Configuring Material Requirements Planning (J44)

You use this configuration item to define the rescheduling periods and the relevant receipt elements. The rescheduling period represents the period in which the system checks whether the existing dates of the receipt elements, which are no longer allowed to be changed automatically, still suit the requirements situation.

If the dates of these elements are no longer suitable, the system creates the following exception messages for the Monitor Stock / Requirements List app and for the Material Planning Data - Read API (API_MRP_MATERIALS_SRV_01) depending on the requirements situation:

• Bring operation forward, if the date of the requirement lies before the date of the receipt element.
• Postpone operation, if the date of the requirement lies after the date of the receipt element.
• Reverse operation, if the requirement no longer exists.

When determining the rescheduling period, take the period in which a precise planning run is to be carried out into account. You define the rescheduling period per plant or per MRP group.

You use the tolerance values to determine whether a tolerance period exists in which no exception messages are created.

The following receipt elements are not changed in the planning run.

• Firmed planned orders
• Firmed purchase requisitions
• Purchase orders
• Production orders
• QM inspection lots

You can define which of the above mentioned receipt element are to be provided with a rescheduling proposal for rescheduling in. Rescheduling proposals for rescheduling out are always created for all receipt elements. You can also determine a time tolerance for the rescheduling proposal, that is, a tolerance by which the requirements date is allowed to deviate from the order finish date or the delivery date. Only once this tolerance value is exceeded, will the system create a rescheduling proposal.

Note

• If you maintain no rescheduling period, the system will not carry out a rescheduling check. This means, the system does not create an exception message for firm order proposals. For every newly planned requirement, the system will create an appropriate receipt element without first checking the firmed receipts that already exist, although their dates are unsuitable.
• The system calculates the rescheduling horizon from the end of the replenishment lead time in reorder point planning.

In joint production it is not possible to reschedule receipt elements at will, because the goods receipt depends on the planning run for another material. For this reason, it is best to use a very small rescheduling horizon.

1. Define the rescheduling period for the plants.

2. Decide which receipt elements are to be included in the rescheduling check.

3. Define the tolerances for the plants within which you want no rescheduling proposals.

In this configuration item, you can define task list usages to assign routing to various work areas. You can create several task lists with various usages for the production of a material. In work orders, you can assign order types* to usages. The system uses the usage in an order for automatic task list selection.

You can specify that a routing is to be used only for Plant Maintenance or for goods receipt.

Define task list usages.

You use this configuration item to define a collection of default values for task list headers and operations.

You can minimize the maintenance of task list data as follows:

• Data from the material master is proposed
• Data from the work center can be referenced or copied
• Data from the profile is proposed

You can enter a profile in routing maintenance. The values from this profile are proposed when you create a new routing or routing object, such as a header or an operation. This data can either be saved or overwritten.

The profile contains default values for the status or for the operation increment.

Note

The values you maintained in the material master or the work center will be proposed before any values from the profile.

1. Determine the default values that can reduce the amount of maintenance work in your company.

2. If necessary, define several profiles.

3. Maintain the default values for routing maintenance.

You use this configuration item to assign number range numbers for MRP run to plant.

You assign number range numbers to a plant for the following document types created automatically during the MRP run:

• Purchase requisitions
• Planned orders
• Dependent requirements and reservations

Note

You can only use number range numbers that are internal and that contain numbers.

The following number range numbers are preset in the system:

• Purchase requisitions

  Internal number range 01 with an interval from 10000000 to 19999999

• Planned orders

  Internal number range 01 with an interval from 1 to 19999999

• Dependent requirements and reservations

  Internal number range 01 with an interval from 1 to 9999999999

1. If necessary, specify at least one internal number range number for each document type.

2. If you want to allow different number range numbers for your plants, you have to specify different intervals.

3. Assign the number range number to the plant for each document type.

You use this configuration item to define MRP groups and specify several MRP control parameters for each group. You can assign an MRP group to materials for which the same MRP control parameters should apply. These control parameters influence the planning run including the planning horizons, the conversion of planned orders, external procurement, consumption, and the availability check in planned orders. You therefore use MRP groups for any materials for which you do not want the global plant-specific parameters to apply.

Note

Once you have defined the MRP groups, you assign them to the materials in the material master record.

Define the MRP groups with the appropriate parameters.

You use this configuration item to define versions of planned independent requirements (PIRs) to differentiate between different PIRs and to indicate the transfer of requirements from previous planning levels.

In this step, you define versions to be able to do the following:

• differentiate between different planned independent requirements (for example, the Schedule pMRP Simulation Creation app and the Maintain PIRs app)
• indicate the transfer of requirements from previous planning levels (for example, the Schedule pMRP Simulation Creation app and the Maintain PIRs app)

Define the versions and use the namespace Y or Z.

Note

The 00 version is active, and this active version will be considered in the Manage Material Coverage app.

You use this configuration item to define supply and demand profiles for the material shortage profile. You can group supply and demand elements for the various supply and demand matching evaluations. The grouping of the supply and demand elements is relevant for the evaluation of material shortages. The supply and demand profiles that you create here are assigned to the material shortage profile that you create in a second configuration step.

The standard system comes with predefined versions of the supply and demand profiles that typically need not be changed. The recommendation is that you check that the standard profiles meet your requirements and use them.

Note

You cannot make any changes to the SAP standard profiles.

1. Definition of the Supply Profile

   In this activity, you group the supply elements. The evaluation of shortages distinguishes between four supply groups (stock, execution supplies, ordered supplies, and planned supplies) to which you can assign appropriate supply elements.

2. Definition of the Demand Profile

   n this activity, you group the demand elements. The evaluation of shortages distinguishes between five different demand groups (negative stock, execution demands, ordered demands, planned demands, and forecast demands) to which you can assign appropriate demand elements.

In addition, when creating the demand profile, you can define a category importance and a sales demands importance to prioritize your sales demand elements. This priority information is used in the uncovered demand calculation as an overall sorting criterion. That is, for example, it determines which demand element has the highest delivery priority, the next highest, and so on.

Note

• If you want to create a new profile, you have to use the namespaces X*, Y*, or Z*.
• If you want to change a profile, you have to copy one of the predefined profiles and adapt them to your business needs. You also have to use the namespaces X*, Y*, or Z* for your copied profiles.
• If you don't need a supply or demand element in your supply or demand profile, you can assign the supply group or demand group option Blank - No Supply or Blank - No Demand. Otherwise, the MRP element category * All other supply elements or * All other demand elements collects all the MRP element categories that you have not assigned to any supply or demand group.

You use this configuration item to define the material shortage definitions that are displayed in the SAP Fiori apps for material requirements planning and in the SAP Fiori apps for demand-driven replenishment. You can create material shortage profiles. One material shortage profile can contain several material shortage definitions that each provide a set of rules the system uses, for example, when calculating material shortages and uncovered demand. These rules define the scope of the shortage calculation meaning the supply and demand elements to be considered as well as the conditions that have to be met to be a relevant shortage.

The material shortage definitions are displayed in the SAP Fiori apps for material requirements planning such as Monitor External Requirements or Monitor Material Coverage. They appear in the Shortage Definitions dropdown list and provide different views on the calculation of material shortages.

In the SAP Fiori apps for demand-driven replenishment such as Replenishment Planning and Replenishment Execution, the calculated material shortage appears on the Replenishment Details page displaying the shortage alerts.

The standard system comes with predefined material shortage profiles with material shortage definitions. Check whether these standard settings are sufficient for your business needs. If not, copy the SAP standard material shortage profiles and make any necessary changes.

Note

You cannot make any changes to the SAP standard profiles.

1. Create the material shortage profile and assign supply and demand profiles

   You copy the SAP standard material shortage profile and assign the appropriate supply and demand profiles.

2. Maintain material shortage definition
   • You define exactly which supply and demand groups are to be considered for each material shortage definition. This determines which supply and demand elements are to be considered for supply and demand matching.
   • You also specify here the material shortage definitions available in apps for demand-driven replenishment by selecting the Demand-Driven checkbox.
   • In addition, you define the evaluation horizon in workdays here and by selecting the Calculate Uncovered Demand checkbox, you can define that uncovered demands are to be calculated in addition to material shortages.
3. Maintain the material shortage threshold type
   • If you have created a material shortage definition to calculate material shortages only (that is, you have not selected the Calculate Uncovered Demand checkbox), then you also have to define the material shortage threshold type. This specifies when a planning situation is to be considered as a relevant shortage to be displayed in the material list.
   • If you have created a material shortage definition and have selected the Calculate Uncovered Demands checkbox so that uncovered demands are also calculated, you cannot maintain the threshold type manually. In this case, the system automatically sets the threshold type to Available Quantity Below Zero and determines a material shortage when the available stock quantity falls below zero.

You have created a material shortage profile with the following four material shortage definitions:

• Stock Days' Supply
  • Supply Groups: Stock
  • Demand Groups: All Demands
  • Definition Type: Material Shortage Calculation (Calculate Uncovered Demands checkbox is not selected)
• All Supplies vs. All Demands (MRP Standard Logic)
  • Supply Groups: All Supplies
  • Demand Groups: All Demands
  • Definition Type: Material Shortage Calculation
• Planned Supplies vs. Ordered Demands
  • Supply Groups: Planned Supplies
  • Demand Groups: Ordered Demands
  • Definition Type: Material Shortage Calculation + Uncovered Demands Calculation (Calculate Uncovered Demands checkbox is selected)
• Ordered Supplies vs. Planned Demands
  • Supply Groups: Ordered Supplies
  • Demand Groups: Planned Demands
  • Definition Type: Material Shortage Calculation + Maximum Coverage Calculation (MaxCovCalc checkbox is selected)

As a result, all four shortage definitions would be available in the SAP Fiori apps Monitor Material Coverage and Monitor Production Orders or Process Orders. However, only shortage definition 3 would be available in the apps Monitor External Requirements and Monitor Internal Requirements.

You use this configuration item to assign material shortage profiles to users. The assigned material shortage profile controls which material shortage definitions the user can choose from in the SAP Fiori apps for Material Requirements Planning.

In the standard system, this table is empty and the system automatically uses the SAP standard profile SAP000000001 for all users. If necessary, you can change this standard behavior.

• If you do not make any changes in this table, the system automatically uses the SAP standard profile SAP000000001 as the default value.
• If you want to assign the SAP standard profile (or an alternative profile that you have already created) to the majority of your users but want to assign a different profile to certain users, you can enter * in the User field and assign the appropriate material shortage profile.
• You can then enter other individual users to whom you want to assign different profiles and assign the appropriate material shortage profile.
• To enter the individual users, you can use the input help, which provides you with the list of business users that are maintained in the Maintain Business Users app.

You use this configuration item to define MRP types to assign and set parameters for them. You use the MRP type to control which procedure is to be used to plan a material and which MRP parameters can be entered when maintaining a material master record. You enter the MRP type in the material master record.

The following parameters of the MRP type are relevant for the planning run:

• MRP Procedure

  The MRP procedure determines which of the following MRP types is to be used:

  • Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
  • Master Production Scheduling (MPS)
  • Consumption-Based Planning (Reorder Point)
  • Demand-Driven Replenishment (DD)
• Firming Type

  The firming type determines how order proposals are firmed and scheduled if you work with a planning time fence in the planning run. The following firming types exist:

  • Firming Type 0: Order proposals are not firmed automatically. With this firming type, no actual firming takes place. The materials only receive the indicator for MPS so that they can be planned using the special planning run for master production scheduling. This firming type only makes sense in combination with the MRP procedure MPS.
  • Firming Type 1: Order proposals are not firmed automatically. With this firming type, no actual firming takes place. The materials only receive the indicator for MPS so that they can be planned using the special planning run for master production scheduling. This firming type only makes sense in combination with the MRP procedure MPS.
  • Firming Type 2: An order proposal that lies within the planning time fence is automatically firmed as soon as its date lies at least one day before the end of the planning time fence. The system does not create any new order proposals within the planning time fence. The shortage situation is not adjusted within the planning time fence.
  • Firming Type 3: Order proposals that lie within the planning time fence are not firmed automatically. The order proposals required to cover the requirements are moved to the end of the planning time fence.
  • Firming Type 4: Within the planning time fence, the system creates no order proposals automatically. The shortage situation is not adjusted within the planning time fence.
• Planning Time Fence

  Using the planning time fence, you can exclude a certain period from the automatic planning run. In this period, only manual changes are made, depending on the firming type. The system will not create any order proposals within this period.

• External Requirements
  • This indicator is only relevant for reorder point planning. You use it to instruct the system to include customer requirements and manual reservations in the MRP calculation for materials that are planned by reorder point. If a material is planned with this type of reorder point planning, an entry is created in the planning file when creating or changing a sales order or manual reservation.
  • If you want to include requirements in the MRP calculation in addition to the customer requirements and manual reservations, select the following fields:
    • Requirements for materials to be provided in subcontracting
    • Dependent order reservations on the basis of production orders
    • Dependent order reservations on the basis of maintenance orders or networks
    • Release orders
    • Purchase requisition releases
    • Forecast delivery schedules
    • Note: The Incl. external reqmts indicator is only displayed if you select MRP procedure Reorder Point Planning.
• Forecast Indicator

  You use this indicator to determine whether or not the forecast is to be carried out.

• Forecast Consumption Indicator

  You use this indicator to determine which consumption values are to be used in the material forecast.

• Calculate Safety Stock Automatically

  You use this indicator to determine whether the safety stock is to be calculated automatically. The safety stock can be calculated automatically for materials planned with one of the consumption-based planning procedures if the service level has been maintained in the material master record, if historical data exists and if the forecast has been carried out for the material.

• Calculate Reorder Point Automatically

  You use this indicator to determine whether the reorder point is to be calculated automatically. The reorder point is calculated for materials planned in this way if automatic reorder point planning has been selected, if historical data exists, and if the forecast has been carried out for the material.

• Stock/Requirements List - Extended Header

  The Screen Sequence field controls which screens are displayed in the extended header and the order in which they are displayed.

In the standard system, the following MRP types are determined, for example;

• ND => No MRP
• PD => MRP
• VB => Manual reorder point planning
• D1 => Demand-driven replenishment

1. If necessary, change the parameters set in the standard system.

2. Add new MRP types to suit your own requirements.