SAP PP, which stands for Production Planning, is a module within the SAP ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system that focuses on managing and optimizing the production processes of a company. It assists in planning, controlling, and monitoring all aspects of the production process, from the initial planning stages to the final execution and delivery of products.
Here are some key features and functionalities of SAP PP:
- Master Data Management: SAP PP helps in managing master data related to production, such as bills of materials (BOM), work centers, routings, and production versions. These master data elements are essential for planning and executing production orders.
- Demand Management: SAP PP enables the creation and management of demand forecasts based on historical data, sales orders, and market trends. It helps in determining the required production quantities and schedules to meet customer demands.
- Material Requirement Planning (MRP): MRP is a core functionality of SAP PP that calculates the materials required for production based on demand forecasts, stock levels, and lead times. It generates procurement proposals to ensure the availability of materials at the right time.
- Production Orders: SAP PP facilitates the creation, release, and management of production orders. Production orders define the details of the manufacturing process, including the raw materials, operations, work centers, and scheduling.
- Capacity Planning: This feature enables capacity evaluation and planning for work centers and production resources. It helps in optimizing resource utilization and aligning production schedules with available capacities.
- Shop Floor Control: SAP PP provides tools for monitoring and controlling production activities on the shop floor. It allows capturing real-time data, tracking progress, and managing exceptions or deviations from the planned production processes.
- Quality Management: Integration with SAP Quality Management module allows for quality control and assurance throughout the production cycle. It includes quality inspections, sample testing, and recording of quality data.
- Reporting and Analytics: SAP PP offers a range of reporting and analytics capabilities to monitor production performance, analyze key performance indicators (KPIs), and identify areas for improvement. It provides insights into production efficiency, resource utilization, and adherence to schedules.
SAP PP streamlines the production planning and execution processes, improves efficiency, reduces costs, and enhances product quality. It integrates with other SAP modules, such as Materials Management (MM), Sales and Distribution (SD), and Financial Accounting (FI), to ensure seamless flow of information across different business functions.
Some key points about SAP PP (Production Planning) are as below:
- PP is one of the main modules in SAP ERP and is used for planning and scheduling production processes in discrete manufacturing industries.
- It helps plan operations, materials, capacities and schedules for the production of goods as per demand. Some core functions include MRP, material requirements planning, production order processing, capacity planning, scheduling.
- In PP, the production process is broken down into production versions which define the Bill of Materials (BOM) and routings. BOM contains all the raw materials and components required to produce a finished product. Routing specifies the operations/work centers required.
- PP also addresses manufacturing execution through functions like quality inspection, lot traceability, component traceability etc. using documents like production orders, process orders.
- Configuration in PP involves master data setup like materials, BOMs, routings as well as parameters for MRP, ATP etc. This ensures smooth planning and execution of production.
- Key configuration tables include MARC (material master), BOM tables for parts lists, routing tables, work centers etc.
- PP leverages other SAP modules like MM, SD, QM, PM for functions like procurement, sales forecasting, quality management, maintenance planning etc.
- PP helps reduce costs, optimize production runs and adhere to delivery commitments through efficient production planning and scheduling capabilities.
How SAP PP integrates with other key SAP modules:
- Integration with MM (Material Management) – The material requirements calculated in PP are sent to MM which then processes procurement. BOM explosion in PP updates planned independent requirements in MM.
- Integration with SD (Sales and Distribution) – Sales forecasts and orders from SD define the production program/plan in PP. SD confirmation is sent to PP which then processes production orders accordingly.
- Integration with QM (Quality Management) – PP triggers quality inspection documents which are handled in QM. QM results like rejections, rework etc. are fed back to PP. Serial/batch numbers created in PP are managed in QM.
- Integration with WM (Warehouse Management) – PP confirms goods receipt to WM which then updates stocks. Stock placement and issue from/to production is handled by WM. Serial numbers tracked from PP to WM.
- Integration with PM (Plant Maintenance) – Breakdowns and maintenance activities in PM influence production capacity planning in PP. PP reschedules production as needed based on PM info.
- Integration with PS (Project System) – For make-to-order and engineer-to-order scenarios, PP schedules production based on project requirements from PS. Time posting is also integrated.
- Integration with FI/CO (Accounting) – PP transactions like order confirmations, goods issue etc. update corresponding accounting documents for costing and accounting.