In the contact person process with manual resource confirmation, the requester can add a remaining demand to the planning process again. The steps below provide an example of how a remaining demand can be processed in this way.
Activities
As a requester, you perform the following steps in the project system:
1. You create a network with a network activity that is relevant for resource planning.
2. At network header level, you select the Contact Person Process process variant on the Customer Enhancement tab page.
3. To activate manual resource confirmation, select the Yes radio button.
4. To assign a contact person, specify the resource planning node of the required contact person.
5. At network activity level, enter the following values on the Internal tab page:
o Work: 8 hours
o Required Capacity (resources): 2
o Duration: 2 days
6. At network activity level, select the Contact Person Process process variant on the Customer Enhancement tab page and activate manual resource confirmation.
7. The system displays the following values on the Customer Enhancement tab page:
o Total Work: 8 hours
o Number of Resources: 2
o Single Work: 4 hours (total work divided by the number of resources)
o Remaining Demand: 8 hours (since resource planning has not yet started, the remaining demand is still equal to the total work) 8. You specify a requirements profile.
9. You save the network. The next steps are performed by the contact person of the specified resource planning node.
As the contact person, you perform the following steps in the project system:
1. You find suitable resources for the requirements profile. As resource proposals, you enter two resources that belong to resource planning node A and two resources that belong to resource planning node B.
The resource planners have (Newly Inserted) status, the anonymous resources have (Resource Found) status.
2. You also enter a third resource planner (C). Since the resource has not been defined yet, the system displays the (Dummy) icon.
3. In the resource overview, the network activity values are displayed for every resource.
o Total Work: 8 hours
o Number of Resources: 2
o Single Work: 4 hours (total work divided by the number of resources)
o Remaining Demand: 8 hours
4. To start resource planning for the operation, set the Start of Planning indicator and save the network.
5. The system creates the relevant demands for the three resource planners. These resource planners can now offer resources for the demands, a phase that is indicated in the resource overview by the (Offer) icon in the Status column for the resource planner. The next steps are performed by the three resource planners, each in the scheduler workplace.
As resource planner A, you carry out the following steps in the scheduler workplace:
1. In your worklist, you find the new offer demand together with Uri Mikovics and Donna Smith as the proposed resources.
2. For the offer demand, you create a 4-hour assignment for Uri Mikovics.
3. You do not create an assignment for Donna Smith since she is not available.
As resource planner B, you carry out the following steps in the scheduler workplace:
1. In your worklist, you find the new offer demand together with Kattia Mishra and Hans Bosch as the proposed resources.
2. Since you do not have any available resources for the requested period, you reject the demand without creating assignments.
3. After you have saved and updated the planning board, the demand disappears from your worklist.
As resource planner C, you carry out the following steps in the scheduler workplace:
1. You find the new offer demand in your worklist.
2. You search for suitable resources and create an assignment of over 6 hours for Kai Schmidt and Suzanne Lopez.
As the requester, you perform the following steps in the project system:
1. You see that resource planner A has offered a resource. In the resource overview, resource planner A has (Processed) status and Uri Mikovics (resource) has (Offered) status. Since you have not accepted the offer yet, the No. of Assignments column still contains a zero. The Single Work column contains 4 hours and the remaining demand for the resource planner is now only 4 hours (since he or she already made an offer in a 4-hour assignment).
2. You accept the resource. The icon changes to (Accepted). The No. of Assignments column displays a 1. The value of the Remaining Demand field for the network activity is also adjusted from 8 to 4 hours. You save. When you open the network activity again, the system displays the (Assigned) icon.
3. You see that resource planner B rejected the demand and has not offered any resources. The resource planner has (Rejected) status.
4. You see that resource planner C has offered two resources for 6 hours each.
Since this is equal to 12 hours, the system displays -4 in the Remaining Demand column for resource planner C. You reject both resources and save the network.
The resources then have (Deleted) status.
5. You have accepted only the resource from resource planner A with the 4-hour assignment. For this reason, you still have a remaining demand of 4 hours.
Since you do not want to wait to see whether resource planner A makes you another offer, you decide to add the remaining demand to the resource planning process again. To do this, you use remaining demand processing.
6. You remove the offer ID for resource planner A by choosing (Remove Offer ID); the (Completed) icon is displayed for the resource planner. When you save, the system converts the offer demand into a normal demand and adjusts it so that the work corresponds to the sum of all assignments accepted. The sum of all assignments must be less than the work for the demand.
7. To send the demand to resource planner B again, select remaining demand processing. In the dialog box for remaining demand processing, select 1 as the number of resources. This value is also displayed in the Remaining Demand:
No of Resources field.
8. You include resource planner B in the resource list again. The system displays the following: Number of Resources 1, Total Work 4, Single Work 4,
Remaining Demand 4.
9. Resource planner B receives the demand again with the adjusted values in his or her worklist and can submit offers.
Long-Term Planning for Network Activities with Date Rules
Demands can be made regularly (for example, once a week). For this, you (as the requester) can use the date rule editor of the standard SAP system to define rules for the periodic dates in the network activity. As the resource planner, you then planassignments for these demands. This function therefore includes the areas:
• Creation of Date Rules for Network Activities
• Creation of Assignments for Demands with Date Rules
Creation of Date Rules for Network Activities
In the network activity, you can use the date rule editor of the standard SAP system to define rules for periodic dates.
Note
The system uses the default time zone selected by the user. However, you can change the time zone in the date rule editor.
Prerequisites
• The network activity for which you want to specify a date rule contains an earliest start date or an earliest finish date.
• Scheduling was carried out for the network and scheduling-relevant data was not changed afterwards.
• An SAP Multiresource Scheduling demand has not been created yet for the network activity.
Features
• As with standard network activities, the system displays the number of assignments for a resource in the resource overview for the network activity.
• If you change the date rule later and existing assignments then fall outside of the intervals defined by the date rules, the system generates corresponding alerts.
The assignments, however, are not changed.
• If a remaining demand cannot be covered for a network activity with date rules, you cannot use the Processing of Remaining Demand function for the remaining demand. Instead, you create a new network activity for the remaining demand with date rules that are adjusted to the remaining demand. To avoid conflicts between the old and new date rules, you also have to adjust the date rule of the original network activity accordingly.
• It is also not possible for the contact person to split the work manually.
Activities
1. To create rules for periodic dates, go to the Customer Enhancement tab page in the network activity and choose (Period).
2. The Date Rule dialog box opens with the date rule editor. By default, the system enters the earliest start date as the start of the date rule and the earliest finish date from the network activity as the end of the date rule. The planned duration specified in the network does not affect the time intervals.
3. You can change the time period, but the specified time interval must be within the time frame of the network activities. If incorrect dates are entered, the system prevents you from saving and displays a message specifying the network activities involved.
4. You enter a rule for the periodic date (such as weekly).
5. You can specify which calendar you want the system to use. The system specifies the factory calendar from the work center of the network activity by default (if one exists). If a factory calendar is not maintained for the work center, the system checks whether one is defined in the network activity itself and enters this by default. If a factor calendar is also not defined in the network activity, the system enters the factor calendar defined for the plant.
6. As soon as you have defined a date rule for a network activity, the system sets the Date Rule Exists indicator.
7. To delete a date rule, choose (Delete).