Midpoint Scheduling

Use
Midpoint scheduling is used for orders without relationships (such as production orders). The system
schedules them again on dispatching. Midpoint scheduling is a special form of lead time scheduling.

Midpoint scheduling is always required if, for example, an operation is moved from its original scheduled
date during capacity leveling because of an overload situation at the work center. As a result, the dates for
the operations that precede or follow this operation have to be adjusted to the new date.

In midpoint scheduling, unlike lead time scheduling, an order is not scheduled using the order start date
or order finish date.

Operations which already have the status dispatched are fixed for midpoint scheduling. Scheduling
selects any dispatched operation for the order and, starting from this operation, carries out backward and
forward scheduling.

If several operations already have the status dispatched, then operations that are situated between these
"fixed" operations are moved during midpoint scheduling in the direction that is set for order scheduling. If
they overlap with operations that are already dispatched, then this is displayed in the scheduling log.

If scheduling conflicts arise during midpoint scheduling, then the appropriate system messages are
written into the scheduling log. You can call up the log directly from both of the planning tables.

If you activate the function Midpoint scheduling in the strategy profile in Customizing, then the system
carries out midpoint scheduling when the status dispatched is set. If the function Midpoint scheduling is
not activated in the strategy profile in Customizing, then the system carries out midpoint scheduling for
the order when you save the planning table.

You can find more information on lead time scheduling in Scheduling or in the guides PP - Material
requirements planning or PP - Production orders.

What is Finite and Infinite Scheduling

Differences between planning and scheduling, finite and infinite

Finite Scheduling
Scheduling type within capacity planning that takes account of the capacity loads which already
exist. Finite scheduling calculates the start and finish dates for operations in the order. It is a
detailed scheduling strategy with which you schedule orders and operations, taking into account
the existing resource load. A resource overload cannot occur.

Infinite Scheduling
A detailed scheduling strategy with which you schedule orders and operations, without taking
into account the existing resource load. It is therefore possible for resource overloads to occur.

R/3 does planning without consideration for capacity situations. So if MRP says you need 500
parts on 3/1/04, it schedules them all to be built at the same time, even though you can only do
100 at a time. Assume you have a fixed lot size of 100, you'll get 5 planned orders for 100 to start
on the same day. This is "Infinite Planning". APO would recognize that constraint, and instead
schedule out the 5 orders over time. The important part of that is that it also will schedule out the
deliveries of the components for 5 different days. This is "Finite Planning".

Now, assume old fashion MRP. It schedules all 5 orders for the same day, and the buyers go out
an get all of the components for the same day. Then the planner realizes he can't do all 5, and
manually changes the schedule, and manually spreads out the 5 orders. The buyers will recieve
rescheduling notifications, but not until the scheduler does the manual rescheduling.
You could call this "Infinite Scheduling", but that only means the same thing as Infinite
Planning.

But, SAP has "Capacity Leveling". What that means is you run another program after MRP
(CM27 and CM28), which can be run in batch mode overnight. (There is a ton of configuration
and thinking that will be required to do this!). The capacity leveling program will recognize the
constrant at the work center level, and fill up the first day, then re-schedule the next
order to the next available capacity, then the next order searches for available capacity, and so on.
This is called "Finite Scheduling". The problem with this is the opposite of Infinite Planning,
which is it doesn't take Material availablity into consideration! The system will re-schedule a
production order without thinking about whether the materials will be available
or not.

Finite Planning does Finite Scheduling at the same time. If there is no capacity available on the
desired date, the system looks for when capacity IS available. Then it stops to see if Materials
will also be available (usually based on the lead-time for those components). If there is a material
problem, then the system figures out when the materials WILL be available, and then
checks to see if capacity is available on THAT day, and if so, it blocks off capacity, and allocates
the materials for that day.

Finite and Infinite Scheduling

You can define if the system is not allowed to exceed the capacity of the resource (finite
scheduling) or whether it can schedule any number of operations simultaneously on a resource
(infinite scheduling) during detailed scheduling. When performing finite or infinite scheduling,
you must select a corresponding scheduling mode in the detailed scheduling strategy and define
in the resource whether the resource should be scheduled finitely or infinitely. You use the
finiteness level to define for different applications if resources should be scheduled finitely or
infinitely.

Features

The following table provides a summary of how the system behaves in the case of a finite or an
infinite resource when you use a finite or infinite scheduling mode.

Finite Scheduling Mode Infinite Scheduling Mode

Finite Resource The system considers the resource The system does not consider the
load. It only executes scheduling resource load.
when there is sufficient capacity. The system creates alerts in the case
The system creates alerts in the of resource overload.
case of resource overload.
Infinite Resource The system does not consider the resource load.
The system does not create alerts in the case of resource overload.
Finiteness Level

You can define if a finite resource should be scheduled finitely or infinitely by different
applications. To do this, you specify a finiteness level at the resource. In the settings for the
application (for example, in the strategy profile or in the heuristic settings) that is to schedule the
resource, you define the finiteness level as follows:

1.  If you want the application to schedule the resource finitely, enter a finiteness level there that
is greater than or the same as the finiteness level of the resource
2.  If you want the application to schedule the resource infinitely, enter a finiteness level that is
smaller than the finiteness level of the resource

If possible, select values in multiples of 100 for the finiteness level so that you can define
additional interim values later. To gain a better overview, you can define short texts for the
usage of the finiteness levels at the resource.

The maximum possible value is 9999. If you specify this value in the application, all finite
resources will be scheduled finitely, regardless of their finiteness level. If you specify the value
0, the application finitely schedules the finite resources that are not assigned a finiteness level or
that are assigned the level 0.

The resource R1 is scheduled in Production Planning (PP) (for example, in the production
planning run) and in Detailed Scheduling (DS) (for example, in the DS planning board). The
resource should be scheduled infinitely in PP and finitely in DS.
You specify the finiteness level 200 at the resource R1, for example. In the PP strategy
profile, you define that resources with a finiteness level smaller than or equal to 100
should be scheduled finitely and in the DS strategy profile you enter 200 for this value. PP
schedules infinitely on R1, while DS schedules finitely.
Alerts for Resource Overload in Infinite Scheduling

A resource overload, which can be displayed in the alert monitor for finite resources, can result
from infinite scheduling. You must use a corresponding PP/DS alert profile for this purpose. In
the resource, you define the maximum duration of a resource overload before the system
recognizes it as such and generates an alert.