Time Aggregation profile in SAP IBP Optimizer

[Former Member]

Hello Experts,

The optimizer run (at month level) for the client is taking for more than 11 hours & it fails after that with error 'No Solution Found'. I have increased the runtime to 12 hours, still it had the same issue. I tried time aggregation profile where for the first 6 months I selected months the rest of the horizon of 2 years I selected quarters. After this the optimizer ran successfully in about 10 hours , but the results are pretty abrupt.

In most of the cases the receipts that got generated are at the beginning of the quarter although the demand is spread across months. Say for example - if I have demand for every month in 2021, still the receipt is generated in months Jan, April & not for all months. Is it the expected behavior for time aggregation profile?

Regards,

Suman.

[carsten_schumm · Accepted solution]

Hello Suman,

yes, this is the expected outcome. In the aggregated ranges all demands, capacities etc. are aggregated to the first period of the aggregation. I.e. if you have monthly planning and aggregate to quarter, everything in a quarter will be aggregated to the first month of the quarter.

Do you have discrete decisions? If so, please try runs with shorter discretization horizons. Then you'll likely get solutions without time aggregation too.
Additionally please divide your scenario into subnetworks if possible and optimize them separately.

Kind regards, Carsten

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Carsten,

Thank you for the clarity. Having short discrete horizon will help, I will run the optimizer and test the results.

Regards,

Suman

[vru]

Hello Suman,

Just to add on top of what carsten.schumm mentioned, from a process point of view, it is not advisable to use a constrained algorithm such as Supply Optimizer for a long time horizon. Usually Supply Planning Heuristic should be used for calculation when we have more than 4 months horizon.

There is also the option of Time-Series-Based Supply Planning Finite Heuristic, which takes into consideration some constraints, but not so many as Optimizer. You can find more about it in the following link: Time-Series-Based Supply Planning Finite Heuristic - SAP Help Portal

I hope this helps too.

Regards,

Vlase