Plant Design

Question

Hey Guys,
I have a very high-level question about the design of plant hierrachy. We are planning to move independant business units in a single plant. We have to decide between 1 plant - 1 sloc or 1 plant multiple slocs design (one SLOC per business unit). I guess both designs are feasible in SAP. Just would like to have some insight on how it will impact diffrent areas such as planning, material management, distribution, reporting as such.
Other way of framing would be whether dividing business units by SLOCs more beneficial/ less advantageous to 1 plant- 1sloc scenario.
Entrire business operation in single SAP company code.
Appreciate any inputs.
Regds
YG

Answer 1

Hi YG,
plants are the strongest organisational element in the logistics area of SAP, meaning that multiple business rules are set at the plant level, such as material valuation, authorisations, planning elements, MRP rules....
The questions which will lead to the right answers are:
- Do the different business units share the same materials and services?
- Do the materials and services which are common to the business units share the same attributes across these business units?
- Who is responsible for the planning and the replenishment?
- What are the information visibility requirements across the business units (e.g. can they see each other's stock?)
- How integrated is the supply chain, e.g. can the businesses take each other's materials to supply their customers/production/maintenance sites?
- What are the integration requirements with HSE work areas?
In general the safest way is to follow the physical representation of the plant and represent in the system what you can physically see when walking through the building e.g. are all these businesses located at the same address?
Best regards,
Sylvan