During the blueprint process of an implementation, the team must - while considering the organizational structure - pay attention, not only to financial implications, but also to the impact of logistics planning and execution.
In many situations, customers have specific requirements that must be fulfilled by the logistics side of the business to keep demand for inventory separate from other streams of demand. The reason for this may be the need to store spare or service parts separately from the rest of the facility, or the subcontracting requirements. To keep demand for inventory separate from other streams of demand, companies can create a separate plant. However, from a configuration viewpoint, this involves a lot of overhead and maintenance without any positive financial impact.
MRP areas are not part of the physical organizational structure, but can use the storage locations within a plant to break up requirements and inventory during planning.
Types of MRP Areas
Note
To find MRP areas in Customizing, choose Production → Materials Requirements Planning → Master Data → MRP Areas → Define MRP Areas.When creating MRP areas, you must specify the MRP area type, plant, and receiving storage location for type 2 (storage location). Companies have the option of assigning one or more storage locations to each MRP area. After defining an MRP area, you assign material masters to the MRP areas to segregate them from the rest of the plant.
Note
When demand occurs at storage location level (through a sales order, demand management, or dependent demand), and if the material master is assigned to an MRP area containing the storage location, all demand and inventory are kept separate from the plant.