Production Order Production Setup Time

My client has a production setup where there is a particular activity which has a setup time of 8 hrs when it is executed for the first time, but if another production order is taken up for the same material then the set up rime is zero. That is if I produce a material x at a particular work center the for the first time the set up time is 8 hrs, but if another production order of same material x is executed right after this order then the setup time is zero. Now, if we give the setup time as 8 hrs in routing then the system will calculate total time taking 8 hrs as setup time each time. Is there any way in which the system takes the setup time as zero when a production order for a particular material as repeated.

Soumyadipta

Take a look at the functionality associated with the set up group and transition matrix, if I remember rightly though the setup times are only adjusted after production orders have been despatched in the planning table as this is the first time SAP is aware of the sequence of manufacture

Paul

If I am not wrong, setup matrix and transition matrix can be made use of when you go from one operation to the other in a particular routing. But, here there is only 1 operation in the routing and that operation is being repeated for different production orders of the same material. Can this different setup times be given for this same operation.

Soumyadipta

If I remember if setup group key is defined in the operation in the routing and then the transition times between setup keys is maintained in configuration.

So it's possible to create something like the following:

From Key 1 To Key 1 30 mins
From Key 1 To Key 2 8 hours

So different the operations in orders for the same material should both have the same key and should have a setup time on 30 mins between them.

Then when a different material with a different setup key comes along in the manufacturing sequence it will pick up an 8 hour setup time

Paul

I am facing a much similar problem. We have 15 work stations and daily 50 - 60 production orders are printed. I am maintaining production time as well as set up time in the routings ( There exists a separate routing for all the part no's ). When a production order is printed it copies the setup time from routings. Suppose in one work station there happens has to be 2 production orders processed one by one then the setup is only once. but due to the fact that setup is present in the routings the production order shows a non-conformity of setup time for the 2nd production order. How to solve this problem.

Narendra S

We have a similar situation in the company I work for, we don't actually maintain routings at material level but use reference operation sets at an aggregate level to represent the different production footprints (the link to each material is then made through the production version in the material master).

We measure the actual setup time confirmed in each order belonging to each footprint / family over a rolling three month period and maintain an average setup time in the reference operation set. This gets copied to each production order, but is only to make sure that a time allowance is left in each production week for set up to create meaningful capacity planning data.

When the planners develop the manufacturing schedule using the graphical planning table they then update the setup time in each order automatically with the setup times maintained in the transition matrix so it's more accurate, as it takes account of the order being made on the workcentre previously. So in our case two orders sharing the same footprint will have different setup times.

Production Order Material Stock in Production Order

I have the problem in stock against production order:

Our scenario is we don’t want to create a sales order. I create a production order that has 5 operations. The first operation is sub contracting. Through control key (External operation) I create the purchase requisition and convert purchase order in that operation. Through the PO I can issue the ROH and received HALB. When I received the HALB the stock of ROH is automatically reduced. But HALB stock doesn’t increase. In this case where is my HALB material for second operation?

In this case how to proceed?

Do you have a material code for HALB? if you have material code than you can have stock increased. I think there's some mistake with the process. the subcontracting in operation is only for the operation, not the material.

In your configuration, you subcontract the first operation of the FERT production. and there's no stock increase of FERT or HALB when the first operation is completed (confirmation by purchase order...)

And what you want could be possible like this:

You create the HALB material code, and you make it external procurement (F in standard) and with special procurement key subcontracting (30 in standard) (enter these fields in material master mrp2 view). Then you can create purchase order for the HALB material when needed, and send ROH material to the subcontractor for the purchase order and post goods receipt for HALB material and stock increases. And accordingly, since the production of HALB is a different process, not a sub process of FERT material, you should change the routing of FERT material to 4 operations, omitting the first operation, which is subcontracted production of HALB. And you should also change the BOM of the FERT material, and remove the ROH (which is used for producing HALB) and put the HALB material itself.

Production Order Automatic Conversion to Production Orders

Is there anyone out there who knows if it is possible to make an automatic change of planned orders to production orders right away - or perhaps even to skip the planned orders and create pp - orders instead?
I have a customer who want to do this (skip the manual conversion).
Perhaps it is impossible?

To create production orders in MRP run without checking first the order proposals (planned orders) is not a recommended process at all. It is against the accepted norms in production/inventory management and its MRP-2 logic on which SAP software is also based on.

If you have complex production - you'd have a nightmare closing all the production orders with the errors not resolved at the prior to conversion stage. On the other hand, if it is too simple production with only a handful of operations and no strict requirement of production control (which seems to be your case, for me), then please do away with production orders, and use the repetitive manufacturing where planned orders are the final.

I am confident that a consultant who can see the need and benefit for the wisdom of planned order conversion as a separate manual process, should ALWAYS be able to convince customer.

As always, the question is, whether you want the right shoe to fit the foot, or cut the foot to fit the shoe.

Production Order Regarding Production Order Confirmation

Production order confirmation with future date is not allowed

Future dates can be configured in the confirmation configuration.

In configuration OPK4, define confirmation parameters.

When this configuration comes up, in the "Checks" Sections, the last parameter says

"Date in the future."

Check this box if you want your dates in the future.

It determines whether dates in the future can be used in a confirmation.

If the indicator is not set, you cannot make any confirmations using dates in the future.

If you try to do so, the system will issues an error message.

What is the importance of Production Order confirmation? Is there any specification to use type of confirmation ie., CO11 or CO15 or CO11N ?

A confirmation documents the processing status of orders, operations, suboperations and individual capacities.
You can enter a confirmation
- For an Opeartion (co11/co11n)
You have the following options:
- To confirm quantities, durations, activities or personnel data.
- To make a confirmation at a particular point in time (for example, at the start of setup or the finish of processing) enter a
confirmation.
- When you confirm time events, the system calculates the required duration. For example, the setup duration is the time between setup start and setup finish.
- For an Order : CO15
If you enter a confirmation at order header level, the system confirms all the operations that have a control key in which
confirmation is optional or necessary. The quantitiesconfirmed in the operations are proportional to the quantities confirmed in the order header. *-- Rajesh

I want to stop the confirmation of production order whenever there is no goods issue to the production order so that I can get the correct material accounting report. I can't set backfliush indicator to the material at Routing level because we are handling the raw material in batches, so I have to assign the batches to issue the raw material.( tcode CO27 ).
We have set the criteria to release the production order is only availability of raw material in plant, so system checks only the availability of raw material & releases the order. Is it possible after issuing the raw material the release of order took place?

Goods issues before release of order is not possible in SAP.
You can think of following things.
1) In opj4,you can block release of order if it has missing parts.
2) By using 'user exit' it is possible to disallow confirmation if goods issues are not posted against each component.

Production Order What is Backflushing?

Can anyone tell me what is backflushing for? When is it use?

Back flushing is nothing but automatic goods issue. System will automatically posts the goods issue when you confirm the operations.You have no need to make manual issue. It will reduce the effort.

Backflushing is automatic accounting (Goods issues - 261 mvt) of material consumed for production, at the time of confirmation. Eg. When a 4 wheeler automobile is rolled out from assy line, 4 wheels & Tyres are deemed to be consumed and issued to production order automatically by way of backflushing by the system.

Assy line picks the material from stores/ Assy line and use.

No Physical issue & Manual posting ( Goods Issue) by Stores.

Backflush is used for material which are a must and having fixed relationship.

This can be configured in MRP2 Screen,Work centre, Routing and production order.

Each has some special function.

If you configure this in routing or production order you have no need to activate this in MRP2 or Work center screen.

MRP2 Screen defines whether material components are backflushed are to be made at the work center.

When we do the back flush the backlogs are being created for the BOM components and we are getting the message "Backlogs from backflush were created or changed" - its just an informative message. Do you think this has got something to do with the negative postings ?

Backlogs are created due to different reasons.

This message tells that "there is no sufficient stocks for the bom component/not able to backflush all the material due to plant data locked etc" at the time of backflushing the BOM Material and hence the Post-processing list is created that you have to Re-process for stock updation of each material.

To avoid this you can confirm the following things.
1.Ensure that suffecicient stock is available in the backflushing locations of each materail.
2.To prevent the generation of "post-processing list" you can block the BOM from getting backflushed if sufficient stock is not available in specified location for the BOM COMPONENTS. To do this change the "REM profile" to "002"in MRP4 view for the BOM MATERIAL.(if the profile is not available you can crate it through SPRO).
3. To clear the existing Backlog use transcation MF47 and re-process(be ensure that required stocks is available for each bom component)

Production Order How Costing takes place in Production Orders

Can anyone please explain me the how the Costing takes place for the Production Orders.

Actually, I am new to this package , In Other Package (RAMCO ERP)
(The Process is like follows:
a. Production Work-Order Resource Cost Posts to Finance directly
b. Material Consumption postings happens from OSV(Order Settlement Variance) of MAC Module(Management Accounting).

Please somebody explain me as above in SAP.

The following are considered in costing,

1) cost of materials that you have issued for order

2) activity you have performed in terms of labour hours that you entered while confirming the order (the rates for the labour are defined in the activity planning tables of controlling module)..which is generally associated with a formula key and attached to a workcenter that is linked to a cost center also

3) overhead as applicable with respect to that cost center based on a predetermined cost center planning and its rate...

Anil

Costing updation in production order

How is costing updated for production order?
After goods issue, conformation & GR, we do TECO.
Before closing the order, costing details should be updated. Is it not?
Could you please guide me as to how this is done?
Also, what is the transaction code to be used?

Planned cost is caculated if you click 'cost calculation' in production order. GI go production order will update actual material cost. Confirmation of production order will update actual activity cost. You can settle cost once production order has status TECO or DLV. From PP side, the transction is CO02

In IMG we can define that when we calcu. the planned cost.

There are 3 ways.
- Determine planned costs when saving,
- Do not determine planned costs when saving,
- Determine planned costs when saving if released.

But the actual cost is posted when we draw the material, when we confirm the order......We can use co02 and click the calcu. cost to update the cost in the prd order.

Error in Cost Calculation

I am using 4.7. When I was saving my production order, there was this error message that told me that there was an error in cost calculation. Do you have any suggestions what I couldn't have done? What can I do to fix this?

Check the log file in the Production Order -> Goto -> Logs -> For costing

Then take it from here....

Check whether the material for which you have created a production order has a price define in material master like Moving average price or Std price.

Production Order SAP flow for REWORK activity

What is the SAP flow for REWORK activity in PP-PI.

Sample Scenerio:
1. Initial Process Order qty: 10pc
2. Confirmed QTY.: 9 PCS.
3. Rejection qty .: 1 pc.
4. Now that one pc. is to be reworked in operation no.0020.

How is it possible to understand later that, it is in this particular process order, so much of rework is carried out, and thats the reason the process cost has increased.

Rework during production depends on the client's decision. Like some companies want a separate process order to process this rejected quantity and some clients want to use the same process order, some even want to identify this rejected by assigning a new batch number.

But in some company, they do rework rarely but not as frequently as you do.

What they do is by inserting the new operation/phase after the actual operation/phase, and the operation quantity/base
quantity, queue times, etc will be according to the users decision. in u r example down 1 pc will be the operation/phase quantity.

and one more thing is that remember to PCNF the 9 pc if you want to identify the 1 pc with the new batch.

With Compliments by: Sandeep

Additional comments::

You also need to remember the product costing aspect.

The primary costs of material should not be repeated while doing the rework. so, the generally accepted trend is that you create a separate order type for it and a common recipe with a rework operation and the materials you can assign while creating the process order.

Doing it in the same process order will have a problem of treacability of cost.

Production Order Serial Number For Component

I have a FG (A/C) which has a serial number. This A/c has a compressor in its BOM.

The client requirement is to link the compressor to A/c using serial number. So, I maintain serial number profile for the compressor also. But when I do mfbf (backflush) for the A/c, the system asks only for the serial no. profile only for the A/c & not for the compressor. How do I link the two?

You can assign componenets (with serial nos.) to assembly ( also with serial nos.) with COIB after goods receipt.( Menu path --Logistics -> Plant maintenance -> Management of technical objects -> Installed base -> Create (special) -> With reference to production data.)

Example: Say assembly sr. no. is 1
And components serial no. are- 1,5,10,20 and so on.

After assignment of components it can be viewed on right part of screen, You can have the assignment history--- ie for which assembly no. which components are assigned or vice versa. In production order i.e in descrete mfg. it can be directly done at the time of operation confirmation.

The following is the detail steps:
1. T code--COIB
2. Enter material code ( Assembly). You can select specific serial no. of assembly --- by putting sr. no. in serial no. field.
3. Click on list tree- you will find all assembly with serial numbers.
4. Click on explode-- it will show the BOM ( in bottom left corner of screen)
5. Select the assembly numbers for which you want to assign the componets
6. Clik on tranfer
7. Select the component
8. Also select the assembly no. on right side screen.
9. Select the serial no. which you want to assign to an assembly
10. Click on assign
11. You will find all the components will get assigned to assembly with serial numbers.
12. Now on right side screen there is "save" button. ( It will ask you create/ change as built in foreground or background?
13. Select as foreground
14. Save
15. You will find a message at the borttom --- saved.
16. Now you will find tick mark ( in front of assembly material) in right part of screen ( indication of assignment of components)

How To Delete Old PP Production Orders

How to delete old production orders ( CO78 )?

Note that CO78 is the start of the Archive process. We are not using Archiving yet but the initial process fits the bill for what we need to do as mentioned in the original note.

Decide the range of orders you want to delete. This range will be used in the program variant. Note that we will be running CO78 many times because of the number of orders involved.

Running CO78 calls program PPARCHP1 and this involves the use of a Variant where the parameters for selection etc. are set.

First of all, create the variant via SE38 for PPARCHP1.

Enter details for number range, order type, plant and set deletion flag. Flag Detailed log and set this to go to Spool when running. Save the variant. You can also force the job to run in background at this point (which I would recommend) via menu line Variant --> Attributes. Also here you can flag order number, order type and plant to be required fields.

For e.g.

Run CO78
Press the first button - deletion flag/deletion indicator.

Choose the variant you have just created. Press "Maintain" to update the selection range on subsequent runs. Save changes and return to initial screen.

Press Start date to set date and time for job to run as per any background job. Icon will turn Green.

Press Spool Params to set save output in Spool Q rather than print immediately. Icon will also turn Green.

Press Execute and job can be tracked via SM37.

Details of deleted orders and errors will appear in the Spool.

Rerun as many times as you need with relevant order ranges till all required orders are deleted.

SAP PP How to “permanently” delete new planned orders?

Your company insists on fixing planned orders, to try to keep a stable, six-month plan. But you still get new planned orders generated in-between the fixed ones. You thought that you would get exception messages to pull in all the fix planned orders before new ones are generated. You need to “permanently” delete the new planned orders and leave only the fixed ones.

Two ideas which you can they apply to the scenario:

1) In OPPQ, exclude firm planned orders from rescheduling. This will add a rescheduling exception to the planned orders, and you could filter/report that way.

For example, if you discovered that the rescheduling horizon was only 100 days, you can made it 999. Now the fixed planned orders are all being rescheduled and no new planned orders are created “in between” the fixed ones.

2) Convert planned orders into production orders. Then you can look at production orders as your fixed plan, and ignore planned orders.

Deleting planned orders will be a short joy, as soon as you run MRP (assuming you do...) they will be recreated.

SAP PP Planned Order Assign Multiple Planned Order to a Purchase Requisition

In order to assign multiple planned order to a single purchase requisition number, you need to make used of the external purchase requisition number range.

Define your external purchase requisition number range in OMDN.

Assign the external purchase requisition group number range to used in OMI3.

Once the IMG settings are completed, you can used MD15 to assign the multiple planned order into a single purchase requisition number.

In MD15, select the planned order you want to convert to a purchase requisition.

Next, click the Convert Online button.

SAP will display the planned order in change mode.

Now, look for the Purchase Requisition fields and supply the Purchase requisition number.

For example, assuming that you assign the external number range 2000001.

In the planned order, you type the first number range 2000001 and item number 10 subsequently, copy and paste the number range but input the item number manually.

It would be like 2000001 10 and save
2000001 20 and save.....

The disadvantages is that the user have to track and enter the external number range manually.
Therefore, there is a trade off, between

1. having a single planned order for a single purchase requisition number or

2. having multiple planned order to a single purchase requisition number.

SAP PP Planned Order Conversion to Process Orders

We are facing problems when converting planned orders to process orders. During conversion when BOM is re-exploded it is not using the same production version as specified in the planned order instead it defaults to the first one it sees.

I need to know if I am missing any settings anywhere.....

First ensure that setting in the material master for BOM explosion is "Selection thru prod version".

Then Pls check the validity periods of the new production version.

e.g
Prod Ver Val frm val to No lot size variation
0001 01.01.2007 31.12.9999
0002 01.01.2007 31.01.2007
or
0001 01.01.2007 31.12.9999
0002 01.01.2007 31.12.2007

Then in both the cases system will always pick prod ver 0001 default (Longer validity period). If not the case then
Check for lot size variation (if lot size dependent.)

Further if you are not able to select the req prod Ver then you can lock the earlier prod version(if it is not in use).

To avoid this prob in future.... always use "Valid to date" either in limits (31.12.2007) or without limit (31.12.9999) for all prod version of a material.

When we have to go for Planned order conversion to Process order, it is used in manufacturing industry or process industry, when exactly we use process orders?

It is used for process industries.

PP MRP Why used Planning tools like APO or I2?

APO and I2 are Finite PLANNING tools. When MRP runs with APO or I2 (or Red Pepper or Manugistics), it takes Capacity issues into consideration. MRP in SAP R/3 Core does not, it assumes infinite capacity available. (MRP only looks at material availablity.)

However, SAP R/3 DOES do finite SCHEDULING, which is where the system 'dispatches" operations on a production order until it fills up the capacity available, then moves to the next time period and dispatches until that period is filled up. In SAP speak, that is called capacity leveling.

I believe APO should only be used in very large companies (billions) because of the amount of master data that must be maintained, and that data better be ACURATE, or you've wasted a heck of a lot of time. By the way, APO stands for Advanced Planner and Optimizer tool, obviously a German sort of name!

Differences between planning and scheduling, finite and infinite

R/3 does planning without consideration for capacity situations. So if MRP says you need 500 parts on 3/1/04, it schedules them all to be built at the same time, even though you can only do 100 at a time. Assume you have a fixed lot size of 100, you'll get 5 planned orders for 100 to start on the same day. This is "Infinite Planning". APO would recognize that constraint, and instead schedule out the 5 orders over time. The important part of that is that it also will schedule out the deliveries of the components for 5 different days. This is "Finite Planning".

Now, assume old fashion MRP. It schedules all 5 orders for the same day, and the buyers go out an get all of the components for the same day. Then the planner realizes he can't do all 5, and manually changes the schedule, and manually spreads out the 5 orders. The buyers will recieve rescheduling notifications, but not until the scheduler does the manual rescheduling. You could call this "Infinite Scheduling", but that only means the same thing as Infinite Planning.

But, SAP has "Capacity Leveling". What that means is you run another program after MRP (CM27 and CM28), which can be run in batch mode overnight. (There is a ton of configuration and thinking that will be required to do this!). The capacity leveling program will recognize the constrant at the work center level, and fill up the first day, then re-schedule the next order to the next available capacity, then the next order searches for available capacity, and so on. This is called "Finite Scheduling". The problem with this is the opposite of Infinite Planning, which is it doesn't take Material availablity into consideration! The system will re-schedule a production order without thinking about whether the materials will be available or not.

Finite Planning does Finite Sheduling at the same time. If there is no capacity available on the desired date, the system looks for when capacity IS available. Then it stops to see if Materials will also be available (usually based on the lead-time for those components). If there is a material problem, then the system figures out when the materials WILL be available, and then
checks to see if capacity is available on THAT day, and if so, it blocks off capacity, and allocates the materials for that day.

PP MRP Difference between MRP vs MPS

Explain the difference between MRP & MPS. Though both components gives you the requirement list, what we gain out of MPS run rather than running MRP. What is the main idea behind this?

The following might help in explaining the difference between MPS and its counter part MRP.

Master Production Schedule (MPS) :
MPS operates within only one level of the BOM, While MRP can be utilized throughout all levels of a material’s BOM. If a MPS is run on a material, the necessary orders are planned at that level. Dependent requirements (if any) are placed on the next BOM level down, and then the process stops.

Main Idea : Master production scheduling (MPS) is a form of MRP that concentrates planning on the parts or products that have the great influence on company profits or which dominate the entire production process by taking critical resources. These items are marked as ‘A’ parts (MPS items) and are planned with extra attention. These items are selected for a separate MPS run that takes place before the MRP run. The MPS run is conducted without a BOM explosion so that the MRP controller can ensure that the Master schedule items (MSI) are correctly planned before the detailed MRP run takes place.

The master production schedule is a line on the master schedule grid that reflects the anticipated build schedule for those items assigned to the master scheduler. The master scheduler maintains this schedule, and in turn, it becomes a set of planning numbers that drives material requirements planning. It represents what the company plans to produce expressed in specific configurations, quantities, and dates. The master production schedule is not a sales item forecast that represents a statement of demand. The master production schedule must take into account the forecast, the production plan, and other important considerations such as backlog, availability of material, availability of capacity, and management policies and goals. Syn: master schedule.

Material Requirements Planning (MRP) :
A set of techniques that uses bill of material data, inventory data, and the master production schedule to calculate requirements for materials. It makes recommendations to release replenishment orders for material. Further, because it is time-phased, it makes recommendations to reschedule open orders when due dates and need dates are not in phase. Time-phased MRP begins with the items listed on the MPS and determines

(1) the quantity of all components and materials required to fabricate those items and

(2) the date that the components and material are required. Time-phased MRP is accomplished by exploding the bill of material, adjusting for inventory quantities on hand or on order, and offsetting the net requirements by the appropriate lead times.

MRP Interview Questions:

What is the need of mrp list if stock requirement list is already there?

The MRP list displays the result of the last planning run. Changes that have occurred between planning runs are ignored in the MRP list. In contrast to this, the system displays all changes in stock, receipts and issues, which have currently occurred, in the stock/requirements list.

Which tcode are used to run MRP?

- MD01 is generally used to run the MRP for all the materials in a plant normally just before go-live.
- MD02 is used to run MRP for materials which have a BOM i.e multi-level.
- MD03 is used to run MRP for materials which do not have a BOM i.e single level.

SAP PP MRP Factory Calendar

Factory calendar contain company specific dates such as alternate working Saturdays, Plant shutdown etc.

You can create your company factory calendar via transaction code 'SCAL'.

Assignment of the factory calendar by plant is done in transaction code 'SM30 - V_T001W'.

An example of a SAP application that uses the factory calendar is the SAP MRP modules.

Assuming that you have a specified an alternate working Saturday, MRP will postponed the planned orders to the next working day if it happened to falls on a non-working Saturday.

PP MRP GR processing time in PP and MM

I have one material number that is procured externally but also produced inhouse. Now I have one problem with the GR processing time. As far as I can see the parameter on the material master on MRP2 view and Purchasing view is the same (MARC-WEBAZ). But in my case the GR processing time should be only used for goods receipts in MM (from purchase oders). This GR processing time must not be added to my lead time scheduled in production (when producing the material). How to solve this conflict?

We have a make to order enviroment, that means our production orders are created (and scheduled) directly from the sales order. The sales gets back a confirmed date and quantity from production order scheduling - and here this GR processing time is also added. Absolutely useless in this scenario, but MM needs this GR processing time for the external procurement of the material.

I'm hearing at least two problems here. Let me lumber through them as I see them.

#1 - We have a make to order enviroment, that means our production orders are created (and scheduled) directly from the sales order. The sales gets back a confirmed date and quantity from production order scheduling - and here this GR processing time is also added. Absolutely useless in this scenario, but MM needs this GR processing time for the external procurement of the material.

The GR processing time is quite legitimate, and needful. It represents the time it takes once a material is 'delivered', before it is usable. If that is instantaneous for you, then this field is blank. In fact if it is less than one day, the field should be blank. (MARC-WEBAZ) If you DO have to do testing or documentation or even just 'checking' to be sure the proper certificates
have arrived with this material, then it's nice to have a day here for this. --- I may have overlooked one thing, if you are ONLY thinking of the FERT that your customer ordered, then maybe this field seems trivial. However, if your process requires that the FERT be purchased from some other company (or even supplied from within YOUR company), then there IS a receiving process that has to happen . . . it does take time to back a truck up, get a fork truck to unload it, the
identification process, and then relocating the item to where it can be shipped to your customer.

Also, if you produce this item, then there are 'other' items that need to be 'built' into this item . . . THEY need the GR field, even if you produce the saleable item, it has to be 'received' from production into inventory for you to ship it out.

There is another field that should be considered. This is the procurement lead time. The time it takes for purchasing to "react" to the requirement. When the sales order is placed, the signal will come for 'purchasing' to occur (via MRP perhaps). Purchasing MAY take as long as a day to get that order to a vendor where the vendor can now react. This time is generally a 'standard' time for any given plant/purchasing org and is included using OMDT.

Thirdly, the vendor lead time has to be considered. This is what the field "Planned delivery time" (MARC-PLIFZ) is about. The vendor's turn around time - from the time they are notified of your intention (via a PO perhaps), until they can put it on your dock . . . that is what this field is about. And MRP knows the difference between this field and the others. Between the three fields mentioned, the 'purchased' item is properly planned for . . . except for the exceptions and the fact that this is all based on "norms" and averages which never seem to be exactly what is needed, but that's another discussion .

Next we think of the situation where the item requested is produced by us. In this case (as mentioned before), the GR is STILL legitimate - perhaps not needed if it takes less than a day for your company to receive material from production, inspect it, certify it, and load it up.

However, a "0" is a legitimate entry to this field.

What is also needed is a place to locate the time for "producing" this item. That is where there are options. One option in MRP 2 is the field "in-house production" (MARC-DZEIT). This is sometimes useful, but dangerous. It assumes that no matter how large an order is or how much of a material is needed, it can always be produced in the same period (in 'days', of course). The number of days fits in this field.

If that doesn't 'do it' for you, you can go to the "Work Scheduling" view of the Material Master and include the details for the fields under the "in house production time in days" grouping (Setup time; Interoperation; Processing time; and base quantity). At LEAST this gives the system a 'shot' at planning longer times for greater quantities. If you fill both data points in (in
house production time and " in days, the 'in days' will supercede the other).

Now you've put in all the data that you HAVE to input to have the system plan the length of time needed for telling your customer when you will have their product ready for them.

In the case of your conflict where you produce OR source the item, then you MAY have a problem with GR - look at both scenarios and see what your entry should be. You CAN use the Total Replenishment Leadtime (MARC-WZEIT) field to be the TOTAL TIME when producing the material in-house, because the external replenishment does not look at this field. So MRP will run and depending on how you have it set, it will consider purchasing the material, or making the material, and the fields we've mentioned will impact the result as mentioned.