SAP IBP interview questions and answers blog provides all the knowledge necessary to pass an interview successfully.

SAP IBP, or SAP Integrated Business Planning, assists companies in planning, executing and monitoring operations efficiently; with cutting-edge technology available, they can streamline processes, enhance decision making and gain a competitive edge to increase efficiency in decision-making and gain competitive advantage.

1. What is the purpose of the chart in demand planning?

Charts have many purposes in demand planning, from activity tracking and supply planning analysis to visualising other planning areas on one dashboard for simultaneous analysis.

2. How can you filter and view attributes in the test config?

Once inside a test configuration, you have various filters and views you can set for an attribute value; clicking any attribute will display everything, including any products filtered with filters you created or filters you may have set up yourself.

3. What are the dashboard guide’s options for various data points?

The dashboard guide includes options for KPIs, costs, supply results, production results, stock transport availability at distribution centres and capacity utilisation.

4. What are analytic charts?

Analytic charts are essential in analysing data sets such as plant capacities, maintenance records and capacity reports; depending on your business context, analytical charts may take the form of heat maps or pie charts for maximum clarity and analysis.

5. What is the purpose of the dashboard guide?

The dashboard guide is a comprehensive data management solution within demand planning systems; users can create dashboards displaying KPIs, cost figures, supply results, production numbers, stock transport details and capacity utilisation measures.

6. What are analytic charts and custom alerts available for?

They allow planners to analyse data at multiple levels and make informed decisions.

7. What is the importance of having proper access permissions for end users in the dashboard guide?

The dashboard guide emphasises the significance of providing end users with appropriate permission to create and share dashboards while ensuring the system satisfies user needs.

8. What are custom alerts in the web UI?

Custom alerts in the Web UI can be created using various rules to decide whether an alert should exist and by specifying threshold values for that alert.

9. What is the difference between custom and default alerts?

Currently, no custom alert differences exist; however, users can view a list of available custom alerts and their overview.

10. What is the purpose of creating other rule groups for statistical forecasting?

Users can set up rule groups for statistical forecasting to generate alerts if consensus demand exceeds specific values; multiple rule groups may be created; all rules must be satisfied within each rule group.

11. What is the main focus of the discussion on using analytics in supply planning?

Our primary emphasis will be on end-user aspects, such as creating charts, dashboards and alerts that may benefit end users.

12. What customisation options are available for users in the analytics app?

Users may customise charts by changing colours and legends and transitioning seamlessly from Excel sheets to interfaces.

13. What is the purpose of creating an alert and subscribing to it in supply planning?

Create and subscribe to an alert to allow users to easily track the severity of attention, whether high, severe, low or medium, by accessing a bar chart with this number displayed as part of each alert’s details viewable by subscribers. They can better monitor all existing signals and stay abreast of them all.

14. What is the control system in supply planning?

A supply planning control system offers alerts and additional capabilities such as creating groups on the cloud for teams to collaborate more efficiently, textual comments for later reference and taking actions upon signs being raised by planners.

15. What is conditional formatting in Excel?

Conditional formatting in Excel enables users to format cells based on certain conditions.

16. How does conditional formatting work in Excel?

Conditional formatting allows Excel users to highlight cells that meet specific criteria for instance, cells exceeding certain thresholds may be highlighted with red.

17. What is the standard alerting system in Excel?

Excel provides users with a standard alerting system that notifies them if certain conditions, such as outliers in sales forecasting, have been fulfilled.

18. What are machine learning algorithms in Excel?

Machine learning algorithms in Excel can be used to identify patterns in data and make predictions from it, including outlier detection in production plans or any other source; they may even help detect outliers among different forms of information, such as social networking data.

19. What is the calculation level in Excel?

Calculation level refers to the level at which data analysis occurs, such as product, customer or source level analysis.

20. What is the warning alert rule in Excel?

The warning alert Rule in Excel is a rule that gives an alert whenever an aggregated value exceeds an agreed-upon threshold.

21. What is machine learning in the context of supply chain management?

Machine learning algorithms are used to investigate and optimise supply chain operations by recognising patterns within data to make predictions on its behalf.

22. What is the four-step cycle for configuring a planning area in IBP?

Configuring an IBP planning area involves four steps: creating a model by creating product ID, brand, and product family attributes and specifying values, numeric values, dates, time stamps, timestamps,and master data types.

23. What is the mapping process in IBP?

In IBP, mapping involves creating attributes for every existing detail found within your planning area and creating new Z attributes developed explicitly within the said area for reporting purposes.

24. What is IBP?

The International Bracket Portal is an internationally used weather reporting system used by the water industry for providing accurate 5-year forecasts on future water levels and capacity decisions, such as increasing or closing plants.

25. How can IBP help with human resource planning?

IBP’s flexible design enables planners to customise master data, attributes, and key figures at the human resource level in an Excel sheet for planning purposes, it allows planners to see different values and calculations easily transposed from group to level within IBP, replicating them within its system.

26. How can maintenance planning help ensure efficient operations?

By creating master data that details what activities will happen at various times and locations, maintenance planners can betterutilise their resources more effectively for efficient operations.

27. What is the impact of lead time on supply planning runs?

Lead time impacts supply planning by affecting production processes; if the demand occurs during one of those weeks, production would begin as soon as week one and reach its location within five weeks of starting production.

28. What is the analytics app used for in supply chain management?

An analytics app serves the primary goal of supply chain cost control by providing users with tools for plotting charts in various scenarios, drilling down from brand to SKU, making customisations to analytic charts, plotting graphs on different scales or making custom analytical charts for multiple customers and drill down further down into customer depth levels.

29. What is a dashboard in the analytics app?

A dashboard feature of the analytics app allows users to easily create customised dashboards by mapping various charts into one cohesive whole, with options like resizing or accessing directly through its navigation bar.

30. What is EPM formatting?

EPM formatting follows a specific formatting technique used by EPM; any changes made outside this method will not take effect immediately; each forecast typically comprises hundreds of cells; three outlier cells have different values and, therefore, need special consideration when creating forecasts.

31. What is the purpose of conditional formatting in the planning view?

Conditional formatting displays data not associated with templates in the planning view. Intending

32. What happens when a user clicks on refresh in the planning view?

Once the user clicks refresh in their planning view, the system retrieves and uploads any new values onto it; when an outlier in the sales forecast exists at various levels, an alert must be created to detect those instances where an abnormal value occurs in the forecast.

33. Why is quality data important?

An adequate system relies on quality data to operate effectively; without it, its functioning could become subpar, resulting in manual intervention becoming necessary to provide necessary information to users.

34. What is a unified planning area?

Unified planning areas, created using SAP IBP or another planning software program, provide business operations with planning areas explicitly tailored for them.

35. What is capacity utilisation?

Capacities Utilisation is defined as the ratio between actual output and maximum possible output that has been met during any given period, this statistic measures capacity use at full potential across an enterprise’s total output capability.

36. What are Information and Business Processes (IBP)?

Information and Business Processes is an intuitive platform that enables users to develop custom master data, attributes, and key figures at the human resource level, which are then easily replicable within Excel sheets.

37. What are some key features of IBP for human resource planning?

Its built-in feature enables users to create personalised master data, attributes, and key figures at the human resource level that can then be replicated within Excel sheets.

38. What attributes will be created by the team?

Your team will develop all required attributes for maintenance types, activity duration and time profiles to extend this service into planning areas, these will then be assigned different master data types.

39. What is the importance of attributes in supply planning and inventory optimisation?

Understanding these attributes’ impacts on supply planning runs is critical to managing resources effectively and increasing overall efficiency in businesses.

40.What is lead time?

Lead time refers to the time required for products or materials to arrive from the point of order until their intended end of use, it plays an essential part in supply planning and inventory optimisation.

41. What are the main challenges in the supply chain?

Its Globalisation of manufacturing operations, increasing complexity due to more suppliers, sellers and D&C warehouses, as well as increasing uncertainty regarding demand uncertainty and supply variability, as well as errors or inaccuracies in accuracy data, are just some of the challenges in supply chains today.

42. How do internal factors impact a demand plan?

Inventory issues or machine breakdowns have an enormous effect on supply chains, as they impact demand plans, supply plans and inventory plans alike.

Try taking multiple-choice quizzes to test yourself to see how well you understand these topics.

43. Which of the following is a crucial statistic discussed in the analytics app?

Consensus demand

Statistical forecasting

Market share

Sales revenue

44. What is the drill-down functionality used for?

Formatting the chart

Selecting charts

Drilling down from one chart to another

Creating a plan

45. Which tool is used to zoom in and focus on different customers and their forecasts?

Filter bar

Resizing

Fullscreen

Analytical charts

46. Which of the following is not a type of alert?

Custom alerts

Critical figure alerts

Heat map alerts

Pie chart alerts

47. What does the dashboard guide emphasise?

Having proper access permissions for end users to create and share dashboards

Differentiating a key figure from others on an IBP configuration page

Using custom, end-user-configured alerts in the web UI

Customising alerts is not available on the Excel UI