SAP Simple Logistics -Explaination

Ever since S/4 HANA was announced, there was mention about Simple Finance and Simple Logistics.
After Simple Finance release by SAP there is fair amount of documentation around key data model
simplification and thereby leading to performance optimization, but hardly any details on Simple Logistics
is available in public domain. At the same time from business standpoint Finance and Logistics go hand in
hand and surely consultants / partners / customers are waiting to understand how Logistics will be
Simplified. Drawing parallel from Simple Finance the expectation was to have key data model
simplification and some key functional improvements in Logistics area. To compound the problem
Logistics in core ERP is quite a broad functional area covering MM, PP, SD modules and lot of sub
modules. In reality, there is lot of expectation with the mention of Simple Logistics.
In continuation of learning and riding ahead in S/4 HANA journey, I have been exploring on Simple
Logistics for past couple of months. Even though my background is in Supply Chain Planning (APO in
particular) in recent times there has been some concern on what will happen to SAP APO and how it fits
in future S/4 HANA journey. This blog is a summary of my understanding on Simple Logistics and
expectation from it based on public domain information available so far. The exploration and research is
based primarily on recent openSAP MOOC on S/4 HANA Deep Dive, SAP product roadmaps recently
updated / added in Service Market Place and digging into Simple Finance related documentation to
understand fundamentally how the simplification is being architected. For sake of simplicity my focus is
on S/4 HANA On Premise although I understand that same codeline is being used for Public Cloud and
Managed Cloud offering.
So what is expected from Simple Logistics On Premise version that is expected to be available before
end of this year (Q4 2015). Before going into that take a look at Stock Champion Demo from HAssos
keynote at SAPPHIRE 2015 and from Simple Finance, Simple Logistics Demo from TechEd Bangalore
2015 Keynote. Further look into the current openSAP course on S/4 HANA Deep Dive where in Week 3
Unit 2 Priti Prabhoo gives a glimpse of Simple Logistics Order Fulfillment use case.She highlights the
transition of SAP ERP from a System of Record to an engaged Decision Support System in S/4 HANA.
What started as Business Suite Optimisation with ECC 6 Ehp 7 Suite on HANA (SoH) gets extended
significantly with simplification of Logistics data model. This is in line with new BSEG table named
ACDOCA in Simple Finance replacing whole set of Finance and Controlling related aggregate and index
tables. With the new MSEG / MKPF table MMDOCA or MATDOC (?) in Simple Logistics, whole slew of
MM & IM related tables (like MSTB, MSKU, MSSQ, MCHB, MSTE to name a few refer to Unit 4 of S/4
HANA in Nutshell openSAP course) will become redundant. Of course SAP will continue providing exact
same views as the ABAP tables in Application layer so that existing standard and custom reports can
continue to operate non-disruptively.
The primary benefit of this data model simplification would be the classic MRP run transforming it to realtime MRP. The tryst of MRP through HANA enabled optimisation LOG_PPH_MDPSX_READ was first in
ECC 6 EhP 6 special version for HANA and ECC 6 EhP 7. Now with S/4 HANA the underlying data model
simplification will usher in not optimisation but transformation of MRP. This is in fact mentioned as key
business process scenarios undergoing significant change in S/4 HANA apart from Advanced Available to

Promise and High-volume Inventory BackFlush as outlined in Week 4 Unit 4 of S/4 HANA Deep Dive
OpenSAP course. Sadly there was no demo or more details provided in the course or anywhere in public
domain. The advanced Available to Promise capability seems to be extension of APO GATP capability in
S/4 HANA. One reason why this porting from APO to S/4 HANA i.e. ERP is because fundamentally all the
interacting transaction data (Sales Orders, Deliveries and receipt elements) exist in ERP and was being
brought over to APO via standard interface CIF in order to process data fast enough using the in-memory
object-oriented relational database component of APO liveCache. The key master data and associated
configurations used in APO can very well be modeled in ERP and the power of In Memory and Parallel
Processing capability of HANA can easily bridge the gap of ATP TimeSeries in liveCache technology in
SAP APO. In fact considering APO PPDS and GATP functionality to be moved in S/4 HANA, I shall not be
surprised if underlying order table is also merged to a single one similar to that in APO. The single order
table with an equivalent ATP Category or MRP Element identifier can differentiate between various types
of receipt and requirement order elements including stock (if required). Having a single order table will
enable even superior READ-WRITE capability for Planning (MRP, MPS, DRP) functionality in S/4 HANA.
It would be worthwhile to review the S/4 HANA Roadmap (Q2 2015 release) available in Service Market
Place under Product Roadmap Cross Topics. Meanwhile those focused on SAPs Supply Chain
Management application can refer this future simplified supply chain application embedded in S/4 HANA
provided in Week 1 Unit 4 of the openSAP Course. Clearly the breakup of SAP APO PPDS and GATP
capabilities and porting them into S/4 HANA is seen outlined along with better integration of Supply Chain
Execution components like EWM, TM. You may also find SAP IBP components like Sales & Operations
Planning, Demand and Supply mapped in here fitting in where APO Demand and Supply Network
Planning would come in.

It is simply matter of time when whats exactly in Simple Logistics would be clear when it gets formally
released but meanwhile we can hope all these expectations are fulfilled either in short term or near future.
Only then can S/4 HANA realise the end game of true single integrated Business Process Platform having
multitude of capabilities across business functions of Supply Chain Planning & Logistics, Order
Management & Fulfillment, Procurement, Finance.