AATP Product Allocation table in Fiscal Period instead of Calendar Month

[robvid]

Hi Gurus 

I hope you can help me with an answer or point me to a source where I might find it ...

When it comes to time dimension, all our Supply Planning (including Demand Planning) is done in Fiscal Periods which don't match the calendar month.

Currently the set up of the Product Allocation table uses calendar month. It would be more convenient to use Fiscal month. That would match the data in IBP (we use SAP IBP for Demand Planning and Supply Planning), easier for the demand planner and easier for the integration IBP (via CI-DS) to S4. Is that possible, to use a different time unit? Does it has to be necessarily calendar month?

Thanks in advance

Best regards

Roberto

[carsten_kreuels]

Hello Roberto,

you can influence the dates when a month starts via the factory calendar. You have to create a specific factory calendar which reflects the fiscal period start dates. Then you can enter the factory calendar when defining the product allocation object in app Configure Product Allocation. That way the system will consider the factory calendar when generating the allocation periods (time buckets). It is then possible to start a month not on the 1st but, for example, on the 4th or 6th of a month.

Another possibilities is to maintain the allocation planning data (time series) not via UI (Fiori apps), but via the existing product allocation APIs. With the APIs it is possible to create CVC and time series (periods and quantities). Here you are completely free to define your time buckets. That way you can easily maintain a period which reflects exactly your fiscal month. Note, that it is then not possible to use the Fiori app Manage Product Allocation Planning Data anymore. You have to maintain the allocation data always with the APIs. But since you get your allocation data anyhow from IBP, then you need to transfer the data from IBP anyhow via APIs to product allocation. So that's probably no restriction anymore.

By the way, SAP plans to deliver with SAP S/4HANA 2025 a new PAL feature which allows to define flexible time periods. With that functionality it is possible to define and maintain own periods in a completely free way via the product allocation Fiori apps.

Best regards,
Carsten

[robvid]

Thank you very much Carsten. This is very helpful.