SAP S/4HANA Production Planning for Operations Teams Training Course

Course overview

Production operations depend on feasible plans, accurate material availability, realistic capacity assumptions and rapid response when demand or supply changes. In SAP S/4HANA, operations teams often inherit planning exceptions, late purchase requisitions, overloaded work centres and production orders that do not reflect shop-floor priorities. This course equips participants to use the Production Planning (PP) functions that connect demand, master data, material requirements planning, capacity planning and order execution, so they can identify the cause of planning issues rather than only react to them.

Participants work through the core SAP S/4HANA PP process: maintaining planning-relevant master data, translating demand into planned orders, running and interpreting MRP Live, reviewing stock and requirements lists, converting planned orders, releasing production orders, checking component availability and monitoring capacity loads. They learn how material type, BOM, routing, work centre, production version, MRP type, lot-sizing procedure and lead times affect planning results. The course also covers operational use of SAP Fiori apps and embedded analytics to manage exceptions, prioritise shortages and communicate practical actions to procurement, warehouse and manufacturing teams.

Delivery combines instructor-led demonstrations with guided system exercises based on a discrete-manufacturing case. Participants configure and use a controlled training dataset, investigate MRP exceptions, resolve a material shortage, balance a constrained work centre and progress a production order through confirmation and goods receipt. They leave with a completed Production Planning operating playbook: a documented set of planning checks, exception-handling decisions, role responsibilities and SAP transaction or Fiori app steps that can be adapted for their own site.

The programme suits operations professionals who work with production schedules and material availability, as well as supervisors and analysts who need to understand how their decisions affect SAP planning outputs. It is appropriate for organisations adopting SAP S/4HANA, standardising planning routines or improving discipline around production-order execution.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Interpret SAP S/4HANA PP master data including material masters, BOMs, routings, work centres and production versions
• Run MRP Live and analyse planning-file, stock and requirements, and exception-message results
• Apply MRP type, lot-sizing, safety stock and lead-time settings to produce appropriate procurement proposals
• Convert planned orders into production orders and execute release controls for shop-floor readiness
• Check component availability and resolve material-shortage exceptions using stock and requirements analysis
• Evaluate work-centre capacity loads and use capacity levelling decisions to protect the production schedule
• Process production-order confirmation, goods issue and goods receipt steps that maintain accurate operational status
• Create a site-specific PP exception-management playbook with daily checks, escalation rules and accountable roles

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Production Planners — who turn demand into feasible production and procurement proposals
• Operations Supervisors — who need to understand the SAP drivers behind shop-floor priorities and constraints
• Materials Planners — who investigate shortages, reschedule messages and component availability
• Manufacturing Coordinators — who release and track production orders across production, warehouse and procurement teams
• Supply Chain Analysts — who assess planning exceptions and operational performance using SAP data
• SAP Key Users — who support PP process adoption, user queries and local operating procedures

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand the basic flow of a manufacturing operation: demand, inventory, purchasing or production, shop-floor execution and finished-goods receipt. Familiarity with common terms such as bill of materials, routing, work centre, lead time, planned order and production order is helpful, but not essential. Participants should be comfortable using business software and interpreting simple inventory or schedule data. Prior SAP S/4HANA experience is useful but not required; complete beginners should expect a structured introduction to the SAP interface before working through PP scenarios. No ABAP programming, SAP configuration experience or advanced supply chain certification is required.

Training methodology

The instructor uses a realistic manufacturing dataset to demonstrate each PP decision before participants complete the same activity in SAP S/4HANA. Short teaching sessions establish the process logic, followed by guided exercises in SAP Fiori and PP planning functions. Teams investigate a changing-demand case, compare MRP proposals, resolve shortages and make capacity-priority decisions using operational evidence. Daily debriefs link system actions to production, procurement and warehouse responsibilities. On the final day, participants convert their case findings into an exception-management playbook and application plan for their own operational context.

Course outline

Day 1: SAP S/4HANA PP process foundations

• End-to-end demand-to-production process in SAP S/4HANA
• SAP Fiori launchpad navigation and PP app roles
• Material master planning views and MRP-relevant fields
• Bills of material and component-demand structure
• Routings, operations and standard values
• Work centres, capacity categories and scheduling parameters
• Production versions and their role in planning and execution

Workshop: Participants inspect a training product’s material master, BOM, routing, work centre and production version, then produce a master-data dependency map.

Day 2: Demand management and MRP execution

• Planned independent requirements and demand-management concepts
• Sales-order demand and make-to-stock versus make-to-order signals
• MRP types, planning procedures and planning-file indicators
• Lot-sizing procedures, reorder points and safety-stock logic
• MRP Live execution options and planning scope
• Planned orders, purchase requisitions and schedule-line proposals
• Stock and requirements list interpretation

Workshop: Participants run MRP Live for a product group and produce an MRP result review identifying the source and priority of each supply proposal.

Day 3: Exception management and material availability

• MRP exception messages and rescheduling proposals
• Exception prioritisation by production impact and due date
• Current stock, reserved stock and available-to-promise considerations
• Component availability checks for planned and production orders
• Shortage resolution through expediting, substitution and rescheduling
• Dependent requirements and multi-level BOM effects
• SAP embedded analytics for material-shortage monitoring

Workshop: Using a late-supplier scenario, participants investigate multi-level shortages and produce a documented material-recovery action list with owners and deadlines.

Day 4: Capacity planning and production-order execution

• Capacity requirements generated from routings and order dates
• Work-centre load analysis and capacity evaluation
• Finite scheduling concepts and capacity-levelling decisions
• Planned-order conversion to production orders
• Production-order release and shop-floor readiness checks
• Order confirmation, yield, scrap and activity reporting
• Goods issue, goods receipt and order-status progression

Workshop: Participants convert and release priority planned orders, assess an overloaded work centre and produce a revised sequence with capacity and material rationale.

Day 5: Operational control, analytics and application planning

• Daily PP control cycle for planners and operations teams
• Production-order status management and exception escalation
• Fiori analytical apps for order, shortage and capacity monitoring
• Planning-performance measures including adherence, shortages and confirmation variance
• Cross-functional handoffs with procurement, warehouse and quality teams
• Root-cause analysis of recurring MRP and execution issues
• PP operating playbook structure and implementation actions

Workshop: Participants complete a capstone planning-control simulation and produce a site-ready PP exception-management playbook with daily routines, decision rules and escalation paths.

Tools & standards covered

SAP S/4HANA, SAP Fiori launchpad, SAP MRP Live, SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions