Never before has a supply planning book concentrated solely on setting up the Supply Network Planning (SNP) model in SAP APO, the most fully-featured supply chain planning suite on the market. This book is the only book on supply planning to focus entirely on how to set up supply networks in APO, and how to meet highly-customized requirements that relate to supply network design. You won’t even find these topics covered in depth in SAP Training classes! Companies should evaluate multiple supply network designs thoroughly before choosing a solution. The solution must strike a balance between meeting business requirements and being workable and maintainable. This book will teach you what you need to know to find this balance and evaluate solutions with confidence. Through extensive use of graphics and screen images, this book will familiarize you with Supply Network Planning in SAP APO and show you what you need to do to design supply networks for real-life applications, where everyday business requirements necessitate a nonstandard network design. After reading this book you will: Be able to set up master data objects for the supply network. Have a detailed understanding of the two major data objects in APO: locations and transportation lanes. Understand multi-sourcing - the ability for a supply planning system to choose intelligently between alternate sources of supply. Know how to design the supply network for complicated and nonstandard workflows, such as planning locations that are external to the supply network. Understand how to manage storage locations with MRP Areas for allocation and GATP. Be able to model intercompany transfers. Consider all aspects of network design, including physical master data set-up, parameters, planning run sequence, problem division, how and when billing documents are created, and more. Learn when a parallel simulation version of the supply network is appropriate - and when it is not.
