A Temporary Bridge: Modern Production Planning with SAP Fiori
With SAP's strategic focus on SAP S/4HANA, the familiar era of transaction codes like CM25 for capacity levelling is evolving. The new standard for user interaction and efficiency is SAP Fiori, a modern design system offering a comprehensive suite of applications specifically crafted to make production planning more intuitive, visual, and efficient.
As the CM25 falls in SAP’s S/4HANA compatibility scope, it will expire as of December 31, 2025.
Addressing the challenge to replace CM25
CM25, despite its limitations, was fundamentally a finite capacity scheduling tool. It aimed to show you the actual load on your resources over time, considering their available capacity and then give you the possibility to level the load on your resources.
The Fiori apps for capacity monitoring and basic scheduling can offer a tactical bridge. But it is important to be clear about their scope without the full capabilities of SAP PP/DS.
The standard Fiori apps for basic production planning (e.g., those for managing production orders or basic capacity monitoring) will show you these overloads, but they will not resolve them or give you the sophisticated capabilities to level them, optimize sequences, or dynamically react to changes.
For the standard app Fiori dedicated for capacity scheduling: If SAP ePP/DS is not active, you are primarily limited to basic forward/backward scheduling or manual actions.
Let us break down what each app can (and cannot) do as a temporary workaround.
Manage Work Centre Capacity
These applications employ clear visual charts to aid in identifying capacity overloads, enabling direct navigation to the problematic orders for immediate resolution.
Capacity Scheduling Board and the Capacity Scheduling Table
It gives you the visual interface and interactive capabilities that are a clear step up from CM25 – the drag & drop, the graphical overview, the ability to reschedule
Limitations without SAP ePP/DS
Manage Work Centre Capacity
This app provides excellent visibility into work center loads and capacity utilization. They allow you to see overloads, analyze capacity requirements, and drill down into details. However, their primary function without PP/DS is to monitor and report on capacity. They do not inherently provide the sophisticated algorithms to automatically level capacity, optimize sequences, or perform true finite scheduling that was the essence of CM25s’ detailed planning.
Capacity Scheduling Board and the Capacity Scheduling Table
These are the Fiori apps that most closely resemble the graphical planning capabilities of CM25. It allows for visual scheduling, drag & drop operations, and real-time adjustments.
However, the advanced functionalities within these apps are powered by the embedded PP/DS engine. Without PP/DS activated, these apps would primarily function as a visualization tool for the results of basic (often infinite) planning and allow for manual adjustments, but it would not have the underlying intelligence to perform complex, optimized scheduling.
Therefore, while these Fiori apps offer a significantly improved user experience and visualization compared to CM25, their ability to truly replace CM25's detailed scheduling and capacity levelling features relies on the activation and configuration of SAP embedded PP/DS in your SAP S/4HANA system. They are the interface to SAP PP/DS's capabilities, not a standalone replacement for the core planning logic.
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Joschka Argast
Lead Sales Manager