Campaign Planning

Campaign Planning in SAP IBP OBP: What It Takes to Make It Work

SAP IBP Order-Based Planning (OBP) does not provide a standard, out-of-the-box campaign planning feature. However, the desired campaign behaviour can be achieved through a simple modelling approach using resources and custom logic, without any complex custom developments.

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What’s Campaign planning — in simple terms:

Campaign planning is planning production in groups (campaigns) so that similar products are made together in one continuous run, instead of switching frequently between products.

Why this is done:

To reduce setup/changeover time
To save cost and capacity
To improve production efficiency

Below is a step-by-step conceptual flow to enable campaign planning in IBP OBP.

Step 1: Prepare Campaign Master data

Step 1.1: Define and maintain campaign classification at location–product level

Create custom attributes such as Campaign Resource and Campaign Type in the Location–Product master data to logically group products that should be produced together as part of a campaign.
Planners manually maintain these attributes to assign each product to the appropriate aggregated campaign resource and campaign category.
In the example shown, SUV models are assigned to one campaign resource and type, while Hatchback models are grouped under a separate campaign resource and type, enabling campaign-based production planning by vehicle category.
Note: This resource acts as a control mechanism, not a physical machine.

Step 1.2: Populate PDS Resource master data using rule-based automation

The campaign assignment maintained at the Location–Product level is then leveraged to populate the core Supply Planning master data: PDS Resource (PDSRES).
Below is the sample Master Data Rule
- System first reads the existing PDS Resource records that are already available in IBP, which are typically created via RTI integration from SAP S/4HANA or ECC based on Production Version and Routing information.
- For each existing PDS Resource entry, the rule creates a new record by copying the original entry and replaces the Resource ID by performing a join with Location–Product master data to retrieve the corresponding Campaign Resource value.
- As a result, additional PDS Resource records are generated where the aggregated campaign resource is assigned, enabling campaign-level capacity control without altering the original production resources.

Step 2: Control campaign periods using a custom key figure

Create a custom key figure ‘Campaign Switch’ on the resource level

Maintain value of 1

1 → Campaign active
- When the planner sets the campaign flag to 1, the system automatically defaults a very large capacity value (for example, 9999) for the campaign resource, effectively allowing unrestricted production during that period.
Null → Campaign inactive
- When there is No flag, the resource capacity is defaulted to 0, thereby blocking production completely as no capacity is available

Through this custom data modelling approach, an additional aggregated (dummy) campaign resource is introduced and defined as a one more resource needed for the production of the assigned products. Even though the original resource continues to exist and may have available capacity, production can occur only if capacity is also available on this campaign resource.

When the capacity of the aggregated campaign resource is set to zero, the system effectively blocks production for all products grouped under that campaign, thereby enforcing campaign-based production windows.

Step 3: Validate Campaign based Production Results

Production is clustered into specific time buckets, indicating that products are manufactured only during active campaign periods, not continuously.
SUV products (FGX001–FGX003) show production concentrated in a common window (e.g., around W24–W26), while Hatchback products (FGY001–FGY003) are produced in W27-W30, reflecting separate campaign runs.
Grey/blank periods represent non-campaign windows, where production is intentionally blocked due to zero capacity on the aggregated campaign resource.
Darker blue cells indicate higher production quantities, suggesting bulk or pre-build production during campaign windows.

Tags: SAP IBP, SAP IBP OBP, SAP IBP Order based Planning, SAP IBP Supply Planning, SAP IBP Campaign Planning, Production Planning

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