What is SAP PP-PI?

SAP PP-PI is a component of SAP ERP and SAP S/4 HANA which provides specific functionality for covering manufacturing processes of industries such as chemical, pharmaceutical or food, and beverage industries.

The main distinctive characteristics of these processes are the need for further control via batch management and additional quality assurance functionalities, as well as tighter integration with the shop-floor machines.

SAP PP-PI is integrated as SAP PP with the rest of the core and logistics modules (MM, SD, FI, CO, WM, EWM, PP-DS, …).

Its functionality enhances the SAP PP functionality but adds more options for better manufacturing control.

What is a Resource in SAP PP-PI?

A Resource in SAP PP-PI is the equivalent of a Work Center in SAP PP.

It allows modeling the machines, tools, or persons involved in the manufacturing process.

For example, they can model:

• A processing unit
• A person (operator)
• An intermediate storage area

It is used for defining:

• Capacity → For defining available capacity for production
  • Formulas
  • Timetable
  • Number of employees or machines
  • …
• Scheduling → For defining how employed time is going to be calculated
  • Formulas
  • Setup times
  • …
• Costing → For defining how manufacturing cost is going to be calculated
  • Formulas
  • Cost Center
  • Activity Types (for which a rate will be entered)
  • …

Resources are used in Planning Recipes (the equivalent of Routings in SAP PP), defining where each operation must be processed.

What is a Production Version in SAP PP-PI?

Production Versions work the same in SAP PP-PI as in SAP PP.

The only difference is that instead of assigning Routings to BOMs, in the case of SAP PP-PI, they assign Planning Recipes to BOMs. But the transactions to use and their functionality are the same in both cases.

What is a Planning Recipe in SAP PP-PI?

A Planning Recipe in SAP PP-PI is the equivalent of a Routing in SAP PP.

In this object is where most of the new functionality is added.

The first big change is that Operations are subdivided into Phases. And at the Phase level is where all the different integrations are done.

Each Operation is the group of the different activities (or Phases) done in a Resource as part of a step in the manufacturing process. This means, that we need a different Operation whenever the process changes from one Resource to another, but we can subdivide all the processes in each Resource into its Phases.

This functionality allows modeling with further detail the different manufacturing steps.

By using the Relationships functionality, it is also possible to define in a flexible way the order in which the different Phases must be performed. It even allows to schedule Phases in parallel and to link them with Phases of other Operations. It also allows visualizing in a chart how they are interrelated.

In the Planning Recipe object is also where we can set up the Xsteps functionality, for showing instructions to the operators and allowing them to enter manually real data or sign off their confirmation of the performed manufacturing process.

It is also in this object where we can set up the Process Management functionality, which allows the communication of SAP with the shopfloor machines or tools.

What is a BOM in SAP PP-PI?

The Bill of Materials is exactly the same in SAP PP-PI as in SAP PP.

They are maintained in the same transactions and offer the same functionality.

What is a Master Recipe in SAP PP-PI?

In Process Industries the Master Data is so integrated, that a new object which contains all the Manufacturing master data objects has been defined, the Master Recipe.

In the Master Recipe we assign the Planning Recipe to its corresponding BOM (through the Production Version).