Introduction:
In certain business scenarios, the need arises for purchase requisitions generated by Material Requirements Planning (MRP) to have delivery dates aligned with specific dates based on a planning calendar. This requirement becomes especially crucial when dealing with MRP-generated stock transfer purchase requisitions, where materials will be shipped from one plant to another based on a predefined calendar and delivery schedule.
This article will delve into achieving this functionality using standard SAP configuration. By implementing the following steps, businesses can ensure that MRP-generated purchase requisitions are scheduled to be delivered on specific dates, as per the requirements dictated by their planning calendar.
Below are the high-level steps:
- Understanding the Business Need: First and foremost, it is essential to comprehend the specific business requirements that necessitate the alignment of delivery dates. This could include stock transfer purchase requisitions generated by MRP. Sometimes, business requires a certain ship schedule for the replenishment outbound delivery created for stock transfer orders. As SAP works on delivery schedules, fixing the delivery date and configuring the route properly is important to achieve the shipping schedule.
- Configure the Lot Sizing Procedure: The lot sizing procedure is the key and brain for the whole process. The lot sizing procedure must be configured based on the delivery date.
- Creating the Planning Calendar: In SAP, a planning calendar can be created or utilized to map out specific dates when deliveries are expected to occur. This is the heart of the whole process. This calendar should consider factors like weekends, holidays, and other company-specific non-working days that might impact the delivery schedule.
- Linking Planning Calendar and Lot Sizing Procedure to Material Master: Lot sizing procedure and planning calendar need to be assigned to the material master at the respective plant where you want MRP-generated purchase requisitions to follow the delivery date as per the planning calendar. This linkage will enable the system to calculate the appropriate delivery date based on the predefined schedule.
- Create a demand: Demand can be based on planned independent requirements or customer orders or reservation or consumption-based planning (i.e., reorder point or forecast based)
- MRP Run and Purchase Requisition Generation: Once the configuration is in place, perform the MRP run to trigger the generation of purchase requisitions. During this process, the system will consider the planning calendar and lot sizing procedure to compute the delivery dates according to the established rules.
- Review and Adjustment: After MRP generates the purchase requisitions, reviewing the results and verifying that the delivery dates align correctly with the planning calendar is crucial. Adjustments can be made to the planning calendar or other configuration settings to fine-tune the process.
Configuration Activities:
Step 1: Understanding the Business Need: Let’s say that the business requirement is to have purchase requisitions delivery date every Wednesday.
Step 2: Configure the Lot Sizing Procedure
SPRO IMG Path: SPRO -> Materials Management -> Consumption-Based Planning -> Planning -> Lot-Size Calculation -> Define Lot-Sizing Procedure -> MRP Lot Size (T-code: OMI4)
Create a New Lot Size (for Example, ZK) by coping Standard SAP Lot Size: PK and change Date Interpretation = 1 – Delivery Date.
Step 3: Creating the Planning Calendar (T-code: MD25)
Step 4: Linking Planning Calendar and Lot Sizing Procedure to Material Master (T-code: MM02)
Step 5: Create a demand (t-code: MD61)
I am loading the forecast/planned independent requirement using MD61 in this example.
Step 6: MRP Run and Purchase Requisition Generation (T-code: MD01N)
Step 7: Review and Adjustment (T-code: MD04)
Note: 1st purchase requisition was created on 8/9/2023 because of 7 days of purchasing department processing time.
