Relation between SD And APO

[Former Member]

Dear Experts,

What is APO. How it Functions in SAP. And What is the Relationship between SD-APO. Where it Integrates in SAP.

[somnath_manna · Accepted solution]

Hi Madhav,

Please review the APO Wiki pages under SCM area.

In short - APO is an application component of SAP SCM application primarily used for Planning demand, supply and production. It is NOT a component or module of SAP R/3 or ECC.

There is a standard Interface called CIF (Core Interface Function) which transfers data (transaction) between APO and R/3.

For example SD module of R/3 handles among other things Sales Orders. Sales Orders created in R/3 can be transferred to APO to consume forcast for MTO items and used for supply planning. Also another feature of SD namely Available-to-Promise can be carried out in APO in GATP (Global ATP) module when Sales Orders are created in R/3. GATP provides extended features of availability check in APO which are not possible in R/3.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

somnath

[Former Member]

Hello Mahhav,

APO ....i.e. Advance Planning and Optimization is a part of SCM.....Basically it is the purely planning tool developed by SAP........where planning takes place and R/3 is execution tool.........data exchange is always in APO and R/3 for consistant planning and execution result.............there is standand interface developed by SAP called as CIF (i.e.Core Interface).......and there is real time data exchange from APO to R3 and same from R3 to APO for transaction data..........as per the planning done in APO............In APO there are sub modules as per the planning requirements of user/customer.......like Demand Planning (DP) , Supply Network planning (SNP),Production Planning and detail scheduling (PP/DS), Transportation Planning and Vehicle Scheduling (TP/VS) and Glöbal Available to Promise (G-ATP) ...........where DP is for forcasting purpose and normally forcasting takes place on historical data.......and based on some forecasting methods , forecasting is taken place......further these forecast is sent to R3 as PIR for tiggering MRP .............if DP is used as standalone system.............or it handovered to SNP for further processing like to create planned orders i.e. for rough cut planning based on Bucket units like day .............considering available capacity on each work center with functions like CTM or Optimisation with order prority and cost factors minimising respectively for finite planning....even infinite planning is also possible in snp with heuristic functions.............if plan is comfortable in SNP then it is further sent to PP/DS for time continous planning i.e. upto minutes and seconds..........When planning is done in PP/DS . it is further sent to R3 for execution via CIF...........Whenever execution happened in R3 PP like confirmation of opns,goods issue etc ........it is transferred as REAL time to APO for further planning again...........and this cycle happens until production order gets finished..........

In TP/VS.........Vehilce sch. take place once order is finished in PP........Between PPDS and TP/VS there is one step called as Deployment .......Deployment decides how and when material is to be distibuted........After Deployment function execution..........Vehicle Optimisation is done with TP/VS module.........i.e. Optimisation of Truck loads based on different rules specified in TP/VS..........Main purpose of TP/VS is to reduce cost of logistic and reduce leadtime for material reaching upto customer via different modes of tranport as optimisation of Load is possible by different modes of Transport like Truck,Plane,Ship etc in TP/VS..........

Upto this your SD does not come into picture........In GATP.........it is more related....... very powerful function ................GATP check is performed globally to check if material is available in different location or not and it is tiggered via sale order ..........whenever sale order is entered .......immediately GATP check is performed for Demand and Supply relation ...........if material is available.....then delivery date of product is confimed on the spot with this functionality........GATP also searches for alternative product as if required product is not available..................if material is not available then one can tiggered production order via GATP also meaning SD function can perform job of PP by creation of Planned/production order directly via GATP.........hope I have clarified you..........

if found helpful , thanks in advance for reward..............bye..........

Best Regards,

Sharad