In the correct order

The managers at the Thuringian company Layertec were looking for a solution that would calculate the capacity utilization of production in their SAP ERP system and determine scheduling.

Layertec develops and manufactures high-quality optical components for laser technology. The highly complex and time-consuming production processes are matched by the demand from customers in industry and research for punctual delivery.

The Thuringians had initially supplemented manual production planning with requirements planning from their SAP ERP system. Ultimately, they had reached their limits here due to the high complexity of the production structures and the time required.

"We produce series, but also smaller quantities and prototypes for research and development. This leads to complex planning, because both series and custom production use the same workplace and material resources"

says Alexander Ancsin, member of Layertec's management board and responsible for operations.

Layertec decided to use the SAP PP/DS tool in order to reduce the time required for the necessary planning steps, such as sequencing, scheduling and rescheduling, in addition to mapping the planning of complex and multi-layered production processes as accurately and clearly as possible in the ERP standard.

As before, the ERP system creates the orders. To do this, the software is based on customer requirements and the delivery date agreed with the customer.

The role of the ERP system is to calculate orders and requirements planning back from the delivery date and, in the second step, to create the respective scheduling for each BOM level.

The deadlines for the prefabrication of individual components are then included in this planning. The weak point: this scheduling does not take into account the capacity load and the availability of primary materials. SAP PP/DS is then responsible for this.

The add-on calculates the capacity and resource load based on the (rough) planning from the ERP and schedules the production processes.

"Due to many individual production steps, we have throughput times of several weeks. In order to achieve a higher capacity utilization of our special machines, the availability of primary materials must also be taken into account with regard to deadlines and required quantities"

says Ancsin.

"SAP PP/DS relieves our employees of these complex and time-consuming planning tasks."

The challenge is to calculate how the different production processes take capacity and resources from each other. The backward calculation of SAP ERP is not sufficient for accurate planning and scheduling.

Precisely because SAP ERP cannot calculate the workloads and possible overloads at the workstations in advance, it is the responsibility of the add-on to distribute the total workload evenly across the workstations: over weeks when the order books are full and over weeks with lower workloads.

SAP PP/DS ensures that production runs smoothly and that all process steps are carried out in the correct cycle and sequence.

The approach involves a very high degree of automation of production planning and therefore places high demands on plan control/tracking and the accuracy of master data.

The production planners are informed about capacity overloads and the resulting delays in production in good time and can take targeted countermeasures.

Layertec began using the SAP PP/DS planning tool for production planning in stages within the first few months of the project. Initially, those responsible realized the planning of optics production in PP/DS.

They discussed, analyzed and refined this planning in a series of workshops. The remaining production stages were then converted step by step. Finally, they went live with the scheduling tool for the entire production process.

Since then, it has been responsible for the punctual scheduling of all orders, production processes and deliveries at Layertec.

"SAP PP/DS has significantly simplified our complex planning. The clear presentation of our production processes and the ability to carry out rescheduling flexibly and quickly helps us enormously with production planning," emphasizes Alexander Ancsin.