Routings

 

·         What does a routing define?

·         How is a routing structured?

·         What task list types are available in the R/3 System?

·         What is a routing group and group counter?

·         What is a routing sequence, and what types of sequence are available?

·         What could be reasons to use sequences?

·         What are the various options to assign materials to routings?

·         Under which conditions would it make sense to assign components to operations?

·         What is a reference operation set?

·         How could the lotsize-dependend inhouse production time be calculated and updated into the material master?

 

Production Resources/Tools

 

·         What types of PRT are available?

·         What is the relationship between PRTs and a routing/operation?

 

Engineering Change Management

 

·         What are the objectives of Engineering Change Management?

·         What is the significance of changes with a history?

·         Which PP objects can be managed using Engineering Change Management?

·         What is the purpose of an engineering change request/order?

·         How is a change master record structured?

·         What is a revision level compared to engineering change master?

Other Issues

 

·         Which scheduling options are available, and how do they differ from each other?

·         Which time components are taken into account during scheduling?

·         How are basic order dates determined?

·         How are the scheduled dates determined?

·         Which scheduling types are available in lead time scheduling?

·         What role do reduction measures play in scheduling?

·         What types of scrap can be maintained in PP basic data and how would they be considered during MRP repectively scheduling?

·         What is external processing, and what conditions must be fulfilled before external processing can take place?

·         What are co-products?

 

 

 

2.   Production Planning

General Issues

 

·         What are the various planning levels available in R/3 PP?

·         What are the dependencies between Sales and Operations Planning, Demand Management, Long-Term-Planning and Material Requirements Planning?

 

Sales and Operations Planning

 

·         What is the purpose of Sales and Operations Planning?

·         What is the structure of product groups and how could they be used in SOP/DM/LTP/MRP?

·         What is the purpose of proportion factors and aggregation factors within product groups?

·         Which planning methods are available in SOP?

·         Which sources are available as input data for SOP?

·         Which options are available for creating a sales plan in SOP?

·         Which options are available for creating an operations plan in SOP?

·         What is ‘disaggregation’?

·         How could the result of SOP be passed on to different planning tools within the PP planning environment?

 

Demand Management

 

·         What is the purpose of Demand Management?

·         At which points is Demand Management integrated with Sales and Distribution?

·         Explain the main strategies in Make-to-Stock as well as in Make-to-Order planning logic. Pay attention to master data settings.

·         What does consumption respectively reduction mean in the context of planning strategies?

·         What role does the individual/collective requirements indicator in the material master have during make-to-order production?

·         What is a stocking level, and how can it be influenced?

·         Which types of availability check are available (ATP and check against planning) and what are the characteristics of these checks?

·         Explain the link between MRP group, strategy group, strategy and requirement class.

·         What settings could be made in requirements classes (on PP as well as on SD side)?

·         Explain the purpose  of version management in Demand Management?

 

Master Production Scheduling

 

·         Under which circumstances would you recommend the usage of MPS?

·         Compare the functionality of MPS with MRP?

·         What is meant by the ‘firming’ of procurement proposals, and how can this effect be achieved?

·         What is a planning time fence, and where is it defined?

·         What is a manual firming date, and where is it defined?

·         How can a planned order be ‘firmed’, and which firming indicators are available in a planned order?

 

Material Requirements Planning

 

·         What is the purpose of MRP and how does it fit into the PP planning environment?

·         How would you organize MRP runs? Discuss the different options

-          MRP for a plant – online

-          MRP for a plant – in background

-          MRP for a material (individual planning) - online

·         Which planning types are available (NEUPL, NETCH, NETPL)?

·         Which planning parameters are to be set in the application itself?

·         What is the function of the planning file?

·         What is meant by single-level planning, multi-level planning?

·         What is meant by interactive MRP?

·         What are the characteristics of an MRP scenario that is performed in simulation mode?

·         What is meant by low-level code and how is it considered in MRP?

·         What is a net requirements calculation?

·         Which buffers can be taken into account for the net requirements calculation in MRP (quantity buffer: safety stock, time buffer: safety time)?

·         What does lot-size calculation entail?

·         Which lot-sizing procedures are available in the R/3 System (static, periodic and optimizing procedures)? What are the characteristics of these lot-sizing procedures?

·         How does the procurement type defined in the material master affect MRP?

·         What is backward scheduling? What are the characteristics of backward scheduling?

·         What is the difference between basic scheduling and lead time scheduling?

·         How are the order due dates determined in basic scheduling?

·         How are the order due dates determined in lead time scheduling?

·         How does the in-house production time defined in the material master affect scheduling?

·         How does the scheduling margin key affect scheduling?

·         How are BOMs selected in MRP? Which criteria are taken into account during BOM selection?

·         What is a ‘BOM selection ID’?

·         How are alternative BOMs selected?

·         What is a production version?

·         How are routings selected in MRP? Which criteria are taken into account during routing selection?

·         What is an MRP list? What is a stock/requirements list? How are these lists structured? What are the differences between these lists?

·         What is the function of exception messages?

·         What are planned orders?

·         What is meant by the individual/collective conversion of planned orders?

·         What is meant by “days’ supply” and “receipt days’ supply”?

·         How can component discontinuation be managed in MRP?

 

 

 

 

3.   Production Order Processing

General Issues

 

·         What are the characteristics of work-to-order production?

·         What is defined in a production order?

·        What is a document type, an order category and an order type?

·        What are the various elements that a production order contains?

·         Which functions are executed when an order is created?

·         What are the various options available for creating an order?

·         Describe the system logic during routing selection?

·         Describe the system logic during BOM selection?

·         At which point in time are reservations generated and what information does it contain?

·         What can be achieved by performing the “Read master data” function?

·         How could routing sequences be considered during production order creation?

·         Describe the conversion of planned orders into production orders with focus on scheduling aspects?

 

Order Release

 

·         What happens when an order is released?

·         Which operations are made possible and which are prevented when an order is released?

·         What is meant by status management?

·         What are business transactions?

·         What are the differences between system status and user status?

·        At which points in time can availability checks be performed? Which settings can be made, and which must be made? On which objects can the availability check be run?

·         What is meant by machine commitment?

·        What is meant by midpoint scheduling?

 

Printing

 

·         Which shop floor papers can be printed?

·         Which print modes are available (online, update, background)?

·         What does “reprinting” mean?

·         Which conditions must be fulfilled before order documents can be printed?

·         Which conditions must an operation fulfill before shop floor papers (and in particular confirmation slips and time tickets) can be printed?

 

 

Goods Issue

 

·         Which control indicators influence the behavior of the components in the production order (bulk material, backflush, phantom assembly, etc.)?

·         What is meant by picking?

·         What is meant by stock determination? Which settings have to be made for stock determination during production order processing?

·         What is a goods issue posting?

·         How can goods issues be entered (reference to order, reference to reservation, unplanned, etc.)?

·         What is the purpose of movement types?

·         What are the effects of a goods issue posting from an integrational point of view (MM, FI, CO)?

·         What is meant by the backflushing of components and how can this be achieved?

 

 

Confirmation

 

·         Which conditions must be fulfilled before confirmations can be entered?

·         What is a confirmation?

·         Which functions are linked to confirmations?

·         Which confirmation procedures are available?

·         What data can be entered during confirmations?

·         What is a milestone confirmation?

·         What is an unplanned milestone?

·         What identifies a progress confirmation?

·         What role does the control key defined in the operation play during confirmation?

·        Is it possible to link a confirmation with a goods movement posting?

·         What is a goods receipt?

·         What are the effects of a goods receipt posting?

·         What is the relevancy of the “delivery completed” indicator?

·         What is the function of overdelivery/underdelivery tolerance in the material master play?

 

Order Settlement / Archiving and Deleting

 

·         What is meant by order settlement?

·         What causes a production order to be debited/credited?

·         What is the difference between prelimenary costing and actual costing?

·         Which are the usual steps during order settlement?

·         What means variance calculation?

·         How is an order settled if the header material is a standard price material?

·         At which points in time can an order be settled?

·         Which conditions must be fulfilled before an order can be archived?

·         How are orders archived/deleted?

·         What is meant by “residence times”?

 

Order Information Systems

 

·         Which information systems can be used for order management?

·         What are the characteristics of the order information system?

·         What are variable object overviews?

·         What are the special characteristics of a (multi-level) order report?

·         What is the difference between the order information system and the Shop Floor Information System?

·         Which functions are available from the order progress report?

 

Automation Options

 

·         What options are available for automating the processing of orders?

·         What role does the production scheduling profile play?

·         Describe the most lean production order and the necessary settings to achieve it?

·         Which functions could be executed in the mass processing?

 

Collective Orders

 

·         What are the characteristics of collective orders?

·         How can collective orders be created? Which conditions must be fulfilled?

·         What are the advantages of working with collective orders?

·         Which functions can be performed on collective orders?

·         How is scheduling for a complete collective order done?

·        What happens if a date/quantity for an order is changed within the collective order?

4.   Product Cost Planning

General Issues

 

·         What is a cost element (primary/secondary)?

·         What is a cost component?

·         What is a cost component split?

·         Explain the Costing Variant and the main settings in customizing.

·         What is a costing type?

·         What settings can be done in a valuation variant?

·         How is a costing sheet structured?

 

Base unit costing

 

·         Describe base unit costing

·         Which master data are required for base unit costing?

·         How can results of BUC be used in further calculations?

 

Cost estimation without quatity structure

 

·         What is meant by quantity structure?

·         Describe costing w/o quantity structure

·         Which master data are required for that costing logic?

 

Cost estimation with quantity structure

 

·         Describe cost estimation with quatity structure

·         How can the quantity structure be determined?

·         What is activity based costing?

·         How could results from standard cost estimation be updated into the material master?

·         What happens if stock is on hand during that price update?

 

 

5.   Repetitive Manufacturing

General Issues

 

·         What are the differences between discrete manufacturing and repetitive manufacturing?

·         What are the characteristics of make-to-stock repetitive manufacturing and make-to-order repetitive manufacturing?

 

Master Data for Make-To-Stock Repetitive Manufacturing

 

·         What master data are necessary in repetitive manufacturing (material master, bill of material, production line, routing)?

·         Describe the the following material master data:

-          Repetitive manufacturing indicator?

-          Repetitive manufacturing profile?

-          Production versions?

·         Which object is used to collect the material costs and production activities?

·         What are the various options available for establishing a link between the cost collector and the production version of a material? What role doe the repetitive manufacturing profile play here?

 

Planning Make-To-Stock Repetitive Manufacturing

 

·         What is the planning table in repetitive manufacturing? What functions can be executed from here?

 

Material Provision

 

·         Describe the usage of pull list and stock determination as one of its function.

·         Which other ways are available to make sure that sufficient components are provided to the shop floor?

 

Backflush

 

·         What does backflush mean in a repetitive manufacturing context?

·         Explain the functions of final backflush.

·         How can production activities be entered in the system?

·         What is meant by post processing list?

·         What are the advantages and disadvantages of negative stock?

·         What does the reporting point backflush procedure entail?

 

Evaluations

 

·         Which evaluations are available?

·         What is a reporting point overview?

 

6.   Logistics Information System

Data Warehouse

 

·         What is the concept behind the Data Warehouse?

·         Which individual information systems does the SAP Logistics Information System comprise?

·         What data are evaluated by the information systems?

·         What are info structures? What are the characteristics of info structures?

·         Is there any relationship between system transaction data and the data in the info structures?

·         Which reporting options are available in the SAP Information System?

·         What is the difference between evaluations in LIS and evaluations on system transaction data in the PP component?

 

Standard Analyses

 

·         What are standard analyses?

·         Which navigation options are available in standard analyses?

·         Which options in standard analyses can be used to influence the way in which data is presented?

·         Which analysis functions are available in standard analyses (ABC analysis, comparisons, classification, etc.)?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early Warning System

 

·         What is an “early warning system”?

·         What are the various applications for the early warning system?

·         How can the early warning system be used in standard analyses?

·         What is an exception analysis?

·         Which options are available for defining that an analysis should be performed at regular intervals?

·         Which types of analysis are available in the early warning system (threshold value analysis, trend analysis, planned/actual comparison)?

 

Flexible Analyses

 

·         What are flexible analyses? What is the difference between flexible analyses and standard analyses?

·         What are evaluation structures? What are evaluations?