ABAP and Linear Programming

[Former Member]

Hello,

We are developing an application to arrive at an optimal amount of component inventory to carry for a production line in a manufacturing environment. Part of this application requires the execution of a linear programming technique called "Revised (Primal) Simplex Method".

Has anyone ever done linear programming in ABAP ?

Has anyone ever written an ABAP program that calls a routine written in another language that used linear programming ?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Former Member]

Hello Steven,

We are dealing with the same problem as you described.

I've been looking for a linear programming tool in ABAP as well, but I found nothing. The only idea we have is using external O.R. packages, like SAS.

Do you have any new ideas?

Sefy.

[Former Member]

Hi Sefy,

We were unable to find a way to resolve our issue with ABAP, so we have also looked at external packages. We found a software package called C-Plex by a company named I-Log that seems to suit our needs. We are have not started using it yet.

As John mentions in a future post, APO has a lot of optimization tools but we are not aware of any that can be used in the manner we need.

Good luck with your implementation.

Steve

[Former Member]

The APO Module has a full suite of Optimisation Tools.

The other advantage is that the CPU intensive LP processing is done on a separate processor to the ERP processor where all the business transactions get processed.

[Former Member]

John,

Are you aware of a tool in APO that allows you to set up a specific probelm ? We have a pretty specific case to solve.

Any help would be appreciated !

Regards, Steve

[Former Member]

Hi Steve,

There are some examples that might help in the Supply Network Planning (SNP) area of the APO documentation.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_scm2007/helpdata/en/76/8b623c8a6da167e10000000a11402f/content.htm

I should also mention the data integration between SAP ERP(R/3) and APO is excellent, which is another reason for not using a third party solution..

[Former Member]

However, APO gives specific business solutions for which it uses linear programming.

I doesn't give a standard and supported API to a general linear programming algorithm.

Sefy Kagarlitsky (Using Rotem Bashi's login)

[Former Member]

Hello,

You can try using GENIOS, it's an API to use simplex method of linear programming in ABAP, the component is CA-EPT-GEN, it has several example on how to use it.

This post is a little old (2008) but could be useful for anyone else.

Cheers

Cecilia