Using the Planning Run in SAP S/4HANA

You can execute the planning run at two levels, such as total planning for a plant or for an individual material. You can execute a total planning run for several plants and MRP areas (planning scope).

You can execute a single-item planning run for one BOM level only (single-level) or for all BOM levels (multilevel). Interactive planning of a material is also possible.

Multilevel single-item planning can also be executed for a Sales and Operations Planning (SOP) product group.

You can execute total planning online or as a background job.

Total planning for a plant encompasses all MRP-relevant materials for this plant and includes the BOM explosion for materials with BOMs.

From the MRP menu, you can execute total planning online or as a background job.

To execute the total planning run as a background job, select a report variant to restrict it to the relevant plant, and schedule the job.

You can use a user exit to restrict the total planning run to materials that fulfill certain freely definable criteria. For example, you can select all materials for which a particular MRP controller is responsible.

The total planning run can be triggered for each plant, for example, as a background job with a variant for each plant to be planned. If, however, there are mutual dependencies (for example, due to stock transfer), plants can have to be planned several times.

It's, therefore, possible to group together several plants (or MRP areas) in the scope of a planning run in a planning sequence and to plan on a cross-plant basis in a total planning run. The system takes mutual dependencies, such as those arising through stock transfer, into account automatically.

You define the scope of planning for total planning in the Customizing activity Define Scope of Planning for Total Planning for Material Requirements Planning. If you have activated MRP with MRP areas, you can group together plants and MRP areas in a planning scope. You can plan all materials in an MRP area.

You can use the planning scope to execute a total planning run online or as a background job for one plant, for several plants, for an MRP area, for several MRP areas in Material Requirements Planning, in master production scheduling, and in long-term planning. The planning run with planning scope must always be started with parallel processing.

The advantages of parallel processing are as follows:

• Improved performance:

  If several computers or processors are available for these sessions, the time required for a planning run can be reduced significantly.

• Robustness:

  The planning run continues even if a runtime error occurs for a material. This material is given a corresponding entry in the material list. (Without parallel processing, the planning run terminates, and the remaining materials are not planned.)

The work packages are divided up by low-level code. The improvement in performance is noticeable if the BOMs have a wide structure, that is, if the individual elements in the BOM are made up of many components.

The low-level code is the lowest level at which a material appears in any BOM structure. The low-level code of a material is always higher than the low-level code of all its predecessors in all the BOM structures.

The low-level code controls the planning sequence: The system plans the materials with low-level code 0 first, then those with low-level code 1, and so on. All materials are thus planned in the correct sequence in a planning run.

The low-level code is calculated and saved at client level during BOM maintenance. You can display the low-level code in the material master from the MRP 1 view by choosing Information on material or in the planning file entry, provided that there's an entry for that material in the planning file.

Net change planning only plans those materials that have been subject to a change relevant to MRP. Changes relevant to MRP lead to a planning file entry being created specific to the plant and material. Examples of MRP-relevant changes include changes to the procurement type, changes to the operation times, and also the creation of sales orders, dependent requirements, stock changes, and so on.

The respective entries in the planning file are made automatically by the business application of the system. They can, however, also be made manually from the MRP menu in individual cases. (When doing this, you must remember that a change in the routing does not automatically cause an indicator to be set in the planning file.)

The planning file entry contains information such as the following:

• The low-level code of the material

• Whether the material has been subject to an MRP-relevant change (NETCH indicator)

• Whether the BOM has to be reexploded or whether all existing order proposals are to be deleted

You can use the Display planning file entry transaction from the MRP menu to analyze the contents of the planning file entry record for the materials.

During the planning run, the system checks every entry for a material in the planning file.

• With regenerative planning, the system plans all materials contained in the planning file without considering the indicators.

• With net change planning, the system only plans those materials that have been flagged with the "NETCH planning" indicator.

When the planning run has been executed, the entry in the planning file is automatically deleted. The NETCH planning indicators are reset when regenerative and net change planning is used.

You can use the firming period to protect the master production schedule for master schedule items (in the MPS run) and for nonmaster schedule items (in the MRP run) from being changed automatically soon and therefore stabilize planning. Within the firming period, which is defined individually for each material, procurement proposals are no longer changed automatically during the MRP run.

You can define the firming period based on the total lead-time of the material. In the previous example, the order finish date of the planned order, E1, lies one day before the end of the firming period. The system treats it as firmed and does not automatically reschedule it. The master production schedule for the components is, therefore, stabilized.

You can define the firming period using the planning time fence or a manual firming date. Planned orders can also be firmed and unfirmed manually. The system draws your attention to any possible changes to the master production schedule in the form of an exception message in the MRP list. It's then up to the MRP controller to process these changes.

The firming type determines how the procurement proposals (especially planned orders and purchase requisitions) are to be firmed for the planning run and in which order they're to be scheduled within the firming period.

You specify the firming procedure to be used for each material using the MRP type. The firming type is defined in Customizing for the MRP type.

You can use firming for materials planned with both master production scheduling and material requirements planning. Corresponding MRP types are available for this in the standard system.

• With firming type 0, no firming period is effective.

• With firming types 1 and 2, "automatically firmed" indicates that any procurement proposals inside the firming period will now be firmed automatically. They can, therefore, no longer be changed by the planning run, only manually. Likewise, all procurement proposals that are moved into the planning time fence are firmed automatically.

• Firming type 1: The planning run covers all new shortages that have occurred within the planning time fence at the end of the firming period.

• Firming type 2: The planning run does not cover any new shortages that have occurred within the planning time fence.

• Firming type 3: All procurement proposals that have not been manually firmed within the planning time fence are moved to the end of the firming period. If new shortages occur within the firming period, they're covered at the end of the firming period.

• Firming type 4: All procurement proposals that have not been manually firmed within the planning time fence are deleted. If new shortages occur within the firming period, they're not covered.

In contrast to the planning time fence, the manual firming date is also effective for materials with MRP types with firming type 0, or without a firming type.

You can use the firming period to protect the master production schedule for a material from being automatically changed in the near future. Procurement proposals within the firming period are no longer changed automatically during the MRP run. You can define the firming period using the planning time fence. The system calculates the finish date of the firming period based on the MRP date.

You can specify the planning time fence either for each material in the material master record or using the MRP group assigned to the material master. The length of the planning time fence (in working days) can be based on the total lead-time of the material. The planning time fence is only effective in connection with an MRP type that has a firming type.

The firming type determines how the procurement proposals are firmed for the planning run and how the dates are set within the planning time fence. Existing procurement proposals, which slip into the planning time fence are firmed automatically with firming type 1, as shown in the figure, Planning Time Fence, when the date of the procurement proposal falls at least one day before the end date of the planning time fence.

The date for new purchase requisitions that were created within the planning time fence and not created manually, is postponed to the final date of the planning time fence with firming type 1. This means that these new procurement proposals are not firmed.

You can also define the firming period by manually entering a date lying in the future – that is, the "manual firming date". The manual firming date causes automatic firming of the procurement proposals for materials with firming types 1 and 2 and lie before the manual firming date.

Unlike the planning time fence, materials without a firming type (firming type 0) are treated like materials with firming type 1 as far as the manual firming date is concerned. This means that the procurement proposals that lie before the manual firming date are firmed, and new procurement proposals are moved to the manual firming date. If you have set a manual firming date and a planning time fence is active, the firming period is determined by the end of the planning time fence, providing this date is later than the manual firming date. If the manual firming date is the later of the two dates, then this defines the firming period. You can set and reset the manual firming date in the stock/requirements list, in the planning results, or in interactive single-item planning. You can apply this function in material requirements planning, master production scheduling, or long-term planning.