SAP APO is structured into four modules that can be used and licensed separately:
Demand planning (DP)
- Comprehensive demand forecasting tool-set
- Highly configurable planning books with macro functionality
- Lifecycle, promotion, and collaborative demand planning
Supply network planning (SNP)
- Integrate purchasing, manufacturing, distribution, and transportation
- Product flow planning along the entire supply chain, with consideration for constraints and penalties
- Planning for different levels of detail, including aggregated planning
- Choice of heuristic-, rule-, or optimisation-based algorithm
- Advanced safety stock planning algorithms
Production planning and detailed scheduling (PP/DS)
- Multi-level production planning
- Capable-to-promise (CTP)
- Choice of existing or custom heuristics
- Support for lot quantity calculations and sourcing
- Support for: make-to-stock, make-to-order, make-to-order with order BOM, engineer-to-order, project manufacturing,
and flow manufacturing
- Order pegging
Global available-to-promise (gATP)
- Seamless integration with other SAP applications/components
- Global availability checks on defined documents within a defined scope
- Rules-based ATP using product or location substitution strategies
- Product allocation for controlling commitments to key customers
- Backorder processing
- Multi-level ATP for triggering BOM explosion and performing component checks
- Capable to promise (CTP) - call production planning (PP/DS)