How SAP Planners Can Stabilize the Schedule and Still Hit Service Levels

Lessen the Churn with Dispatch Horizons

When managing supply and demand inside SAP, few things are more disruptive than churn—especially when a last-minute order wrecks your carefully crafted schedule. This is a reality too many SAP planners know all too well.

It starts with the classic MRP type ‘PD’—a powerful but reactive approach that can introduce chaos into your supply plan overnight. A customer order lands late in the cycle, and suddenly, SAP generates new supply elements without warning, swallowing inventory, triggering unnecessary rescheduling, and angering downstream stakeholders.

But there’s a smarter way.

The Power of the Planning Time Fence

SAP offers a simple yet underused solution: the planning time fence. By switching your MRP type to ‘P1’, you activate a dispatch horizon—a protected window that shields your near-term production plan from disruptive changes.

Here’s how it works:

• Firm Zone: The first segment of the planning horizon, where released production (or process) orders live. These are locked, dispatched, and consuming capacity.
• Slushy Zone: Just outside the firm zone, this contains firmed planned orders or unconfirmed CRTD orders—providing flexibility for optimization without compromising stability.
• Outside the Fence: This is where MRP can generate new supply proposals, responding to net requirement changes freely—without touching your confirmed short-term plan.

The planning time fence creates a structured boundary—clear accountability for what planners own and what MRP controls.

Why It Matters for Supply Chain Stability

For planners and supply chain leaders tasked with improving service levels without inflating cost or inventory, this kind of planning discipline is essential.

By locking in the firm horizon:

• You avoid last-minute fire drills caused by volatile demand signals.
• You gain confidence that the plan you release today will still be valid tomorrow.
• You minimize disruptions to floor-level operations and maintain smoother material flow.

This isn’t just about tactical scheduling—it’s about operational trust in your system and credibility with stakeholders.

What Happens Without a Time Fence?

Without a time fence, your plan is constantly at risk:

• Executed orders are rescheduled.
• Material gets pulled unexpectedly.
• Work centers fall out of sync with the dispatch sequence.
• And service levels suffer—not because of planning failure, but planning volatility.

Over time, this undermines faith in the SAP system, driving planners back to spreadsheets and gut-feel decision-making—what Reveal calls strategic drag.

Lessen the Churn. Unlock Hidden Profit.

Implementing a planning time fence isn't just a best practice—it’s a path to unlocking hidden profit by reducing rework, eliminating schedule churn, and improving On Time In Full (OTIF) without adding buffer inventory or excess capacity.

Reveal’s clients regularly find that small planning changes—like enforcing time fences—yield measurable performance gains when paired with smart SAP usage.

Because in SAP, stability equals reliability. And reliability builds trust.

Ready to take control of your supply plan and eliminate schedule churn? Reveal’s SAP optimization experts can show you how to build intelligent dispatch horizons, protect your plan, and drive measurable improvements with the tools you already own.