Sales and Operation Planning SOP

Sales & Operations Planning (SOP) is a flexible forecasting and planning tool with which sales, production, and other supply chain targets can be set on the basis of historical, existing, and estimated future data. SOP streamlines and consolidate your company’s sales and production operations.

 

SOP is particularly suitable for long- and medium-term planning. SOP constitutes the planning functionality of the LIS information systems.  You pass on SOP plans to Demand Management in the form of independent requirements. In turn, this data is fed to Master Production Scheduling and Material Requirements Planning. An interface with Profitability Analysis allows you to use CO-PA data as the basis for sales planning in SOP. You can also pass on the results of SOP to Profitability Analysis (CO-PA), Cost Center Accounting and Activity-Based Costing. 

 

SOP is made up of two application components: 

 

Standard SOP comes largely preconfigured with the system. Flexible Planning offers options for customized configuration: you can plan on any organizational level, and also define the content and the layout of the planning screens. You can process your planning data from the standpoint of almost any organizational unit (for example, sales organization, material group, production plant, product group, material) and even from the standpoint of the entire enterprise. The planning table in which you work resembles a spreadsheet. You have enormous scope to track previous planning data, anticipate market demand, run analyses, and perform what-if simulations. A series of mass processing functions automate the planning of large volumes of data.

 

SOP is suitable for the planning of finished materials, but not for the planning of the materials’ component parts. The one exception is Characteristics Planning.

The Sales & Operations Planning  (SOP) application is based on information structures. An information structure is a statistics file containing operational data. This can be either planning  data you anticipate will happen or actual data that happened. An information  structure contains three kinds of information: characteristics, key figures, and  a period unit. Information structures are used for data evaluation, projection, and analysis in all the logistics information systems.

 

The SOP application is  offered in two menus: Standard SOP menu and Flexible Planning menu. With Standard SOP, you work with just one organizational unit, the product group hierarchy, and plan redefined key figures in a planning table  with a set layout.

All plans in Standard SOP are based on the standard info  structure S076. Planning carried out in Flexible Planning, on the other hand, can be based on any information structure of your  choice, either a self-defined information structure or a standard information structure.  This means you can plan any combination of organizational  units and any key figures. In addition, you can design your own planning table  layouts, known as planning types. You can also maintain plans using the Planning menu in the logistics information systems.

 

Planning method applied to the information structure is of key importance in SOP. The planning method determines how data is distributed to different corporate units. You define your planning  methods in Customizing (in Set parameters for info structures and key figures).

 

Three planning methods are available: 

 

Consistent planning

 

Level-by-level planning

 

Delta planning

Oil and Gas Industry

The oil industry consists of finding, producing, and delivering oil to the end consumer in the desired form – gasoline / kerosene / aviation fuel / naphtha / lubes etc.  The industry is capital-intensive as it takes huge funds to find the raw materials, produce, and distribute the various oil products.

Classification of Oil Industry:

The oil business is divided into two categories: upstream, and downstream. The upstream refers to the grassroots of the oil business, the process of exploring for oil and extracting it. The downstream refers to refining of the oil to subsequent products and the commercial side of the business, in terms of sales and marketing of these products.

Upstream Process:

Upstream activities are closer to the source, and "downstream" activities, such as refining and marketing, are closer to the consumer. The entire operational/business process in the oil industry can be classified as:

1. Area identification
2. Geological/seismic surveys
3. Reservoir data [collection, analysis, mapping ]
4. Drilling processes
5. Transportation
6. Storage [Silos, terminals, tanks]
7. Refining
8. Post production.

Downstream Business Processes:

Petroleum downstream business processes are more closely related to standard manufacturing and distribution industries or networks.  

1. Oil company traders acquire crude oil (purchase feed stocks),
2. Refineries process the feedstock into refined products (manufacturing),
3. Pipelines, barges and vessels transport the product to terminals (primary distribution) and
4. Tanker trucks transport the product to service stations (secondary distribution).

Service stations sell the fuel to consumers.
Practical Facts in Oil and Gas Industry

Oil and gas are two of the most heavily traded commodities in  the world, and transporting them is always a critical business action because of their value.

1- An Oil tanker may carry 2 Million Barrels or more of crude oil worth USD 80 million.

2- Using massive marine tankers, barges, and pipelines, midstream and primary supply traders and schedulers move huge bulk quantities of oil and gas every day.

 

3- Crude oil and natural gas are moved from production fields to refineries and refined products from refineries to storage terminals.

4- Oil shipments can last many weeks and involve hundreds of thousands – even millions – of barrels of oil products. 
 

5-  A lot of partners and activities are involved in successfully coordinating a voyage which means  all bulk movements, regardless of mode of transport.

6- Each shipment requires detailed planning and scheduling. This involves loadings, multiple unloadings, shared resources, and multiple trades.

7- The schedulers should be aware of the current activity and status of each voyage.

8- The long lead times, the duration of movements, and the huge money involved requires flexibility to make changes at any stage.

9- SAP developed SAP TSW [Trader’s and Scheduler’s Workbench] to enable the high level of flexibility 

Cut over Plan in SAP Implementation

This is an example of a Cutover Plan from a live SAP implementation:

Preparation for Cutover 

During the time of cutover and migration to SAP, system will not available for almost a week. It is essential from business point to inform all the business partners about the down time in advance. Therefore as a part of preparation it is recommended to send this information in advance to all the customers and vendors. 

Prepare Production Environment 

In this step production machine will be prepared and tested in advance for all the application components. Since production machine will be connected to client network it is necessary to test this connectivity in advance. In addition all printers will also be installed and checked in this step.

Setup Application 

In this step SAP application will be setup on Production system, after taking all the transports to production SAP AG will verify the system is ready to go live. 

 

Convert and Verify Data 

In this step data will be downloaded from legacy system and converted into required format to upload into SAP.  After verification data will be loaded into SAP .

Verify production readiness 

This is the final step before Go Live, in this step final review for cutover will be done to make sure all activities related to Go Live have been performed and system is ready to go in Production.

Support after Go Live 

To support the users after Go Live, helpdesk will be established. All the calls from users will be received by helpdesk at Tel No: 99999999, issues will be categorized into HIGH, MEDIUM or LOW. After creating the ticket support desk will assigned it to the respective team (FI,CO,MM,SD,BW) for the solution. Support team will then based on priority look into the issue.

How to use CATT in SAP

CATT is a useful tool to create Master data as well as record repetitive functions in SAP. The following Procedure explains how it is done in the system.

Procedure

 

1)      Enter the transaction code SCAT in the command field or follow the menu path given below:

Systemà Servicesà CATTà Record     

2)      Enter the name of the CATT in the test case field and press Enter. In this example we
will use Z_SCM_MM01

Note:              Z  =  all test cases normally start with Z,

SCM =  the area in which you are creating the CATT,

MM01= the transaction code used to create a material master.

3)      Click on the TCD button

4)      Enter  MM01 in the pop up window and press Enter

5)      Enter Industry Sector and Material type and press enter.

6)      Select the views and organizational structure and press enter.

7)       A window will pop up asking for ending the transaction. Click on the Stop transaction button.

8)       Click  on the Save button.

9)       Another  window will pop up. Click on the local object button after deleting any value in the development class.

10)   Click on the back button.

11)  Click  on the Change button now.

12)  Double  click on the TCD button.

13)  Click  on the Field List.  

14)  Click on the Next Screen button till you reach the required filed for which you want to have variable values. In this example we want to create multiple material with different descriptions so we select the description to be the variable field.

15)  Enter  &description in the description field.

16)  Click  on the back button.

17)  A  window pops up with the same name which has been given to the variable field (in
this case description), Just prefix the variable name with & (in this case it will become &description) and press enter.

18)  Another  window will pop up for maintain default value for the variable just delete any
value in the Default value filed and press enter.

19)  Press  the back button till the system asks you to Save the CATT. Save the test case
(CATT) that you have created.

20)  On  the main CATT screen now follow the menu path:   Goto à Variants à Export

21)  A window will pop up asking you to enter the place where you want to export the
file which will have the values for the variable you just created in your test case (Z_SCM_MM01). You can change the directory of the local file having the values otherwise its always stored in SAPworkdir by default. 

22)  Click  on the Transfer button 

23)  Now  open the text file. Move the cursor to the row just below the last  line.

24)  Press  Tab button on the keyboard twice.

25)  In  this column now enter all the values for the variable (in this case  &description) for as many sets as needed. Please note that the values should  be in the same column and not in any other column.

26)  Save the local file after entering all the values. 

27)  Go  again to transaction SCAT and select your test case and click  Execute.

28)  Select  Long radio button under the Log type section.

29)  Select  Background radio button under the Processing Mode  section.

30)  Select  external from file radio button under the Variants  section.

31)  Click  on the Choose button. Select the text file from the local disk and press  Enter.

32)  Click  on the Execute button.

33)  SAP  will give you the new material created individually after running the CATT in
the background and now these materials are ready for use. If there is an error  then the result is be a Red color for that material otherwise Green color shows  that the CATT was executed successfully.

SAP Training Development

With the start of EUT in the Final Preparation Phase [Phase 4 in the ASAP Methodology] Consultant have the develop training material and training exercises with test data taken from the copy of QA Client into the Training Client so that the End Users can practice the new transactions in the SAP system. The Training Client is usually refreshed after a certain interval when the data is consumed in case the number of End Users is huge and all have to be trained using the data.

Training Data Source

1- It is normally an excel sheet in having the values of all those variables which are used in the raining exercise.

 

 When the document is merged Word takes the values of the variables from this data source and creates a merged document. The  data created in the source data document is normally created using CATTS in SAP. 

 

2- Note that the headings of the columns are infact the variables used in the training document.

This data source contains data for 6 sets of data in total. So the merged document will have 6 data sets namely Instructor, Trainee01 to Trainee05.

3- This is the product of the merger of the training document and the data source document.

It is supposed to be a big document depending upon the number of copies needed. It is recommended to divide this document into smaller sets to utilize less memory resources of computer and hence fast editing or of the document.

4- It is also recommended not to include the table of contents specially is DDS toolbar is being used in the Merged document. It can always be added later on.

 

Training Exercise

 

1- It  is the real source document of SAP training material to be created in bulk for the end users during the training delivery phase of a project. 

2- It is created in such a manner that when it is merged the fields with variable values acquire their values from the source document where the data to be “poped” is stored . 

 

3- The variables fields are inserted using the “Merge” feature in MS Word.

 

4- The three steps in  the Merge process are (depending upon the version):

(Toolsà Mail Merge) 

a)       Create Main document: 

It is the main merged document in “letter” or legal” format. 

b)       Get Data source: 

It is an excel sheet having the values  for the variable fields in the training exercise. 

c)       Merge the data with the  element:                                

5- It is the final product where the variable fields are replaced by their  respective values from the excel sheet.

6- Note: In later  version of MS word the merge functionality is performed using a wizard  which   has 6 steps.  Following is an example of a Training Exercise.

 

x------- x ------- x ---------- x ---------- x ------------ x ------------ x ------------ x ----------x

Practical Example

 

Enter an Inventory Recount – LI11N

This transaction is the same transaction used to perform the Inventory count.  The only difference is that this count is for a different version of the original inventory document.

 

1.      To enter an inventory count, follow the menu path given below from the initial R/3 screen, double clicking on the last item:

 

Logistics ® Logistics Execution ® Internal Whse Processes ®Physical Inventory ® In Warehouse Management ® Count results ® Enter

    2.      Enter the Warehouse number 100.

3.      Enter the  Inventory record «wminvrec».

Note: The Count date should default to today’s date.

    4.      Enter the Recount version 01.

 

5.      Click on the Enter button     

 

6.      Enter the Quantity recounted 270.

7.      Click on the Enter button     

8.      Record the message at the bottom of the screen

 

9.      Click on the Enter button to confirm the message at the bottom of  the screen.

10.  Click on the Save button  

 

11.  Record the message at the bottom of the screen

 

12.   Click on the Exit button   until the initial R/3 screen is displayed.

SAP Training Module

1- It is a detailed document about a transaction or a group of transactions used in the business.

2- It is based on the Business Process Script. Its explains each and every minute details in non-ASAP methodical form. It is scenario dependent and not a general document for the transaction e.g we might have one module for Goods receipts without reference (MB1C) but another module for into Goods Receipt for Purchase Order or Delivery (MIGO) and even one module for a couple of similar reports like LB10, LB11, LB12.
 

3- The module for certain transaction has to have the business scenario as well as detailed SAP screen shots for each and every step. 

The following is an example of a Training Module:

Display Material Bill of Material (BOM) – CS03
 

Performance Objectives
 

Upon  completion of this training module, participants will be able to perform transaction CS03 to display a material bill of material (BOM).
 

Business  Procedure
 

A bill of  materials (BOM) is a complete, formally structured list of components that makes up a product or assembly.  The list  contains the object number of each component, together with the quantity and unit of measure.  The components are known as BOM items. BOMs are created by the Material Standardization Division (MSD).
 

BOMs are used in their different forms in various situations where a finished product is assembled from several component parts or materials.  They contain important basic data and  essential master data for integrated materials management.  In , BOMs will only be used for Plant Maintenance.
 

The following BOMs can be created in SAP:
 

·        Material BOMs

·        Equipment BOMs

·        Functional  location BOMs

·        Document  structures 

·        Work breakdown structure (WBS) BOM
 

This transaction is used to display a BOM.  All fields are display only – no data can be changed.
 

Step By Step
 

1.      A material BOM has been created.

2.      The need arises to display the BOM to check the components.

3.      Run the transaction to view the BOM.
 

Display Material BOM – CS03
 

To display a material BOM, follow the menu path given below from the initial R/3 screen, double clicking on the last item:
 

Logistics ® Production ® Master Data ® Bills of Material ® Bill of Material ® Material BOM ® Display 
 

Field descriptions for SAP or required fields are labeled below in boldface type.  Optional fields are labeled in ordinary type.  
 

Fields not listed below should not be used.
 

Fields displayed in gray on the terminal screen cannot be changed.
 

Note:    The “Plant” field should not be entered as BOMs will always be group BOMs.

Click on the Enter button .
 

To select a line item, click on the button to the left of the line item, and click
on the Item button.
 

Note:    To display further information, click on the following tabs: “Status/Ing text”, “Purch.”, “Adm. data”,  “Document assignment”.
 

If more than one item was selected on the previous screen, click on the Next screen  button to view the data for the other components.

After all necessary data has been viewed, click on the Header button.

Note:    To display further information, click on the following tabs: “Further data”, “Admin. data”, “Doc. assignment”.
 

To exit this transaction, click on the Exit button until the initial R/3 screen is displayed.

Business Process Scripts (PBS)

1- It is a document created by the Design team/Internal System Analysts after the Detailed Configuration phase in the SAP implementation Project.

 

2- Its normally created on documents provided by ASAP methodology and it contains information like

• Business process
• Trigger
• Inputs
• Steps for the Procedure
• SAP screens etc

Example of BPS

 

Trigger

To compare stock levels between Inventory Management and Warehouse Management.

 

Business Process Script:  Overview:

The stock comparison function compares stock levels in the Warehouse Management (WM) application with stock levels in the Inventory Management component and searches for differences. To clear differences, you can create a batch input file. Choose Logistics à Logistics Execution à Internal Whse Processes à Physical Inventory à in Warehouse Management à Stock comparison from the SAP menu. In the first section of the initial screen, select data is to be compared for the stock comparison report. Permissible selections include: · Plant and storage location  Plant and warehouse number  Warehouse number only In the output section of the screen, select one of the following additional fields to determine how the information is to be displayed or processed: With bin inventory If you select this option, the system lists the stock quantities at the bin level for Warehouse Management. All material data With this option you select all stock records for a material for which a difference is found. These records also include the material number, batch, special stock indicator and supplier combinations that have no differences and whose stock quantity is greater than zero. This detailed information helps in detecting exactly where the error occurred. Create batch input file If you select this output option, the system generates a batch input file. This batch input session adapts the stock figures in IM to those in WM. The prerequisite for this is that all goods movements to the corresponding warehouse number be blocked. If you only want to see a summary of the differences, we do not recommend using this option. It is best to clarify the causes of the differences first using the output list displayed on the screen before removing them using the batch input file. Choose Execute.

Tips and Tricks

 

Remember, permissible selections include:

· Plant and storage location

· Plant and warehouse number

· Warehouse number only

Procedural Steps 

 

1.1       Access transaction by:

Via Menus	Logistics>Logistics Execution>Internal Warehouse Processes>Physical Inventory>In Warehouse Management>Stock Comparison
Via Transaction Code	LX23

 

Click on the clock-check to proceed.

On screen “Stock comparison Inventory Management / Warehouse Management”, below:

Per material, we can see all quant amounts per bin and also, as a summary, we see if the inventory system and the warehouse system figures are equal.

SD Interview Tips

Sales Order [VOV8]:

Doc type, No Range, Del type, Imm Delivery, Order/ Del rel Billing [F1/F2]

 Item Category [VOV7]:

Item Category Group, Doc Type, Usage, Higher-level Item Cat

Schd Line Cat. [VOV6]:

Item Category + MRP type

Sales Doc Types:

Standard Order, Cash Sales, Rush Order, Return Order, FOC Delivery

 Goods Issue:

COGS – Debited, Inventory – Credited 

Billing:

Customer – Debited, Revenue, Tax, Freight – Credited

Incoming Payment:

Bank – Debited, Customer – Credited

Availability Check: 

• Determines Material Availability date,

• Does delivery scheduling back from required delivery date?

• Run at the end of Replenishment lead time

Scope [Avail. Check] :

Current Stock, Inward Stock Movement, Outward Stock Movement

Inbound Process:

Purchase. Req – Pur.Order – Inb. Del – T.O – T.O Confirmation – G.R

Outbound Process:

Sales Order – Outbound Del – T.O – T.O Confirmation – G.I

 Free Goods

Master Data:

Condition Record [VBN1] – Sales Document

Free Conditions: 

Condition Type= NA00, Item Category Usage= FREE, Item Category = TANN

SAP SD Interview Tips Rebate Processing

Rebate:

Rebate Agreement – Sales Doc – Billing Document – Post Accrual

Rebate Agreement:

Settlement Run – Credit Memo Request – Remove Block –Credit Memo

Rebate Condition:

Condition Type: B002 [added to Pricing Proc in the Sales Document]

SAP SD Interview Tips for Credit Management

Credit Management:

Credit Control Area [CCA] can accommodate multiple Company Codes

 Static Credit Check:

Checks Open Order + Open Deliveries + Open Billing Documents

 Dynamic Credit Check:

Checks Credit Horizon [date]

All Credit Checks:

Static Check, Dynamic Check, Max Doc Value, Oldest Open Item

SAP SD Interview Tips Cross Modular

VOFM:

Transaction to create and process Routines

Routines:

Routines are programs used for defining Copy requirements and Copy Controls

Batch Determination:

The following steps defines Batch determination process in SD

• Batch Determination Procedure

• Strategy types

• Access Sequence

• Condition Tables

• Assign Batch Determination Procedure

• Automatic Batch Determination for [Sales / Delivery] Item Categories

• Define Selection Rules

• Define Sort Rules

Flexible SOP:

It is used for Planning of Finished Goods

• Append MCVBRP to include required Characteristics and Key Figures

• Edit Field Catalogue to select Characteristics and Key Figures

• Create Info Structure [MC21]

• Update Info Structure [OMO1]

• Set Planning Parameters [MC7F]

• Create Planning Type [MC8A]

• Create Planning Hierarchy [MC59]

• Maintain Planning Hierarchy [MC61]

• Create SOP Plan [MC93]

SAP SD Interview Tips for Condition Technique

Acct Detr Proc. [VKOA] :

Chart of Accts,Sales Org,Cust Acct Asgmnt grp, Mat A.A.G, AcctKey

Applications of Condition Technique:

• Pricing

• Account Determination

• Output Determination

• Batch Determination

• Text Determination

PRICING

Pricing Elements:

1-Price, 2-Discount/Surcharge, 3-Freight and 4-Tax

Pricing Procedure:

It is used to determine valid condition record

Pric. Proc. Detr [OVKK] :

Sales Area , Sales Doc [ Doc Pic.Proc.], Sold-to [Cust Pric. Proc]

Header Conditions:

Header conditions are automatically distributed among Items.

• Header Conditions has to be marked as Group Condition in order to be distributed among Items

• Header conditions are distributed among Items on the basis of Value, Volume and Weight

• The basis of distribution of header condition among Items is set in Base Formula field in Pricing Procedure in the IMG

Pricing in Billing:

Pricing can be done again at billing level using following Pricing Types

A: Pricing Elements copied from Reference document and updated according to scales

B: Pricing is carried out again

C: Manual Pricing Elements are adopted & pricing is carried out again for remaining pricing elements

D: Pricing Elements are copied from Reference document

G: Pricing Elements are copied from Reference document and Tax re-determined

H: Pricing Elements are copied from Reference document and Freight re-determined

Condition Exclusion:

Condition exclusion can be used to determine the Best Price

• Condition exclusion is performed using Exclusion group

• Exclusion group is a combination of condition types

• During Pricing the conditions which give best price are selected from the exclusion group and the others are de-activated

• The cumulative value of a condition can be tracked and displayed in a condition record

Condition Supplements:

The condition types which are added to the condition record

Condition Types:

Following are important condition types.

• HM00 : Manual Header condition to enter Order value

• AMIW : Min Order Value, Statistical group condition whose value is distributed among items

• DIFF : Group Condition to calculate diff b/w the rounded value & Net order value.

• PN00 : Net Price for Item

• PMIN : Min price for the material

• PR02 : Prices with scales [scale type=D]

• KF00 : Freight Surcharge

• HD00 : Manual Freight Surcharge

Note: Rounding Unit is maintained in Table OO1R for each company code and currency

SAP SD Interview Tips for Shipping

Shipment Processing:

It consists of the following

• GR for Inbound or GI for Outbound

• Create Shipment document

• Process Shipment document [Planning]

• Monitor Shipment document [Reporting]

Shipment document:

It contains the following info

• Inbound or Outbound deliveries

• Shipment types [Individual or Collective Shipment]

• Mode of Transport [Aero-plane, Ship, Truck]

• Service Agent [Vendor]

• Deadlines [Transportation Planning]

• Shipment Stages

• Shipment Output

• Partner

Delivery and Shipment:

The difference is as follows

• Delivery – Shipping Point – Plant

• Shipment – Transportation Planning Point – Company Code

SAP SD Interview Tips Transportation

Transportation Planning Point:

A Location or a group of people

Shipment Costing:

It consists of following

• Create Shipment Cost Document

• Calculate Shipment Cost

• Settle Shipment cost with Service Agents

• Bill Shipment Cost to Customer

Shipment Cost Deter Proc :

It consists of following

• Transportation Planning Point

• Shipping Type

• Service Agent/ Forwarding Agent

• Shipment Cost Item Category

Settlement of Shipment Cost:

It consists of following

• Shipment Cost is posted in FI as Accruals

• Shipments cost is assigned to a Cost Object

• Payable is posted in FI to cancel Accruals

Note: Shipment Cost is added to the material as Delivery Cost for Inbound Shipments

Payment to Service Agents:

It is made by

• Creating credit memos and sending them periodically

• Receiving Invoices from service agents and posting them as invoices in FI