Answering some Key Questions

I have created an MRP area for a storage location that is assigned to a production line. I plan some low-value parts there using reorder point planning. However, from time to time, our spare parts warehouse is unable to deliver, and exceptional sales orders or reservations are created for these parts in our production location. This throws my planning off. Is there a way to include these exceptional requirements in the net requirements calculation?

The reorder point planning procedures usually do not include requirements elements. The net requirements calculation is triggered when the available stock falls below the reorder point.

To avoid overplanning, sales orders, dependent requirements, reservations, and so on, are not included in the net requirements calculation. This is because, in principle, these future requirements are already covered by the reorder point.

However, in certain circumstances, for example, in a situation as described above, it may be useful to include certain external requirements in the net requirements calculation in reorder point planning.

In Customizing of the MRP types for reorder point planning, you set the Include external requirements indicator to determine whether external requirements are to be included.

For the procedure without external requirements, SAP provides the standard MRP types VB for manual reorder point planning or VM for automatic reorder point planning. For a procedure with external requirements, you can choose MRP type V1 for manual reorder point planning or V2 for automatic reorder point planning.

I procure materials externally, not through the standard process, but through subcontracting, consignment, or stock transfer. Can the planning run directly generate purchase requisitions with the appropriate item category?

You can have the planning run directly create consignment purchase requisitions or subcontract purchase requisitions, for example, if you want to procure your material in this way on a regular basis.

To do this, you must maintain a special procurement type in the material master record at plant level.

The special procurement type is, for example, 10 for consignment, 30 for subcontracting. As with stock transfers, you must customize the special procurement types according to your organizational structure (for example, transfer from plant X, transfer from plant Y, and so on).

The figure below is a screenshot of the Manage Product Master Data application. At the plant level, on the MRP Data tab, in the Procurement section, you can see the Special Procurement Type field.

Throughout this course, we've always used MRP Live to start MRP runs.

But what is MRP Live?

Traditionally, MRP runs as a background job overnight, planning all changed materials in one or more plants.

To calculate the material shortage for each material, the system reads all relevant planning elements such as sales orders, purchase orders, and production orders from the database. This means that MRP has to read large amounts of data from the database, and due to this fact and the complex algorithms executed during the planning run, MRP can take a long time.

When SAP developed the SAP HANA database, it offered a way to improve MRP performance by leveraging the power of SAP HANA's in-memory parallelization. This led to the introduction of MRP Live on HANA (also known as MRP Live), an MRP run optimized for SAP HANA.

In SAP S/4HANA, MRP Live on HANA is enabled by default and is the recommended solution for material requirements planning. However, traditional classic MRP transactions are still available.

In addition to performance, MRP Live on HANA offers other benefits, such as a new transaction and app with more flexible selection criteria that replaces all classic MRP transactions.

Finally, MRP Live on HANA has been defined by SAP as the future architecture, which means that all innovations in this area will be based on MRP Live and not on classic MRP.

Classic MRP is still available. When does it make sense to use Classic MRP instead of MRP Live?

MRP Live on HANA still has some limitations.

MRP Live is designed for high performance, but does not yet support all existing business processes supported by traditional MRP. For example, some lot-sizing techniques, such as optimal lot-sizing, are not supported. MRP Live on HANA also does not support forecast-based planning or time-phased planning.

Current restrictions of MRP Live on HANA are detailed in the SAP Note 1914010.

You should take advantage of MRP Live on HANA wherever possible.

Use MRP Live on HANA to start MRP runs. The system checks which materials can be planned with MRP Live and which must be planned the old way. The latter are automatically forwarded to classic planning.

Is forecast-based planning no longer an option?

The forecast-based planning procedure using MRP type VV is part of the SAP S/4 HANA compatibility scope and can only be used until December 31, 2025.

One reason for this is that MRP Live on HANA does not perform forecast-based planning, but sends the affected materials to the classic planning procedure. This results in a loss of performance.

Since forecast requirements and planned independent requirements are semantically very similar and planned independent requirements can be created from forecast requirements, SAP recommends the following alternative to replace forecast-based planning:

• Use one of the MRP types PD, P1, P2, P3, or P4 instead of VV.

• Copy forecast requirements to planned independent requirements.

This alternative is described in Unit 2 (Exploring Net Requirements Calculation) of this course.

We also recommend the following notes:

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What is time-phased planning?

Time-phased planning is an MRP procedure in which materials are planned in a certain time interval. For example, if a supplier always delivers a material on a certain day, it makes sense to plan this material according to the same cycle.

To plan a material using time-phased planning, you must select an MRP type for time-phased planning (R1 or R2 are the standard MRP types for time-phased planning) and enter a planning calendar in the Planning Cycle field in the material master record.

The planning calendars must be customized.

Materials that are to be planned using time-phased planning are provided with planning dates in the planning file.

This date is reset when a material master is created and after each planning run.

The planning date corresponds to the day on which the material is next planned and is calculated based on the planning cycle defined in the material master.

The material is planned only on the days specified by the planning cycle.

During the planning run, the system calculates the net requirements for the following interval: Planning date + planning cycle + replenishment lead time.

The system compares the requirements in this time interval with the sum of the actual stock and the fixed and firm receipts. The system then calculates the quantity to be ordered. In time-phased planning, you should use either the exact lot-sizing procedure or an optimizing lot-sizing procedure.

You can use only forecast requirements as requirements or any other type of requirements (sales requirements, dependent requirements, independent requirements, and so on). Customizing for the MRP type determines which requirements are used.

Can I implement Situation Handling to get proactively notified of critical situations after a planning run?

You can use the MRP Material Exceptions situation template to automatically notify specific members of your organization about exception messages that occur during the MRP run for purchase orders or production orders that are no longer needed because the demand situation for a material has changed.

When an excess stock situation occurs after a planning run, a notification is created for the attention of specific users. A user can directly select the notification and the system will take them to the Manage Material Coverage app.

These alerts are helpful, but remember to review MRP exceptions using the Monitor Material Coverage or Monitor Stock/Requirements List apps. These applications are the primary tools of an MRP controller, supported by Situation Handling.