Automatisation of an existing SAP PP/DS environment
By implementing the SAP PP Optimizer, HARRY’s has achieved higher-quality planning, improved supply reliability, and significant improvements in profitability.
Harry’s (now part of Mammoth Brands) is a U.S.-based shaving and grooming products company founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York. The founders’ vision was, and remains, to offer
high-quality, simply designed razors at fair prices. To this end, Harry’s acquired the long-established Feintechnik GmbH in Eisfeld (Thuringia) in 2014, a leading manufacturer of razor blades and shaving systems in Europe and beyond since 1920.
By increasing automation in its existing SAP PP/DS landscape, Harry’s sought to improve the efficiency and quality of its production planning. The goal was to generate transparent and reproducible planning results that would serve as a reliable basis for management decisions. Short-term detailed planning and long-term inventory development were to be integrated into a holistic approach. The goal was a robust and future-proof planning logic that would function reliably even as complexity
increased.
Significantly reduced manual Planning Interventions and increased Planning Reliability with the SAP PP Optimizer
Initial situation
Harry’s was already using SAP PP/DS in production; key transactions such as the detailed planning table and product view formed the basis of operational planning.
However, the planning process was heavily manual. Selecting supply sources and distributing the workload across multiple resources required numerous manual interventions. There was no end-to-end, automated planning across multiple production stages.
What was missing was a powerful tool that selects sources of supply based on defined constraints, automatically generates planned orders, and performs detailed planning. In addition to short-term scheduling and capacity planning, the focus was on stable, cost-effective inventory development across the entire planning horizon.
Transparent and Reproducible Results with the SAP PP Optimizer
Project Objectives
The project focused on the targeted enhancement of the existing SAP PP/DS landscape, with an emphasis on increased automation and improved planning quality. The goal was to systematically enhance the existing solution with modern optimization features.
The focus was on establishing a multi-level, automated planning system that takes both short-term detailed planning and long-term inventory targets into account. Planning was to be based on clearly defined constraints and business objectives while delivering transparent and reproducible results.
Another key objective was to relieve planners of manual routine tasks. Through automatic source selection, the role of MRP was to focus more on monitoring, evaluation, and targeted control. Furthermore, a robust and future-proof planning logic was to be created that delivers stable results even with increasing complexity and growing volumes.
Thanks to the professional support provided by CONSILIO, we were able to configure all the profiles, costs, and
restrictions in the PP Optimizer in such a way that we could automate a large part of our planning processes
Implementation of the solution
To address these requirements, SAP’s new PP Optimizer was evaluated and implemented. The decisive factor was its ability to automatically generate planned orders with appropriate lot sizes and time grids, as well as to perform cost-based supplier selection. It was precisely this combination that was of central importance for the complex planning situation at Harry’s.
Throughout the project, various optimizer profiles, constraints, time grids, and lot size settings were defined, tested, and evaluated iteratively. The planning results generated by the PP
Optimizer were continuously analyzed until a stable and technically convincing result was achieved.
A particular focus was placed on the cost model. Due to the high complexity of the planning logic, automatic cost generation was not used. Instead, relevant cost parameters were defined manually and coordinated to ensure that the optimization aligns with the business objectives.
The following cost types, among others, were used:
- Penalties for exceeding maximum inventory levels
- Penalties for falling below safety stock levels
- Penalties for late completion
- Penalties for non-delivery
- Variable production costs
Following the bucket-finite optimization, a time-continuous, finite smoothing of the schedule was performed using the PP/DS optimizer. This optimizer operated with a significantly shorter planning horizon than the upstream PP optimizer, thereby reducing processing times. The optimization was performed in stages and without considering orders at upstream production stages to ensure consistent and transparent detailed planning for each production stage.
Multi-level, automated Planning incorporating Short-Term Detailed Planning as well as Long-Term Inventory Targets
Key Benefits for Harry's
- Automated, cost-based supplier selection
- Transparent, long-term overview of inventory trends based on bucket-finite planning
- Consistently stable safety stock and constant inventory levels
- Time-continuous, finite planning within a defined horizon
- Significant reduction in manual planning interventions and enhanced planning reliability
