Unit 2: General Configuration

Lesson 1 · Defining Planning Levels

Key concepts

In SAP S/4HANA the MRP area is the one and only organizational level at which MRP runs. An MRP area always lies inside a single plant; it can never span plants. There are three types:

The plant MRP area initially holds everything. Each time you define a storage location or subcontractor MRP area, the plant MRP area shrinks by exactly those stocks, because they are now planned separately. A storage location can belong to only one MRP area, and a subcontractor MRP area contains only one subcontractor. The minimum length of five characters avoids clashes with four-character plant numbers.

Three typical set-ups

Benefits of storage location / subcontractor MRP areas

• Precise, separately timed staging for a production line, a spare-parts warehouse or a subcontractor.
• Separate planning parameters (MRP type, lot size, reorder point …) and even a separate forecast per MRP area.
• Separate consumption history per MRP area.
• Separate MRP lists and stock/requirements lists per MRP area; collective display can select one MRP area or all MRP areas of a plant.

Assignment of MRP elements

• Receipts (planned orders, purchase requisitions) carry the receiving storage location. If it belongs to an MRP area, the receipt is assigned to that area automatically.
• Issues (planned independent requirements, sales orders, dependent requirements, reservations) carry the issuing storage location determined during the run. If the storage location belongs to an MRP area for which the material has MRP area data, the requirement is planned there; otherwise in the plant MRP area.

Special procurement: stock transfer from plant to MRP area

To use this, create an MRP area segment for the material and assign the special procurement key "stock transfer from plant to MRP area". The receiving storage location is the external procurement storage location in the MRP area segment; if none is maintained, the receiving storage location of the MRP area in Customizing is used. Planning stock transfers between two storage location MRP areas is not supported.

Configuration (IMG)

1. Define the MRP area (number ≥ 5 characters, type 02 or 03, plant) with OMIZ.
2. For type 02: enter a receiving storage location and assign one or more storage locations. For type 03: assign exactly one subcontractor (supplier).
3. Create MRP area segments in the material master (MRP 1 view) for each material to be planned in a storage location MRP area (MM02).
4. Optionally activate the cross-plant view for MD04 to show MRP elements of all plants/MRP areas together.

Lesson 2 · Maintaining and Configuring Material Master Data

MRP data in the material master

The material master is organised into views per department. MRP fields live in the MRP 1–MRP 4 views; the Forecasting view holds forecast parameters and the Purchasing view also contains MRP-relevant data (e.g. purchasing group). A material is only planned automatically if MRP data exists for the plant and, if required, the MRP area.

Create MRP views with MM01 or the Fiori app Create Material (same scope as MM01). The app Manage Product Master Data has a reduced scope and does not support MRP profiles.

Organizational level and MRP area segments

MRP fields are plant-level data. In addition, the MRP 1 view lets you create MRP area segments in which MRP type, lot size and other parameters can differ. Without a storage location MRP area segment, the material is planned only in the plant MRP area. A material can have several segments. Forecasts per MRP area are possible but only as individual or total forecasts, not interactively; consumption history is kept per MRP area. Setting the deletion flag on a segment moves its dependent requirements and reservations back to the plant MRP area. Mass maintenance of MRP area segments is possible with report RMMDDIBE. A list of materials per MRP area is available in the MRP area Customizing (Material Overview for MRP Area).

MRP profile

An MRP profile is a reusable template of MRP field values that is independent of any single material. It defines which fields are filled, with which values, and whether each value is a default (can be overwritten) or fixed (cannot be changed in the material). Create it with MMD1; list where a profile is used with MMD7.

• Entering a profile at creation copies both default and fixed values; assigning a profile later copies only fixed values.
• Changing a profile starts background job PROFILE, which updates fixed values in all assigned materials and writes change documents. Its start time is set in Customizing (Logistics – General › Material Master › Tools › Define Start Time of Background Jobs); immediate start via program RMMM0001 in SA38.
• Forecast profiles work on exactly the same principle for forecast fields.

Material status

The material status restricts usage of a material – it defines for which MM and PP functions (including MRP) a warning or error is raised, typically during design or change phases. It can be set cross-plant (Basic Data 1) or plant-specific (MRP 1). A default cross-plant status can be proposed per material type.

MRP type

The MRP type (plant or MRP area data) selects the MRP procedure and carries further controls. Standard types can be adjusted and new ones created with OMDQ. The only difference between VB and VM is who sets the reorder point: the MRP controller manually, or the forecast automatically.

External requirements in reorder point planning

Consumption-based procedures normally ignore requirement elements to avoid double planning – future demand is assumed to be covered already by the reorder point or forecast. For reorder point planning you can nevertheless include them with the indicator Include external requirements:

Further requirement types (e.g. purchase order reservations, stock transfer requisitions) can additionally be selected. Standard: V1 manual and V2 automatic reorder point planning with external requirements.

Lot-sizing procedures

After the net requirements calculation has found shortage quantities and dates, the lot-size calculation decides the actual procurement quantity. Procedures are defined with OMI4 and fall into three categories:

"Exact" is a static procedure and "dynamic" belongs to the optimizing category – they are not categories themselves. In time-phased planning, lot-for-lot is the natural choice.

Restrictions on the lot size

• Rounding value: lot size is always a multiple of a delivery/packing unit (e.g. a pallet).
• Rounding profile (OWD1): pairs of threshold value and rounding value – above the threshold the quantity is rounded up to the rounding value. Useful to exploit price scales. Example: with prices 100 / 80 / 68 EUR per piece at 1 / 100 / 1000 pieces, ordering 100 pieces costs 8,000 EUR, which equals 100 pieces at 80 EUR – so above 80 pieces rounding up to 100 is worthwhile; similarly 1000 × 68 = 68,000 EUR equals 850 × 80, so above 850 pieces round to 1000.
• Rounding profile in the material master is used by MRP; a rounding profile in the purchasing info record only acts when converting a requisition or creating a PO manually.
• Minimum / maximum lot size: the system rounds up to the minimum lot size and never exceeds the maximum per proposal.

Elements of scheduling – replenishment lead time

If the planning run finds a source of supply (info record or outline agreement), the planned delivery time and GR processing time stored there take priority over the material master.

Configuration (IMG)

Unit summary & exam focus

MRP areas (plant, storage location, subcontractor) define where planning happens inside a plant. The material master holds the planning parameters at plant and MRP area level; profiles and material status ease maintenance and control use. The MRP type selects the procedure and its forecast/reorder-point controls; lot-sizing procedures and restrictions shape the quantity; RLT components drive the dates.

T-codes in this unit

Self-check questions

1. How many subcontractors can one subcontractor MRP area contain?
   Answer

   Exactly one.
2. What happens to the plant MRP area when you create a storage location MRP area?
   Answer

   It is reduced by exactly the stock of the assigned storage locations, which are now planned separately.
3. Why must storage location MRP area numbers have at least five characters?
   Answer

   To avoid overlapping with plant MRP areas, whose numbers equal the four-character plant numbers.
4. You assign an MRP profile to an existing material. Which values are transferred?
   Answer

   Only the fixed values; default values are proposed only when the profile is entered during creation.
5. Name the three lot-sizing categories and give one example each.
   Answer

   Static (lot-for-lot, fixed, replenish to max stock), periodic (daily/weekly/monthly/posting period/planning calendar), optimizing (e.g. dynamic lot size, part period balancing).
6. Where is the purchasing department processing time maintained?
   Answer

   In the plant parameters in Customizing (OMI8), not in the material master.
7. Which value of "include external requirements" restricts them to the replenishment lead time?
   Answer

   Value 2.
8. When does a rounding profile in the info record take effect?
   Answer

   Only when converting a requisition into a PO or creating a PO manually; MRP uses the rounding profile of the material master.