Use of Descriptive Characteristics

 Use of Descriptive Characteristics 

Purpose
This process describes how to set up the system so that you can use descriptive characteristics in applications such as Capable-to-Match (CTM) and Production Planning (PP).
Prerequisites
You have decided which characteristics you want to use as descriptive characteristics and which fields they should be mapped to.
Process Flow

1. Check that the field catalog contains the fields that you need and if necessary add them. For details, see
Maintaining Field Catalogs
2. Create a consumption group. For more details, see
Consumption Group
3. Assign the consumption group to the product master. You do this on the Demand tab page of the location-specific view. Here you also assign a proposal for the requirements strategy. Strategy 20 (Planning with final assembly) is suitable for most applications that use descriptive characteristics.
4. In Demand Planning create a master planning object structure that contains the descriptive characteristics. See
Working with Master Planning Object Structures.
5. Continue by creating the other Demand Planning objects, such as a planning area based on the master planning object structure you created in the previous step. See
Planning Area Administration.
6. Create characteristic value combinations that include the values of the descriptive characteristics that you are expecting. See
Characteristic Value Combination.
7. Create a forecast for the product using Demand Planning functionality. For more information see
Demand Planning Process.
8. Release the demand plan to SNP, entering the consumption group either in the release profile or the selection screen. See
Creating a Release Profile and Releasing the Demand Plan Online.

Result
You can now work with descriptive characteristics in PP/DS and CTM.