Constraint-based planning generates something that is appealing to all manufacturers: a feasible supply and production plan. However, constraint-based planning software was first implemented over twenty years ago, and yet few companies have mastered constraint-based planning. This book provides the background information, detailed explanations, step-by-step examples, and real-life scenarios to assist a company in becoming proficient at constraint-based planning, along with valuable information about what SAP APO can do for supply and production planning in reality, rather than just in theory. Here you will learn about resources-the mechanism for constraining the plan in APO and for determining the feasibility of the plan-and how constrained supply and production planning work together (and how they don’t). In addition, this book talks about constraint-based planning at the supplier level: can a vendor’s production be capacity-constrained? By reading this book, you will learn: The different resources available in APO, how production resources differ from supply planning resources, and the role resources and other important constraints play in constraint-based planning. How constraints integrate across the supply planning and production planning applications. The areas of disconnect between supply and production planning applications, and between SNP and PP/DS in particular. The difference between unconstrained (or infinite) planning and constraint-based planning. The benefits of constraint-based planning and how it differs from capacity leveling. Various types of demand, and how backwards and forwards scheduling work. The benefits of using production constraints in the supply planning system, and how SNP and PP/DS can be synchronized to produce the desired output. The methods that can do constraint-based planning in SNP and PP/DS-heuristics, CTM, and optimization-and how to configure these methods. The difference between hard and soft constraints, and how to plan using multiple constraints.
