The requirements type contains the control parameters for planning and consuming planned independent requirements and customer requirements. Different requirements types or combinations of requirements types from planned independent requirements and customer requirements are defined for each planning strategy.

If you want the system to determine the requirements type when creating the planned independent requirements automatically, enter strategy groups for the corresponding materials in the material master record. If the strategy group allows a number of planning strategies, the system proposes the requirements type from the main strategy. You can overwrite this strategy using one of the alternative requirements types.

You can also assign the planning strategy via the MRP group.

1. Assign the strategy group to the MRP group (in Customizing for Demand Management, choose Planned Independent Requirements ® Planning Strategy ® Assign strategy group to MRP group). The MRP group is assigned to the material in the material master record.
2. If you have entered a strategy group or an MRP group containing the appropriate strategies in the material master record, you do not have to enter a requirements type in Demand Management.

The planning strategies represent the business procedures for planning and producing a material.

In the system, the planning strategies are recorded in Customizing by a combination of requirements types from Demand Management and from Sales Order Management. This combination of requirements types determines the consumption of planned independent requirements by customer requirements, or how the availability check is to be carried out.

The planning strategies are maintained in Customizing for Demand Management. Here, the requirements types are combined for the planning strategy. Technically speaking, the requirements types are texts that represent the planning strategy in the application (Demand Management, Sales and Distribution). The requirements type is controlled by another key - the requirements class. The requirements class contains all the control parameters required for Demand Management and Sales and Distribution. To maintain the planning strategy, you only have to combine the necessary requirements types and the corresponding requirements class is assigned automatically along with all the accompanying control parameters.

By assigning a planning strategy to a particular material, the system determines the correct requirements type (and thus all the contol parameters of the requirements class) when creating planned independent requirements or sales orders. Here, you must maintain the following objects and assignments:

• You must maintain the planning strategy (in Customizing for Demand Management). The planning strategy is defined either by a requirements type from Demand Management or by a requirements type from sales order management or by a logical combination of both requirements types. This determines, for example, how the consumption of planned independent requirements by customer requirements is carried out and whether the availability check according to the ATP logic is carried out.

• You must assign the planning strategy to a strategy group (in Customizing for Demand Management) so that a material can be planned with various planning strategies. You can maintain one main strategy and up to six alternative strategies.

• You must assign the strategy group to the material (in the material master record), so that the system can determine the correct requirements type automatically.

• You can also assign the planning strategy via the MRP group. You do this by assigning the strategy group in Customizing for Demand Management to the MRP group. In this case, the MRP group is assigned to the material in the material master record.

If you have entered a strategy group or an MRP group containing the appropriate strategies in the material master record, you then do not have to enter a requirements type in Demand Management. The system determines the valid requirements type via the strategy group from the material master record and proposes this type automatically when creating independent requiremements (or customer requirements). If the strategy group contains more than one planning strategy, the system proposes the requirements type of the main strategy. If necessary, you can overwrite this proposal using one of the requirements types from the alternative strategies.