The masterproduction schedule is a production planning tool that defines how much of aproduct needs to be manufactured at different periods. This simple schedule canbe used as a basis for further planning and scheduling throughout the business.
Master Production Schedule (MPS) is the part of production planning that outlines which products need to be manufactured, in which quantity, and when. A master production schedule does not usually go into detail regarding the materials to be used in production, employees assigned to tasks, etc. Rather, it is like a contract between the sales department and the manufacturing department that balances supply and demand by defining the necessary quantities to produce and the timeframes of production.
administering sap r 3 production planning module free download
The Master Production Schedule is a vital tool in Make-to-Stock manufacturing environments where a demand forecast drives production planning. As an MPS is often used as the main driver of production activity, it needs to be accurate and viable for it to have a positive effect on the profitability of a business.
A standard master production schedule is a long-term plan made for each product separately. It is done with a planning horizon of 3 months to 2 years, with a minimum time bucket (smallest timeframe specified) of 1 week.
When planningproduction, you always need to keep in mind how much exactly you are able toproduce in a given period. If you take in orders that require you to produce athousand chairs in a month, but you only have the means to produce 500, youwill let down your customers and your company. That is why you would alwayswant to account for:
The MPS is a great tool for planning and preparing early for surges in demand. However, there are physical and practical limitations to the quantities you can store in stock. Even if you had the production capacity, it may not be possible to utilize it if your stock is full. Or beyond a certain inventory level, too much cash may be tied up in inventory.
The master production schedule is one of the jumping-off points for manufacturing resource planning (MRP II). Apart from the MPS, however, MRP II uses additional inputs such as inventory statuses, BOMs, routings, material requirements and costs, financial records, staffing and machine capacity, etc. This allows the MRP II system to create a highly detailed plan for all of the different resources related to production and provide you with a real-time overview of your business.
Unlike creating a master production schedule, the complexity of manufacturing resource planning makes it impossible to do manually. Today, there are many different software providers offering MRP systems, but many of them have grown out of accounting or inventory management software and are limited in their manufacturing resource planning capabilities. Using proper MRP software, however, is becoming more and more important when it comes to staying competitive in the manufacturing business.
The integration of SAP FI and SAP CO modules came as a boon to numerous organizations. This integration helps business organizations maintain and generate financial statements for effective decision making and reporting. The integration of SAP FICO with other modules not only enables users to automatically update transactions to other SAP modules but also streamlines the functionality of numerous SAP modules including Sales distribution, Material management, Human Resource Management, Production planning, and SAP CRM among others.
The main purpose of SAP HANA lies in executing all kinds of complex queries in the blink of an eye without aggregating (and thus sacrificing) data in advance. The in-memory technology at its core makes it possible to analyze even the largest data volumes in a matter of seconds. To facilitate real-time processing like this, SAP HANA takes advantage of the memory capacity and various caches provided by modern hardware. In fact, the technology has also influenced the development of new generations of CPUs.This is how SAP HANA tackles virtually every challenge users can throw at it in terms of data availability, consistency, and integrity while meeting all the requirements of Acid3 testing (which determines how well applications conform to the standards of the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C).Additional resources:\nSAP HANA website\nSAP HANA Hardware Directory\nData center readiness\nSAP HANA 2: The Next-Generation Platform for Digital Transformation\nWhat is SAP HANA 2?\nSAP HANA road map\n"}],"name":"1. Why choose SAP HANA?"},"@type":"Question","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity1","acceptedAnswer":["@type":"Answer","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity1_acceptedAnswer_Answer","text":"In-memory databases make it possible to process even the largest masses of data in short order. This alone is a significant advantage over previous technologies. Meanwhile, in-memory technology also opens the door to further options in developing innovative applications that offer practical business utility, including:\nIntegration of text, images, video, and various other data formats through virtual access (without having to import the data into SAP HANA), real-time transfer, time-dependent integration, or data imports from Hadoop clusters\nApplication development directly on the platform without a separate application server\nFunctions that provide a foundation for further data processing, displaying data on maps based on SAP HANA geospatial engine, for instance.\nThis enables customers to assemble application scenarios without additional hardware and software while avoiding data redundancy.Additional resources:\nA platform for applications from both SAP and other providers\nBusiness transformation with SAP HANA\nIT Simplification with the SAP HANA Platform (brochure)\nIT Simplification with the SAP HANA Platform (infographic)\nSAP HANA Customer Impact Map, which offers more than 100 use cases from customer projects involving IT simplification, performance enhancement, and lowering TCO with SAP HANA\n"],"name":"2. What are the advantages of an in-memory platform?","@type":"Question","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity2","acceptedAnswer":["@type":"Answer","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity2_acceptedAnswer_Answer","text":"SAP S\/4HANA is a real-time ERP suite for digital business. It is based entirely on the in-memory SAP HANA platform, which facilitates a much simpler data model. Thanks to SAP Fiori, users enjoy the kind of personalized, role-based interface they\u2019ve grown used to as consumers and increasingly expect in the business world, as well. Here, SAP S\/4HANA avoids integration gaps in order to provide end-to-end process support. This means you no longer have to switch to a business warehouse to generate a report, for example, or complete steps manually outside of your SAP landscape.While SAP S\/4HANA has been built from the ground up, it essentially provides the same functional scope as SAP ERP and is based on that application\u2019s data model, although in radically simplified form. As such, SAP S\/4HANA is compatible with conventional SAP ERP systems and doesn\u2019t require a full-scale (greenfield) reimplementation.With SAP S\/4HANA Finance, customers have already been simplifying their financial and accounting activities since 2014. SAP S\/4HANA has been available as a standalone product since November 2015, and its latest version (1610) was released in late October 2016. SAP has also plotted out a three-year road map to solidify its plans regarding the suite\u2019s ongoing development (see question 7)."],"name":"3. What is SAP S\/4HANA?","@type":"Question","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity3","acceptedAnswer":["@type":"Answer","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity3_acceptedAnswer_Answer","text":"As the successor to SAP Business Suite, SAP S\/4HANA makes in-memory technology accessible to previous users of SAP ERP. To take advantage of the technical possibilities afforded by the SAP HANA in-memory platform, SAP had to simplify the underlying data model and provide for new interfaces in order to streamline processes and ensure an intuitive user experience. Making adjustments of that scale to an already established application like SAP ERP would be simply impossible.Meanwhile, SAP S\/4HANA leverages not only simple interfaces based on streamlined data structures, but the capabilities of its underlying platform, as well \u2013 including full text search. This provides companies with a technical foundation for improving their current processes and defining new ones as a basis for new products, services, and brand-new business models.SAP S\/4HANA makes in-memory technology accessible to SAP ERP usersTechnical advancements like these can both radically simplify and enhance existing processes, as the following example illustrates. Whether as a hobby or a profession, anyone who wanted to share their own photos in the 1980s and -90s will likely still recall the complicated process of inserting film, snapping shots, developing them, post-processing negatives, and sending out the printed photos by mail. It was an intricate and time-consuming affair to say the least, and the only way to find out whether the results matched your expectations was to see it all the way through.Along with the Internet, modern smartphones and their built-in high-resolution cameras have changed all this not only by making the process faster, but also by reducing the entire underlying \u201cinfrastructure.\u201d Furthermore, this example shows that speed alone isn\u2019t enough: Unless the foundational architecture is simplified, the corresponding processes will also remain complex and unable to provide an environment in which creative solutions can be developed for the problems at hand.Put another way, existing ERP solutions \u2013 including SAP ERP powered by SAP HANA \u2013 represent nothing more than the conventional way to share photos by mail. SAP S\/4HANA, on the other hand, offers the chance to do more than just accelerate such functions; based on a new architecture, it provides for sweeping simplification and support for processes that were previously unavailable."],"name":"4. Why move to SAP S\/4HANA?","@type":"Question","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity4","acceptedAnswer":["@type":"Answer","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity4_acceptedAnswer_Answer","text":"SAP S\/4HANA simplifies various areas of SAP Business Suite in its existing form.User interface: Moving from the transactional SAP GUI to the role-based SAP Fiori has reduced the number of screens in the application, the need to switch between them, and the fields essential to each role and process.To see some examples, check out the following video series:Eliminating the separation between OLTP and OLAP functions has made complex ERP analyses possible again. These analyses can serve as starting points for transactions, including in material planning: If a given stock KPI falls below a certain threshold, for example, the system will report a shortage, enabling users to act immediately in response.SAP Fiori supports virtually any device (including computers, tablets, and smartphones) in order to offer end users the same user-friendly interface and functions regardless of their preferred platform. Those familiar with the processes they need can essentially jump right into the software without any training.Function: SAP follows the \u201cprinciple of one,\u201d which means that SAP S\/4HANA\u2019s ERP system (or an entire SAP system landscape) offers a single solution for a given business requirement. In the past, SAP ERP contained multiple transactions for one particular business process. A number of solutions previously found within SAP ERP, including in e-commerce, have also been replaced by SAP Hybris.Data model: With SAP S\/4HANA, aggregating data in established formats for every posting \u2013 that is, compiling information in a summarized form in order to produce more compact data packages \u2013 is no longer required. In the past, developers predefined aggregates to achieve more efficient data processing. The drawback in doing so, however, is that such aggregates generally pertain to a specific type of query. As a result, most new queries require a new type of aggregate. Foregoing data aggregation in favor of selecting individual items based on arbitrary criteria gives users a great deal of flexibility in generating analyses. It also enables SAP S\/4HANA to attain higher throughput rates (read: more postings), as fewer tables need to be updated and no time is wasted waiting due to database locks.Landscape: In its ongoing mission to simplify your system landscape, the latest release of SAP S\/4HANA (1610) now includes SAP Extended Warehouse Management as an embedded EWM component. Release 1610 also incorporates the production planning (PP) and detailed scheduling (DS) components previously exclusive to SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization. This eliminates the need for the Core Interface (CIF) and reduces data redundancy, which in turn lowers operational and infrastructure costs."],"name":"5. How does SAP S\/4HANA simplify the previous SAP Business Suite?","@type":"Question","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity5","acceptedAnswer":["@type":"Answer","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity5_acceptedAnswer_Answer","text":"In release 1610, customers who already use SAP S\/4HANA can access functions in the same manner and scope as in SAP ERP. SAP S\/4HANA also offers an array of new user interfaces and capabilities that enable companies to significantly simplify their processes in various ways. Customers using the classic interfaces to access SAP S\/4HANA transactions can use SAP Screen Personas to simplify their screens. Corresponding use cases for releases 1511 and 1610 describe examples of how to do so from both a technical and area-specific perspective.The differences between SAP S\/4HANA and SAP ERP have been documented in this Simplification List. Customer experiences have shown that only around 10 percent of these simplifications will be relevant to a given individual system. Meanwhile, functions that have not yet been overhauled are available in compatibility packs.New customers can implement SAP S\/4HANA based on SAP\u2019s own best practices, which involves additional support through SAP Activate."],"name":"6. What functions are available?","@type":"Question","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity6","acceptedAnswer":["@type":"Answer","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity6_acceptedAnswer_Answer","text":"New releases of SAP S\/4HANA are scheduled to appear every year, with updates arriving on a quarterly basis. Each release will receive maintenance support for five years (until December 31, 2021 in the case of release 1610, for example).Road maps covering a three-year period are also available for SAP S\/4HANA. The current road map for the Q4 2016 edition can be found here (and all other road maps here)."],"name":"7. What future plans are in place for SAP S\/4HANA?","@type":"Question","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity7","acceptedAnswer":["@type":"Answer","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity7_acceptedAnswer_Answer","text":"In essence, SAP S\/4HANA features three main characteristics:\nA new design that focuses on users and their role-specific needs, can be accessed in-browser on any device, and supports communication among all process participants in a given system\nA modern architecture based on a simplified data model that makes it possible to map all of your processes in a single system \u2013 including those that were previously in place in separate installations\nAn intelligent business approach that actively notifies users when certain parameters exceed or fall short of critical KPIs and offers forecasts based on predictive algorithms\nAt CeBIT 2016, Wieland Schreiner, executive vice president at SAP, explained how SAP S\/4HANA is blazing a trail into the digital future. In a simple product demo (video in German), he illustrates how SAP S\/4HANA makes it easier to render better decisions in inventory management. As a result, you\u2019ll be able to minimize your security stocks and reduce capital tie-up. This is just one of many examples of the innovative potential companies like yours can take advantage of in SAP S\/4HANA.The following whitepapers explain how SAP S\/4HANA addresses common pain points specific areas have faced in the conventional SAP Business Suite:\nManufacturing whitepaper\nSupply chain whitepaper\nSales whitepaper\nResearch and development whitepaper\nSourcing and procurement whitepaper\nFinance whitepaper\nAsset management whitepaper\n"],"name":"8. What added value does SAP S\/4HANA offer, and where can I see proof? Are there any use cases?","@type":"Question","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity8","acceptedAnswer":["@type":"Answer","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity8_acceptedAnswer_Answer","text":"There are three ways to move to SAP S\/4HANA:\nFresh installation (greenfield approach): Implementation of a new system in line with processes based on SAP\u2019s best practices, data migration from a previous system (SAP ERP or other), inclusion of select enhancements\nSystem conversion (brownfield approach): Transition to SAP S\/4HANA in a manner similar to an upgrade or a migration; your configuration, data, and enhancements will remain as they are.\nLandscape transformation: Consolidation of an existing SAP ERP landscape, installation of a new SAP S\/4HANA system, or conversion of an existing system\nThere are no differences between these approaches in terms of the options that used to be available in switching to previous versions of SAP Business Suite. SAP S\/4HANA simplifies the established data model and features SAP Fiori, which provides users with a new, standardized interface on a wide variety of devices. At the same time, SAP also gives its customers the option to move to SAP S\/4HANA by means of a system conversion. The data models of SAP ERP ECC and SAP S\/4HANA are compatible, and SAP GUI will continue to be supported. The adjustments necessary before and during the transition to SAP S\/4HANA are also documented in the Simplification List.Even after completing a technical feasibility analysis, many customers find themselves wondering what their actual goals are in switching to SAP S\/4HANA and whether they can achieve them in a system conversion. Answering these questions requires more than just an estimate of what a conversion would initially cost. It\u2019s also important to assess whether it makes more sense to achieve the objectives at hand \u2013 making increased use of standard SAP offerings or improving data quality, for example \u2013 in a greenfield approach, or by carrying out a technical system conversion and implementing optimizations either simultaneously or after the fact. This is why the ultimate decision for or against a conversion always has to be made by each individual customer.The fact that moving to SAP S\/4HANA is different from a single self-contained project (like an upgrade or a database migration) is another key factor. An endeavor like this will involve your entire IT system landscape, and not because you\u2019ll be upgrading other systems to newer releases or to a SAP HANA database at the same time. The reason is rather that the transition to SAP S\/4HANA will simplify and clean up your IT landscape and all of the processes mapped within it, which requires a holistic perspective.Additional Resources:\nSAP S\/4HANA Value Assurance Map Program\nUser Assistance for SAP S\/4HANA 1610 (includes a conversion guide)\nOverview: Simplification List\nSimplification List (Excel)\nTop Simplification List Items\nOverview: System Conversion\nSAP S\/4HANA 1610 \u2013 Business Functions\nPackaged services to aid switching to SAP S\/4HANA\n"],"name":"9. How can I switch to SAP S\/4HANA?","@type":"Question","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity9","acceptedAnswer":["@type":"Answer","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#QuestionsubjectOf_FAQPage_mainEntity9_acceptedAnswer_Answer","text":"Every customer should take a look at the SAP HANA in-memory platform and making SAP S\/4HANA the digital core of their company \u2013 and time is of the essence. This suite makes it possible to base an organization squarely on digital processes, which serve as an effective foundation for implementing and marketing compelling business scenarios. SAP S\/4HANA is thus more than just a successor to SAP Business Suite; it represents an all-new product line.For that reason, current investments and planned projects should be reviewed in terms of the strategic benefits they offer to a target SAP architecture with SAP S\/4HANA at its core. Along with the necessary code adjustments and other technical issues, this should also involve analyzing established processes with an eye toward the performance characteristics of SAP S\/4HANA; here, the use cases described under question 8 can provide inspiration.Read more stories about SAP S\/4HANA on the SAP News Center."],"name":"10. What are the actual steps I should take to approach this subject?"]}],"headline":"SAP S\/4HANA: 10 Questions Answered","about":["@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#ThingaboutHighlight-202208171750139540","name":"SAP HANA","@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#ThingaboutHighlight-202208171750139541","name":"SAP S\/4HANA"]},"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Organization","logo":"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.sap.com\/dam\/application\/shared\/logos\/sap-logo-svg.svg.adapt.svg\/1493030643828.svg","height":"45","width":"92","@id":"https:\/\/www.sap.com\/dam\/application\/shared\/logos\/sap-logo-svg.svg.adapt.svg\/1493030643828.svg","name":"SAP SE","@id":"https:\/\/www.sap.com\/index.html"]"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":["@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2017","item":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/#breadcrumbitem","@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"01","item":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/\/01\/#breadcrumbitem","@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"SAP S\/4HANA: 10 Questions Answered","item":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/2017\/01\/sap-s4hana-10-questions-answered\/#breadcrumbitem"]window.schema_highlighter=accountId: "Acronym/Newssap", output: false import defineCustomElements from ' -content/plugins/sapn-sap-contextual-navigation/assets/js/webcomponent/loader.js'; defineCustomElements(); .c-topics-slider .c-topic__icon img width: auto; document.documentElement.className = document.documentElement.className.replace("no-js", "js"); Skip to content Features SAP S/4HANA: 10 Questions Answered
Feature by Andreas Schmitz January 30, 2017 As they consider switching to the new SAP S/4HANA business suite, many customers are wondering how to make their move and when the right time will arrive.
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