CA02 — Change Routing Task List

CA02 changes an existing routing (task list) that describes how a material is produced: the sequence of operations, the work center performing each one, the control key governing costing and confirmation behaviour, the standard values for setup, machine and labour time, and the assignment of BOM components to specific operations. The structural fact behind most confusion is that a routing is identified by group and group counter, not by material alone. A single material can have several routings in the same plant, distinguished by task list usage, status, and validity period, and only one of them is actually selected when a production order is created. Editing 'the routing' in CA02 without first confirming which group/counter/usage combination the order actually reads is the single most common source of wasted diagnostic time.

CA02 is reached whenever an existing routing needs correction after go-live: standard times found wrong during a time study, a work center replaced, a control key changed for a new confirmation strategy, or a BOM component reassigned to a different operation. It sits between BOM maintenance and production order creation in the master data chain, so changes made here affect costing, capacity planning and scheduling for every order created afterward, but not for orders that already exist. Consultants also open CA02 defensively during incident triage on a production order, to see what the routing currently contains, before touching CO02 or COOIS to see what an order actually copied. On S/4HANA the equivalent Fiori app can be used for the same maintenance, but CA02 remains fully functional and is often faster for multi-operation edits.

Start in SE16 on MAPL filtered by material and plant to get the routing group, group counter and usage that the material is actually linked to, and check the deletion flag and validity dates on that entry. Take that group/counter into PLKO to confirm header status and validity. Take the same key into PLPO to list every operation, its work center, control key and standard values, and check for a deletion flag or a change date that postdates the order in question. Cross-check PLMZ for the same key to see which BOM items are assigned to which operation number.

The underlying tables (PLKO, PLPO, PLMZ, PLFL, MAPL) and the CA02 transaction itself are unchanged on S/4HANA; routing structure and logic are the same as in ECC. A Fiori app for managing routings exists as a modern alternative for the same maintenance task, but it does not replace CA02, which remains valid and is frequently preferred for editing several operations at once.

This is functional PP/production planning territory: the routing engineer or planner owns operation sequence, standard values and component assignment. ABAP involvement is rare, limited to custom exits on standard value determination or mass-change reports. A good handover states the material, plant, routing group and group counter actually in use per MAPL, the operation number affected, and whether the issue is visible on new orders only or also expected on existing ones.

CA01 and CA03 cover creating and displaying the same routing object and are the natural companions to CA02. CS02 is worth checking alongside CA02 whenever a component-assignment issue is suspected, since PLMZ links routing operations to BOM items maintained there. CR02 matters when a standard value or control key problem traces back to the work center rather than the routing itself. CO01 and CO02 are the next stop when the question is whether an order actually picked up the routing change, since that is where the copied routing data lives once an order exists.