Planned Orders Overview

A planned order shows a planned receipt for a particular material in a plant. Basically, it specifies when the receipt is to take place and the quantity of goods that is to be received.

Planned orders are generally created automatically during the planning run. Here, the system detemines the materials to be procured automatically and it also calculates the requirement quantities and dates.

Planned orders can also be created manually by the MRP controller. In this case, the MRP controller determines which material is to be procured, how much is to be procured when it is to be procured and whether externally or internally.

Planned orders are converted into production orders in the case of in-house production and they are converted into purchase requisitions in the case of external procurement.

A planned order has the following features:

• It is an internal document which is not used outside the company and it is not binding in any way. It is purely a purchase order proposal from MRP which is used for covering demand and which can be changed at any time.

• It serves the purpose of an order proposal for external as well as for internal procurement. The procurement source is determined either during the creation of the planned order or when processing the planned order.

• It can generate dependent requirements and can be used in the capacity calculation.

A planned order consists of a header and one or more items.

Numbering Planned Orders

Creating Planned Orders

Changing Planned Orders

Deleting Planned Orders

Displaying Planned Orders

Converting Planned Orders into Purchase Requisitions

Creating Planned Orders

There are two possibilities for creating planned orders:

Manually

The MRP controller enters a planned order manually. He determines which material is to be procured, the required quantity, the date required, and whether the material is to be procured externally or internally.

Automatically

During the planning run, the system automatically determines the materials to be procured as well as the required quantity and the required date.

Numbering Planned Orders

The SAP System distinguishes between two different types of number assignment during the manual creation of planned orders:

• external number assignment

• internal number assignment

For external number assignment , enter a planned order number in the details screen for creating a planned order. The entered number must lie within the number range defined for this order type.

For internal number assignment , do not enter a planned order number when creating a planned order and instead leave this field empty. When saving, the system then automatically assigns the next available number from the number range which has been defined for this order type. The counter reading for the number range then automatically increases.

Creating Planned Orders

Planned orders are generally automatically generated during a planning run. However, in certain circumstances, it may be necessary to create planned orders in the system manually. This is the case, for example, if the MRP controller wants to procure materials without taking requirements into account.

If you want to create a planned order in the system manually, proceed as follows:

1. Starting from the menu screen of material requirements planning, select Planned order
® Create.

The initial screen for creating a planned order appears.

2. Enter an Order profile. The order profiledetermines both the order type and the procurement type of the planned order.
3. Press
ENTER.

The details screen for maintaining material and order data now appears.

4. Enter the following information:

– If you want to enter the planned order number externally, fill in the Planned order field. You leave this field blank if you want the system to assign a planned order number internally.

– Enter the Planning plant, a Material number and the Order quantity.

– You must enter either the Planned end date or the Planned start date. The date not entered is automatically calculated by the system which uses the scheduling data for this purpose.

– If the planned order is not to be produced in a lot but in several partial lots, specify an appropriate Partial lot quantity and the Number of partial lots. If you specify the partial lot quantity, the system recalculates the order quantity using the partial lot quantity and the number of the partial lots.

– If you know that there will always be the same amount of production scrap for the total planned order quantity then fill in the Scrap quantity field.

– If a goods receipt processing time has already been defined for this material in the material master record, the system will then suggest it here as a default value in the GR proc. time field.

You can, however, overwrite the default value or, if the field is empty, you can enter a value. This entry has no effect on the value entered in the material master record.

– The Order profile, the Procurement type, the Special procurement type and the Account assignment type are all set automatically in this screen due to the order profile which you entered in the initial screen. Except for the account assignment type, these fields can no longer be changed.

– In the Conversion field, the planned order is automatically marked as being convertible. As a result, it can later be converted into a production order for in-house production or into a purchase requisition for external procurement.

– Since the planned order is created manually, it is automatically marked as being firmed in the Firming field. Firm planned orders will not be changed automatically by a planning run.

5. Press
ENTER.

The entered data is completed by additional texts and if you have not entered any dates, they will be calculated by the system.

The planning plant is automatically taken over as the production plant.

6. Save the planned order by selecting Planned order
® Save.

Creating Planned Orders with Reference

If you want to use an existing planned order as a reference for the creation of a new planned order, then, in the initial screen for creating planned orders you must specify the number of the planned order which you want to use as a reference in the reference section in the Planned order field. In so doing, all the data from the reference planned order will be automatically suggested in the details screen. If necessary, you can overwrite the data.

Changing Planned Orders

It may be necessary to make changes to an existing planned order. This can occur, for example, if the planned order in question has been firmed but if it then received a rescheduling proposal during the planning run.

If you want to change a planned order, proceed as follows:

1. Starting from the menu screen of material requirements planning, select Planned order
® Change.

The initial screen for changing a planned order now appears.

2. Enter the number of the planned order to be changed and press
ENTER.

The details screen now appears.

3. Make the necessary changes.
4. Save the changes with Planned order
® Save.

If you have made changes to a planned order, it is then treated as firm for material requirements planning - exactly as was the case for a manually created planned order. Therefore, it will not be changed during the following planning runs.

Deleting Planned Orders

It may be necessary to delete a planned order. This can occur, for example, if the planned order in question has been firmed but it no longer matches the requirements situation.

If you want to delete a planned order, proceed as follows:

1. Starting from the menu screen of material requirements planning, select Planned order
® Change.

The initial screen for changing a planned order now appears.

2. Enter the planned order number and press
ENTER.

You now reach the details screen for the planned order.

3. Select Planned order
® Delete.
4. A pop-up window appears to confirm that you really want to delete the planned order.

Verify the deletion by a double click of the mouse on Yes.

The system returns to the initial screen and reports that the Planned order was deleted.

Displaying Planned Orders

There are two different ways to display planned orders:

• 
  
Individual Display

In the individual display, you display one specific planned order.

• 
  
Collective Display

In the collective display, several planned orders are displayed that correspond to your selection criteria, for example, all planned orders of a specific MRP controller.

Individual Display Displaying Planned Orders

If you use the individual display, the system will only display one planned order. To do this, proceed as follows:

1. Starting from the menu screen of material requirements planning, select Planned order
® Display ® Individual display.

The initial screen for the planned order display now appears.

2. Enter the number of the planned order you are interested in and press
ENTER.

The planned order details screen is now displayed.

Collective Display Displaying Planned Orders

With the collective display, all planned orders which correspond to the specified selection criteria are displayed; for example, all planned orders of a certain MRP controller. To do this, proceed as follows:

1. Starting from the menu screen of mateiral requirements planning, select Planned order
® Display ® Collective display.

The initial screen for the collective display now appears.

You have the option to search for planned orders by MRP controller, material, run schedule header, version or production line.

The following procedure uses Search for planned orders via MRP controller.

2. Select an MRP controller number and choose
Search.

A dialog box appears.

3. Enter the plant and MRP contoller number.

If you want to narrow down the selection further, enter an end date, that is a date up until which the planned orders are to be displayed.

4. Press ENTER.

The system displays an overview of the all planned orders which correspond to your selection criteria.

From this overview, you have various options for processing the planned orders:

• To display additional data for a particular planned order, select the appropriate planned order and choose
Display planned ord.

A dialog box with additional data now appears.

• If you want to change a particular planned order, select the appropriate planned order and choose
Change planned order.

The details screen now appears in the change mode.

• If you want to delete a particular planned order or planned orders, select the appropriate planned order or planned orders and choose
Delete.

A dialog box appears in which you confirm that the system is to delete the planned orders.

• If you want to display a pegged requirement for a particular planned order, select the appropriate planned order and choose
Pegged requirements.

The pegged requirement screen now appears.

• If you want to display an order report for a particular planned order, select the appropriate planned order and choose
Order report.

The order report screen appears.

• If you want to sort the planned orders differently, position the cursor in the column with the criteria by which you want to sort, such as the order start date, and choose
Sort.

The system sorts the planned orders according to the sorting criteria chosen, according to the order start date, for example.

• If you want to convert a certain planned order into a purchase requisition, select the appropriate planned order and choose
Convert -> planned ordpur. req.

If you changed or converted a planned order in this overview, it will then be recorded as being firmed (X in the Firmed column).

Converting Planned Orders into Purchase Requisitions

If the start date of a planned order lies in the opening period, this is an indicator for the MRP controller that procurement must be arranged. For external procurement, the planned order should, therefore, be converted into a purchase requisition.

There are various possibilities available to you for converting planned orders into purchase requisitions:

• 
  
Individual Conversion

• 
  
Partial Conversion

Collective Conversion

Individual Conversion Converting Planned Orders into Purchase Requisitions

If you select individual conversion, you can only convert one planned order into a purchase requisition. Proceed as follows:

1. Starting from the menu screen of material requirements planning, select Planned order
® Convert ® pur.req. ® Individ. conversion.

The initial screen for the individual conversion of planned orders now appears.

2. Enter the number of the planned order you want to convert into a purchase requisition and press
ENTER.

The details screen for individual conversion of planned orders now appears.

The top part of the screen shows the planned order data and the lower part of the screen shows the purchase requisition data. The data partly comes from the planned order and partly from the material master record. The information is displayed here but, if necessary, you can overwrite the entries.

– You can enter a purchase requisition number in the Purchase requisition field (external number assignment). Otherwise, the system automatically assigns a number when the information is being saved (internal number assignment).

– Enter the Supplying plant in the case of a transport order.

– In addition, you can specify the Storage location here where goods receipt is to take place.

– Specify whether a Goods receipt and an Invoice receipt are required for the material by selecting corresponding fields.

From the details screen, you can also specify vendor data for the purchase requisition. To do this, proceed as follows:

a. Select Environment ® Vendor data.

A pop-up window for entering the vendor data now appears.

b. Enter the vendor data.

c. Press ENTER .

You return to the details screen.

3. To convert the planned order into a purchase requisition, select Planned order
® Save.

You return to the initial screen and receive the message Planned order was converted into a purchase requisition.

Partial Conversion Converting Planned Orders into Purchase Requisitions

If you do not want to convert the total planned order quantity into a purchase requisition either because the requirements situation has changed or you want to produce a part of the quantity in-house, you have the option of partially converting the planned order.

If you opt for a partial conversion, only a part of the amount quoted in the planned order is recorded in the purchase requisiti

Collective Conversion Converting Planned Orders into Purchase Requisitions

If you use the collective conversion function, you can convert several planned orders into purchase requisitions in one step. To to this, proceed as follows:

1. Starting from the menu screen of material requirements planning, select Planned order
® Convert ® pur.req. ® Collective conversion.

The initial screen for collective conversion now appears.

2. Enter the MRP controller number and the plant.

If you want to narrow down the selection further, you can also enter the planned opening date in the Planned opening field and/or the procurement type in the Procurement field.

3. Press
ENTER.

A list of all the planned orders which correspond to your selection criteria now appears.

4. Mark the planned orders you want to convert.

The planned orders are marked for conversion and marked with a check mark in the selection column.

5. Then to convert the selected planned orders into purchase requisitions, select Planned orders
® Save.

If necessary information is missing for the creation of a purchase requisition, the system interrupts the conversion and branches off into the details screen for individual conversion. Here, you can then add the missing data. After pressing ENTER again, the system will then continue with the conversion of the remaining planned orders.

To avoid the conversion being interrupted, you can predefine proposed dates for the purchase requisition. To do this, proceed as follows:

a. Select Edit ® Pur.req.default data in the screen with the list of the marked planned orders.

A pop-up window now appears where you must enter the default data.

b. Enter the data to be taken over into the purchase requisitions. This data applies to all purchase requisitions created during conversion.

c. Press ENTER .

The entered data is taken over and you then return to the list of planned orders.

d. To convert the planned orders, select Planned orders ® Save.

From the list of all selected planned orders you can also call up individual planned orders in sequence and then convert them individually.

All purchase requisitions created as described above are regarded as being fixed for material requirements planning and they are not affected by the following planning runs.

On the subject of displaying, changing and converting planned orders, please also read "Displaying, Changing and Converting MRP Elements" in Displaying, Changing, or Converting MRP Elements.

Collective Conversion in the Background Converting Planned Orders into Purchase Requisitions

As of release 4.0 you can also convert planned orders into purchase requisitions in the background. This is particularly useful if you use the creation indicator (2) Purchase requisitions in opening period in the planning run. The system creates purchase requisitions in the opening period but outside the opening period, the system creates planned orders. The planned orders must be converted into purchase requisitions in time so that purchasing receives the purchase requisitions in time. To ensure that this occurs you can use conversion in background.

To do this proceed as follows:

1. To access the screen, Convert Planned Orders into Pur. Reqs in Background, choose Planned order
® Convert -> pur. req. ® In background from the MRP screen.

The screen, Convert Planned Orders into Pur. Reqs in Background: Variations, appears.

2. Choose
Create variant and create a variant.

In the variant, you define the plant, MRP controller and until which opening date conversion is to occur.

3. Complete the necessary attributes for the variant.
4. Choose
Schedule job. Set whether scheduling is to occur once or periodically and enter the dates. Scheduling once means the scheduling occurs once on a certain date.Periodic scheduling means the scheduling occurs regularly on set dates.
5. The system automatically converts planned orders into purchase requisitions on the set dates.

MRP Parameters Topics

Overview

Maintaining MRP Parameters

General Parameters

Parameters Dependent on the MRP Procedures

Parameters for Scheduling

Parameters for Calculating the Lot Size

Parameters for Storage Location MRP

PPC Planning Calendar

Creating Planning Calendars: with Calculation Rule

Creating Planning Calendar: without Calculation Rule

Changing Planning Calendars

Protecting Periods Against Automatic Changes

Displaying Planning Calendars

Maintaining Calendars that are no Longer Valid

Deleting Planning Calendars

Rounding Profile: How does the System Calculate the Order Quantity?

MRP Parameters Overview

If you want to carry out material requirements planning for a material, then you first have to specify certain parameters for this material in the material master record. These MRP parameters can be divided into five areas:

• 
  
General Parameters

• 
  
Parameters Dependent on the MRP Procedures

• 
  
Parameters for Scheduling

• 
  
Parameters for Calculating the Lot Size

Parameters for Storage Location MRP

Maintaining MRP Parameters

Before you can carry out material requirements planning for a material, you must first of all maintain the parameters in the material master record which the system requires in order to carry out this task. This is done as described below:

1. Starting from the menu screen of the material master, select Material
® Create general.
2. Enter the material type, allocate it to an industry sector and press
ENTER.

The pop-up window for Select View(s) appears on your screen.

3. Select views MRP 1 and MRP 2 and MRP 3 and then press
ENTER.

The pop-up window for the Organizational Levels/Profiles now appears.

4. Because material requirements are planned at plant level, you must enter the appropriate plant. You only have to enter the storage location, however, if you want to carry out storage location MRP. In so doing, the entered storage location is treated as an independent unit during planning (see
Storage Location MRP).
5. Press
ENTER.

The MRP 1 data screen now appears.

6. Once you have filled in the required entries and pressed
ENTER again, the MRP 2 data screen appears.
7. Fill in the required entries in this screen as well, and then press
ENTER.

The MRP 3 data screen now appears.

8. Fill in the required entries in this screen and then save your entries by selecting Material
® Save

In the following section, a detailed description is given of all the MRP parameters that are available. For a more detailed description of the maintenance options in the material master record, please refer to the document MM Managing Material Master Data.

General MRP Parameters

There are parameters in the material master record that you can determine for every material, independent of MRP and lot-sizing procedures:

Procurement type

The procurement type is automatically suggested by the system depending on the material type. However, you can overwrite the default value. A material can be produced in-house, it can be externally procured or it can be partly produced in-house and partly procured externally. If both procurement types are possible for a material but you only want to specify one, then you must enter the appropriate indicator here.

MRP group

The MRP group, groups together materials from the planning point of view for allocating special control parameters for the planning run. The MRP group is defined in Customizing where it is also provided with the control parameters.

Special procurement type

Entering a special procurement type makes it possible for you to specify the procurement type "in-house production" or "external procurement" more exactly. For example, setting this indicator would make it possible for you to determine that an externally procured material should be procured via consignment orders.

MRP controller

In this field, you must enter a key for a single MRP controller or for a group of MRP controllers who/which is responsible for the planning of a material. In the future, you can process the MRP results according to the MRP controller.

Purchasing group

In this field, you must enter a key for a buyer or for a group of buyers who/which is responsible for purchasing the material. As a result, during a planning run, order proposals for externally procured materials can immediately be allocated to the appropriate purchasing group.

ABC indicator

With the ABC indicator, you can classify the material according to its consumption value. This indicator is used within logistics controlling for analysis purposes. It can also be automatically specified by the system.

PPC Planning calendar

With the planning calendar, you can define flexible period lengths for grouping requirements together and for determining procurement dates. To make this possible, you must select the lot-sizing procedure, Period lot size according to planning calendar and you must also specify a planning calendar. The requirements quantities are then grouped together into a lot according to the period that you determined in the planning calendar. The procurement date is copied from the planning calendar.

If you use the time-phased planning procedure, you can record the delivery cycle in this field (see Delivery Cycle).

For more detailed information on the use and maintenance of the planning calendar, please refer to the section entitled PPC Planning Calendar.

Quota arrangement

With this indicator, you can determine whether a material should participate in the quota arrangement and which transactions/events result in a quota arrangement. This means that you can determine, for example, that only purchase orders take part in quota arrangements or that order proposals, created by requirements planning take part in quota arrangements.

Availability check

With this indicator, you determine whether sales orders result in individual or collective requirements for requirements planning and also how the availability check for a material is carried out by the system. This indicator also controls:

• whether the system creates individual or collective requirements when you create sales orders for this material

• which MRP elements (for example, purchase orders, or reservations) the system should take into account for the availability check

• whether the availability check should not be carried out until the end of the replenishment lead time or whether it should be carried out for the entire period in which MRP elements exist

Total replenishment lead time

Time that is needed for the complete production and procurement of a finished product or an assembly. This value is an estimate value and is used for the availability check.

MM/PP status

By allocating a material status from the view of materials management and production planning, you determine for which business transactions a material is used. If a material is not provided for a certain transaction, you specify whether a warning or an error message appears with this status.

Mixed MRP

You use this indicator to provide the material for special planning types:

To carry out assembly planning for a material, the respective indicator must be set here.

To carry out gross requirements planning or dual planning for a material, the respective indicator must be set here.

Individual/Collective

This indicator controls whether individual customer requirements planning is allowed for dependent requirements.

• In individual planning, this indicator is used to display the dependent
  requirements of a component separately.

• In collective requirements, this indicator is used to display the dependent
  requirements of a component grouped together.

Range of coverage profile

The range of coverage profile determines the parameters used in the calculation of the dynamic safety stock. You can use the dynamic safety stock to plan an additional safety stock which is based on the average daily requirements and which is available for planning purposes.

The dynamic safety stock is calculated using the following formula:

- average daily requirements * range of coverage

You define the range of coverage profile in Customizing for materials planning by determining the parameters for the ranges of coverage and the calculation of the average daily requirements.

Please refer to the SAP document Master planning / MRP for more information on this subject.

If you use the time-phased planning procedure, you should also refer to the section entitled Range of Coverage Profile in Time-Phased Planning.

Repetitive manufacturing

You use this indicator to mark that a material is available for repetitive manufacturing.

MRP Parameters Dependent on the MRP Procedures

As well as the general parameters described above, you must also determine the MRP procedure in the material master record according to which the material is to be planned. You do this by specifying the so-called MRP type.

MRP types and meaning:

VB	Manual reorder point planning: with manual calculation of the reorder level and safety stock
VM	Automatic reorder point planning procedure: with automatic calculation of the reorder level and safety stock
VV	Forecast-based planning: with forecast for planning total stock
VR	Time-phased planning
R2	Time-phased planning: with automatic calculation of reorder level
PD	MRP without BOM explosion

After you have specified the MRP procedure, you enter the parameters dependent on the planning procedure that you selected. An overview of these parameters is provided in the following table.

Parameters Dependent on the MRP Type

For...	You must maintain	You can maintain
VB	reorder level	safety stock
VM	reorder level	safety stock
VV		safety stock
		reorder level , but does not make sense
VR	planning cycle	safety stock
		reorder level
R2	planning cycle	safety stock
	reorder level
PD		safety stock
		reorder level, but does not make sense

Planning cycle

Key that determines on which days the material is to be planned and ordered. If a vendor always delivers a material on a certain days of the week, it makes sense to carry out the planning run according to the same cycle, but displaced by the delivery time. The planning cycle is entered as a planning calendar in the system. It is required for time-phased planning (see Time-Phased Planning).

Safety stock

The safety stock is used to prevent material shortfalls during the stocking-up period which may occur if consumption is unexpectedly high or if delivery dates are not kept. You have the choice between manually determining the safety stock or letting the system automatically determine it for you when carrying out the forecast. Safety stock forms a part of the reorder level and is not included in requirements planning.

Service level

If the safety stock level is to be calculated by the system then you must specify a service level. This level indicates the percentage of existing requirements which is to be covered by warehouse stock. The higher you specify the service level, the higher the system will calculate the safety stock level in order to compensate for additional consumption or delays in delivery.

Reorder level

The reorder level is only relevant for reorder point planning. In automatic reorder point planning, the system calculates the reorder level during forecasting. If a material master record is recreated, the reorder level must always be entered manually even if it is overwritten again by the system as is the case in automatic reorder point planning. It is thus possible to plan a material even if no forecast has yet been carried out for it.

If you enter a reorder level for time-phased planning, the system uses a mixture of the two planning procedures, reorder point planning and time-phased planning: materials that are planned using time-phased planning are not only included in the planning run on the MRP date, but they are also replanned if material stock falls below the reorder level due to a goods issue.

The following fields are only significant if the forecast must be carried out because of the MRP type which was chosen. For example, this is the case for automatic reorder point planning, for forecast-based planning, and for time-phased planning.

Period indicator

The period indicator specifies the time period for which the system is to store historical or forecast values. You can define the period indicator when maintaining the MRP parameters as well as when you are maintaining the forecast parameters.

Fiscal year variant

You must enter the fiscal year variant if you want to create a flexible period length equal to the accounting period for the material.

Splitting indicator

If you specify a splitting indicator, the system will only take a certain number of periods into account for requirements planning and it will also split them into smaller time periods (as long as the period indicator is not set to daily quantities). The splitting indicator is irrelevant for reorder point planning.

MRP Parameters for Scheduling

In scheduling, the system determines the basic dates for all the order proposals that it created during material requirements planning. To be able to plan these order proposals exactly, the following parameters are important when you are maintaining the material master record:

Scheduling margin key

The scheduling margin key is used to allocate floats to the material for calcualating basic dates and for carrying out lead time scheduling for the planned order - for materials that are produced in-house. The float is the opening period for determining basic dates and the float before production and the float after production for lead time scheduling. You maintain the floats in Customizing and they are calculated in workdays.

Planned delivery time

The planned delivery time determines the time required to obtain a material by means of external procurement. You must only enter the planned delivery time if the material is externally procured.

In-house production time

The in-house production time determines the length of time required to produce an assembly or a finished product. The in-house production time is independent of the order quantity. You must only enter this indicator if the material in question is to be produced in-house.

Goods receipt processing time

The goods receipt processing time specifies the time required to inspect the material and to transfer it to stock. It represents the time span (in workdays) between the receipt of the goods and the inward stock movement. The system also takes goods receipt processing time into account during scheduling.

MRP Parameters for Calculating the Lot Size

Once you have specified an MRP procedure and the appropriate parameters for this particular procedure, you must also enter the procedure according to which the system is to calculate the lot size for material requirements planning. Depending on the selected lot-sizing procedure, you can/must specify either one or several of the parameters given in the following Table:

Parameters required for lot-size calculation

Do you use...	You must maintain	You can maintain
Lot-for-lot order quantity		Minimum lot size
		Maximum lot size
		Rounding profile
		Rounding value
Fixed lot size	Fixed lot size
Replenish up to maximum stock quantity		Maximum stock
Period lot size		Minimum lot size
		Maximum lot size
		Rounding profile
		Rounding value
Optimum lot size	Lot size independent costs	Minimum lot size
	Storage costs indicator	Maximum lot size
		Rounding profile
		Rounding value

Period and optimum lot-sizing procedures are irrelevant as far as manual reorder point planning is concerned as these two procedures need the future requirement values for lot-sizing which can only be determined by using the forecast.
The lot-sizing procedure, "replenish up to maximum stock level" can only be used for reorder point planning.

Minimum lot size

By setting a minimum lot size, you are instructing the system (during lot-size calculation) to create an order proposal for at least the amount which is specified here even if a smaller quantity would have been sufficient.

Maximum lot size

By entering a maximum lot size, you can determine that during the lot-size calculation, the system will not exceed the quantity specified here for order proposals.

Rounding profile

You use the rounding profile to instruct the system to adjust the order quantity to a deliverable unit. In Customizing, enter a threshhold value per deliverable unit from which the system is to round up to the next unit.

Please refer to the section, Rounding Profile: How does the System Calculate the Order Quantity?.

Rounding value

By entering a rounding value, you are instructing the system to round up the receipt quantity to a multiple of the value specified here.

For the "fixed lot size with splitting and overlapping" procedure, the rounding value is also used to determine the partial quantities into which the total quantity of the planned order (field fixed lot size) is split.

Fixed lot size

By entering a fixed lot size, you are instructing the system to create order proposals for the amount of the fixed lot size specified here. It only makes sense to use the fixed lot size if you selected either the "fixed lot-sizing procedure" or the "fixed lot size with splitting/overlapping".

Cycle time

If you select the lot-sizing procedure, "fixed lot size with splitting and overlapping", then you must also enter a cycle time. The cycle time specifies the time interval in which the planned orders, which are created using this lot-sizing procedure, may overlap.

Maximum stock level

In this case, the system will create an order proposal for the amount that results from subtracting the available stock from the maximum stock level during the lot-sizing procedure, "replenish up to maximum stock level".

Lot size independent costs

The system only requires the lot size independent costs for the optimum lot-sizing procedure. In this case, the most economical lot size is determined by means of the lot size independent costs and the storage costs

Storage costs indicator

The system only requires the storage costs indicator for optimum lot-sizing procedures. With this indicator, you can determine the storage cost percentage which the system uses during the lot size calculation.

Parameters for Storage Location MRP

If you want the system to treat certain storage locations as independent units during a planning run, then you must specify this in the material master record for the storage locations in question. To do this, you must enter the storage location in question in the Organizational Levels/Profiles pop-up window and then you must enter the following parameters in the MRP 3 data screen:

MRP indicator

By determining the MRP indicator, you are instructing the system how to treat the storage location during requirements planning. You can exclude the storage location from MRP or it can be replenished with goods from the plant warehouse.

Reorder level and replenishment quantity

You only have to maintain these fields if storage location stock is to be replenished by plant stock. If storage location stock is less than the reorder level which you determined then the system will create a stock transfer reservation from plant stock to storage location stock for the replenishment quantity which you specified.

The fields which can be seen in the MRP 2 or MRP 3 data screen under the section heading Requirements explosion or Consumption are only relevant for MRP with BOM explosion.

MRP PPC Planning Calendar

You use the PPC planning calendar to specify flexible period lengths for master planning and material requirements planning.

On the one hand, you can use it to define flexible splitting periods for demand management. This means that the total planned independent requirements quantity for a certain period (for example, for one year) can be divided up according to the period defaults in the planning calendar.

On the other hand, flexible periods can be specified for a period lot-sizing procedure for master production scheduling and material requirements planning. The system groups together the order proposals, created in the period defined in the planning calendar into one lot. You allocate this special lot-sizing procedure to the material in the material master record together with the planning calendar.

You can also use the periods in the planning calendar for the period totals display in the stock/requirements list. If a planning calendar is valid for a particular material or if a planning calendar is entered at plant level in Customizing, the receipts and issues can also be displayed in the period totals display according to the planning calendar.

Creating Planning Calendars: with Calculation Rule MRP

To create a planning calendar with a calculation rule, proceed as follows:

1. Starting from the Material Requirements Planning menu, select Masterdata
® Planning calendar ® Create periods.

The initial screen for maintaining the planning calendar now appears.

2. Enter the plant for which the planning calendar is to apply.
3. Enter a three-digit combination of numbers or letters for identifying the calendar.

This entry is alphanumeric.

4. Press
ENTER.

The maintenance screen of the planning calendar now appears.

5. Enter a short description of the planning calendar.
6. Enter the minimum period in the Minimum period field.

The minimum period is used as a checking limit for maintaining calendars that are no longer valid. By defining the minimum period, you define a period that you can use to process a calendar that is no longer valid. As soon as this checking limit has been exceeded, the calendar is proposed automatically by the system for processing (please refer to Maintaining Calendars that are no Longer Valid). Therefore, you should make sure that the minimum period is long enough so that the planning calendar is proposed on time. You define the validity period of the planning calendar after you have specified the calculation rule.

7. Specify how the system should proceed if the period start happens to fall on a day that is not defined as a workday in the factory calendar.

– If you want the system to select the preceding workday, select Previous workday.

– If you want the system to select the the following workday, select Following workday.

8. Press
ENTER.

The pop-up window "Select Calculation Rule" now appears. The calculation rule determines the calculation of the periods for the planning calendar.

9. Select the calculation rule you require.

You can choose between the following calculation rules:

– Weeks (week days)

The period is one week. One period stretches from a certain day of the week to another day of the week which you must specify.

– Months (week days)

The period is one month. You define the period start or the period end by entering a weekday and how often it is to be repeated (for example, every second Wednesday).

– Months (workdays)

The period is one month. You can specify the workday/workdays of the planning calendar according to the workdays defined in the factory calendar.

– Year (workdays)

The period is one year. You can specify the workday/workdays of the planning calendar according to the workdays defined in the factory calendar.

– Workdays

For this calculation rule, you enter the start date and then the periodicity.

– Week days

The calculation rule is specified by defining the week period and also the day of the week (for example, every second Wednesday).

10. Press
Continue.

In the screen area "Calculation rule for period specification", the the system asks you to specify the parameters of the corresponding calculation rule.

11. Enter the start date for the period calculation in the field Calculation start date .
12. Enter the appropriate periodicity.
13. Press
ENTER or select, Edit ® Calculate periods.

The pop-up window "New Dates" now appears.

14. The start date that you entered in the previous screen is displayed in the field Valid from (it may possibly have been shifted to a valid workday). You can change the date here, if necessary.

In the Valid to field, the time period that results from the minimum period, is displayed. Here, you enter the date up until which the system is to calculate the periods.

15. Press
Continue.

You then receive the display of the calculated periods.

The number of the displayed periods is used in the stock/requirements list when you display this list using period totals and if the display is set according to a planning calendar.

If you do not want to carry out any further changes, save your entries.

If you want to change or delete certain periods, please refer to Changing Planning Calendars.

Creating MRP Planning Calendar: without Calculation Rule

To create a planning calendar without a calculation rule, proceed as follows:

Starting from the Material Requirements Planning menu, select, Master data

® Planning calendar ® Create periods.

The initial screen for maintaining the planning calendar now appears.

Enter the plant for which the planning calendar is to apply.

Enter a three-digit combination of numbers or letters for identifying the calendar. This entry is alphanumeric.

Press

ENTER.

The maintenance screen of the planning calendar now appears.

Enter a short description of the planning calendar.

Enter the minimum period in the Minimum period field.

The minimum period is used as a checking limit for maintaining calendars that are no longer valid. By defining the minimum period, you define a period that you can use to process a calendar that is no longer valid. As soon as this checking limit has been exceeded, the calendar is proposed automatically by the system for processing (please refer to Maintaining Calendars that are no Longer Valid). Therefore, you should make sure that the minimum period is long enough so that the planning calendar is proposed on time. You define the validity period of the planning calendar after you have specified the calculation rule.

Specify how the system should proceed if the period start happens to fall on a day that is not defined as a workday in the factory calendar.

Select Goto

® Periods.

Enter the start and finish dates as well as the number of the periods.

If you only enter start dates, the finish dates are automatically calculated by the system (except for the last finish date).

If you only enter finish dates, the system will automatically the start dates.

Save your entries.

Changing MRP PPC Planning Calendars

If you want to change already existing planning calendars, proceed as follows:

1. Starting from the Material Requirements Planning menu screen, select, Master data
® Planning calendar ® Change periods.

The initial screen for maintaining the planning calendar now appears.

2. Enter the plant for which the planning calendar is to be valid.
3. Select
Calendar overview.

All the planning calendars available in the system are displayed for selection.

4. Select one or more planning calendars and select
Continue.

The first selected planning calendar now appears. Here, you can carry out the changes necessary.

Defining New Procurement Dates

To determine new procurement dates and periods, proceed as follows:

1. Select Edit
® Change calcul. rule.
2. Select the new calculation rule.

You can choose between the following calculation rules:

– Weeks (week days)

The period is one week. One period stretches from a certain day of the week to another day of the week which you must specify.

– Months (week days)

The period is one month. You define the period start or the period end by entering a weekday and how often it is to be repeated (for example, every second Wednesday).

– Months (workdays)

The period is one month. You can specify the workday/workdays of the planning calendar according to the workdays defined in the factory calendar.

– Year (workdays)

The period is one year. You can specify the workday/workdays of the planning calendar according to the workdays defined in the factory calendar.

– Workdays

For this calculation rule, you enter the start date and then the periodicity.

– Week days

The calculation rule is specified by defining the week period and also the day of the week (for example, every second Wednesday).

3. Press
Continue.
1. In the screen area "Calculation rule for period specification", the the system asks you to specify the parameters of the corresponding calculation rule.
4. Enter the start date of the period calculation in the Calculation start date field.
5. Enter the required periodicity.
6. Press
ENTER or select, Edit ® Calculate periods.
1. The pop-up window "New Dates" now appears.
7. The start date that you entered in the previous screen is displayed in the field Valid from (it may possibly have been shifted to a valid workday). You can change the date here, if necessary.
1. In the Valid to field, the time period that results from the minimum period, is displayed. Here, you enter the date up until which the system is to calculate the periods.
8. Press
Continue.
1. You then receive the display of the calculated periods.
9. If you do not want to carry out any further changes, save your entries.

Creating New Periods Manually

1. To create individual periods, select Goto
® Periods.

The period display screen now appears.

2. Position the cursor on the line where you want to create a new period and select,
Insert.
1. It is now possible to make the necessary changes in To date line that you selected and in the following line in the From date field.
3. Enter a new period end and a new period start.

After pressing ENTER , a message or a course of action is displayed for the changes in the line to the right of the periods.

Changing Existing Periods Manually

1. To change existing periods, select Goto
® Periods.

The period display screen now appears.

2. Overwrite the From date and the To date.

After pressing ENTER , a message or a course of action is displayed for the changes in the line to the right of the periods.

Deleting Individual Periods

1. To delete existing periods, select Goto
® Periods.

The period display screen now appears.

2. Position the cursor on the line that you want ot delete and select,
Delete entry.
1. The corresponding period is deleted.
3. Save your entries.

If you selected several calendars in the overview, the system now automatically displays the next planning calendar that you selected.