Managing characteristic value combinations in APO DP

[Former Member]

I am using APO DP V5.

I have two questions regarding characteristic value combinations (CVCs) in APO DP:

1. Suppose I am planning with planning characteristics of product and customer. I have existing CVCs of product 1 at customer A, and product 2 at customer B. Suppose I have new sales history data in a Cube for a 'new' CVC product 1 at customer B. I assume that if I try and load from the Cube to the planning area then system will object because CVC does not exist? And so I should <u>first</u> generate CVC from the Cube.

2. Suppose I want to plan for new CVCs, for which there is <u>no</u> sales history available.

Looking at transaction /SAPAPO/MC62, I could follow options of:

(a) generate CVCs from a 'dummy Cube' which I load from a spreadsheet

(b) load from a 'file' (eg tab delimited)

My questions:

2a. Which option is best practice? The 'file' option looks simpler

2b. For the 'dummy Cube' option, what fields are required - is it just the planning characteristics, eg product, customer in my example, and planning version. Does one have to include a 'dummy' key figure as well?

Thanks for any advice.

Bob Austin

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Bob

1. Correct.You need a CVC to load data from your cube to planning area. Else it would not be loaded. So you need to have a CVC. This need not necessarily be from the cube - it can be created even manually or from another infoprovider.

2a. I would suggest the file route if you dont have the CVCs already in a cube

There is no point if you create a dummy cube just for creating cvc while you have the option of doing so from a file which is going to be the source of your cube anyhow

2b.you need a char, time char and a KF for a cube

maintaining the CVC is a major issue in many DP implementations. There is a possibilty if ending up with a lot of defunct CVCs if there is no strategy to keep it current and relevant. This could also cause issues in other areas such as the proportional factor calculation and disaggregation

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Harish,

Thanks for this.

Just one point regarding the 'dummy Cube' (point 2b in original posted message)...

I assume a planning version characteristic is required as well. If so, assuming I have only one planning version for DP, I would have to include a 'dummy' key figure with some dummy values (and not, of course, a 'proper' key figure which is used in the planning process.

Regards,

Bob.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

thats right.

you can have a KF that you dont use and a version

So a good cube data in txt will be

PROD1,LOC1,000,DummyKF,Week1,

here i assume you will not use Dummy KF for planning

assuming you plan to use an already existing cube and dont want to add another KF then: -

you can use a version that you will never use and a dummy value for the KF. Lets say you have a KFA thats being used for something

PROD1,LOC1,009,KFA,Week1

this way you can set the CVC generation to use filter for 009.

Am not sure what you have as a plan......but this will be the same as loading a CVC from a spreadsheet of new values extracted from SOs

You can add constants in the loading process

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Bob,

The Somnath and Harish answered your first two questions. Regarding the characteristics that you need to have in your "dummy cube", the simple rule isyour Planning Object Structure has to be a subset of "dummy cube" or the dummy cube should have all the characteristics in your Planning Object Structure and can have more..

The key figure is irrelevant for CVCs as they are only master data. But the CVCs are only those combinations that have a transaction data value. Let me explain this with example: your dummy cube has the following data

Cust---Div-SalesOrg-Company-qty.----no.of records

PA----01---LA

---

ALT

---

20--

---

5

GB----02---MG

---

OLR

---

50--

---

2

MD----05---RI

---

PIL

---

10--

---

1

PA----02---LA

---

ALT

---

20--

---

6

MI----01---LA

---

PLM

---

20--

---

7

PA----01---LA

---

ALT

---

20--

---

2

Your planning Object Structure has

customer, division and company

When you reference the dummy cube and create CVCs, here is the list

Cust---Div---Company

PA----01-----ALT

GB----02-----OLR

MD----05-----PIL

PA----02-----ALT

MI----01-----PLM

PLease

Observe that the dummycube is a superset of your Planning Object Structure and the CVCs are generated for only those possible combinations of characteristics in Planning Object Structure that have a transaction data value in your dummy cube.

Please feel free to comment or ask questions.

Thanks.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Visu,

Thanks for your good reply and detailed example.

Just one small point - I assume planning version is required as well, because in transaction /SAPAPO/MC62 for creation of CVCs the planning version must be specified.

Thanks,

Bob.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dont think you will need version to create CVCs. Actually 9AVERSION is not a char that you add to the MPOS

Data in your cube will have a planning version attached to it. When you load cube to Planning area the translation is automatic.

The object selection is where the the Version and CVc meet

[somnath_manna]

Hello Bob,

1. Yes you first generate CVCs before attempting to load sales history data into the planning area. The Sales History data is the transaction data while CVCs is master data in APO-DP. So you need the Master data first before you can associate the transaction data.

2. There is no best practice as such. But the load from file is a good option. That way you do not worry about transaction data and also management of a "Dummy" infocube. Please note if its new product codes then you can use Realignment (Copy) function to create the new Product CVCs based on some existing Product which is sold to the same set of customers.

Thanks,

Somnath