The function of Demand Management is to determine requirement quantities and delivery dates for finished products assemblies. Customer requirements are created in sales order management. To create a demand program, Demand Management uses planned independent requirements and customer requirements.

To create the demand program, you must define the planning strategy for a product. Planning strategies represent the methods of production for planning and manufacturing or procuring a product.

Using these strategies, you can decide if production is triggered by sales orders (make-to-order production), or if it is not triggered by sales orders (make-to-stock production).You can have sales orders and stock orders in the demand program. If the production time is long in relation to the standard market delivery time, you can produce the product or certain assemblies before there are sales orders. In this case, sales quantities are planned, for example, with the aid of a sales forecast.