object structure.

There is no "best practice" - just what you want to achieve in APO dtermines how you need to extract the data (values in each record entry) from ECC.

Thanks,

Somnath

[Former Member]

Hi Somanth,

Small question, in this context, if product group is used as a navigational attribute to product, then can I use product group for planning? or is it just for navigation?

Thanks.

[Former Member]

Somnath,

Thanks for your reply.

Product Group is a required planning characteristic.

But it seems to me that I could use EITHER option. The difference is just how this characteristic is populated - either as part of the extract from ECC, or read from the DP master data in APO).

Which do you think is best?

Thanks, Bob.

[Former Member]

Bob

Both your Options being valid technically and will work you need to now judge based on the demerits of the methods based on your situation

If you expect a huge CVC population and dont to have say a million CVCs you would want to use attributes thus effectively distributing it into two tables

Your Product Group to product will be one to many i suppose so the CVCs in your MPOS will be reduced by a factor or that ratio

Now this also means that you will need to look at a join of the table if you are using you Attributes as selections. So that is going to take more time and if your client is not patient youo may not want to take that route

Also your downstream planning process and your regular maintainance of your system needs to be considered.

Attributes are good if you want them just to navigate but if you want a forecast profile or if you want a realignment based on them it might end up to be a bit of a pain. I remember we had a post from you on this one and there are a few more points that are not favorable to Nav attribs

So youo need to weigh in the advantages each of these will give you and how much weightage you place on these advantages for your situation.

If you have the Prod group in ECC and can extract it i would prefer that option. Looks straightforward that way

[somnath_manna]

Hi Bob,

Let me explain my understanding. You are trying to extract transaction data from ECC and put it in an Infocube in APO. This infocube I assume will be used for generation of CVCs as well. In that regard you would like to have characteristic values for Product, Product Group and Customer for each record in the Infocube. So when you are trying to extract data from ECC, option 1 would be better.

With option 2, the product master data tables in APO are getting loaded. In that case how are you going to generate CVCs. Are you having a custom program to populate for each CVC product group value based on the product value from the Product master data in APO. In that case Option 2 will work.

But to me Option 1 is a better and cleaner approach.

Thanks,

Somnath

PS: Visu - to answer your question, navigational attributes are to be used for selection criteria and purely navigation purpose. That should not be a level for planning (meaning editing or entering data in keyfigures). It can cause issues unless each navigational attribute is unique to corresponding characteristic value (which will not be the case). There is an consulting note 413526 on this.

[Former Member]

Harish,

Maybe I'm missing something here...

Whichever approach I follow, product group needs to be a planning characteristic (the options 1 and 2 are just about how it's populated), along with product and customer, <u>so to me the number of CVCs will be the same</u>.

But for any realignment it sounds better to go for the simpler option 1.

Do you agree?

Thanks, Bob.

[Former Member]

you are right... my mistake

i just realised that the product group to product is a one to many relation

so the number of CVCs will be the same either ways