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Use

The following apps are delivered for Material Requirements Planning:

The apps that begin with Monitor ... support you in monitoring your materials, both with and without shortages, and detecting uncovered requirements as well as any issues regarding process orders or production orders, such as late orders, missing components, or process delays. If you find any issues, you can use the apps that begin with Manage ... to quickly solve these issues to avoid delays or disruptions due to missing items. If solving the issues requires changing a purchase order or stock transport order, you can ask your vendor if it is possible to change the order. You can then manage these requests using the Manage Change Requests app.

Starting the Apps

You can start the Monitor apps from the tiles delivered by SAP on your SAP Fiori home page. Two tiles are provided for the Monitor Production Orders or Process Orders app, one for each order type.

Since the Manage apps provide detailed information and proposed solutions for specific materials or items, you first have to select which materials or items you want to manage. Therefore, no tiles are delivered for the Manage apps. To open a Manage app, you first have to start the related Monitor apps and make various settings to display only those items you want to monitor. After selecting one or more items in the list, you can navigate to the related Manage app where you can solve your issues. If you save your personalized settings as a variant tile, you can access the Manage apps directly from your SAP Fiori home page.

If you want to view the planning situation for one material only, you can start the Manage Material Coverage app directly from the Check Material Coverage tile, which is also delivered by SAP.

Working with the Apps

MRP Settings

  • Area of Responsibility

    When starting the application for the first time, you have to specify your area of responsibility by selecting your MRP controller name and the plant for which you are responsible. Based on these settings, only the items for which you are responsible are displayed in the apps. You can change the area of responsibility at any time in the app settings for your user.

    Note

    When you select your area of responsibility, you can only choose the combinations of plant and MRP controller that you specified in Customizing under Start of the navigation path Production Next navigation step Material Requirements Planning Next navigation step Master Data Next navigation step Define MRP Controllers End of the navigation path.

    Due to performance and usability reasons, a maximum of 20,000 entries are processed in the Monitor apps. To ensure that this number is not exceeded, do not choose too many areas and make sure that your area of responsibility has not been assigned more than 20,000 materials or customers, for example.

  • Change Requests

    You can switch the change request function on and off for your user. If it is switched on, you have options in the Managing apps for requesting order changes. You can then use the four delivered tiles for managing your change requests.

Settings in the Monitor Apps

In the Monitor apps, you see a list of materials, both with and without shortages, or requirements that are uncovered. In these apps, you can choose a shortage definition to influence the items displayed in the list. In the Monitor Material Coverage app, the shortage definition also influences the colors that are displayed in the stock availability chart.

For more information about shortage definitions, see Calculation of Material Shortages and Uncovered Demand and Definition of the Material Shortage Threshold Type.

The selected material shortage definition also influences the ability to solve material shortages or to cover external or internal requirements in the respective managing apps: If you select a shortage definition that does not include all receipts that are relevant for solving an issue, the system does not propose any solutions in the Manage apps.

In the apps for monitoring internal requirements and external requirements, you can further restrict the list of items by specifying a time horizon.

In all the Monitor apps, you can set various filters to further narrow down the list of displayed items. You can save your personalized settings as a variant.

For more information, see Working with Variants.

Features of the Manage Apps

The Manage apps consist of a list of the selected items with essential information, a detailed view for each item with additional important information, and an overview of the stock/requirements situation. You can change the shortage definition that you chose in the Monitor apps. You can switch between a table view, an aggregated table view, and a chart view to get a clear overview of the situation.

Based on the selected shortage definition, shortages are also indicated by specific colors: Red indicates a shortage as defined in the shortage definition and orange indicates available quantities above the shortage threshold but below the safety stock.

If the system can propose a solution for a shortage, you can navigate to the solution view by choosing the row with an arrow in the stock/requirements list.

For more information about solution cards, see Solution Card Proposal.

If there are scheduling agreements for certain materials, you can solve the issues by opening the delivery schedule and creating or changing schedule lines, as well as creating releases. Please note that only scheduling agreements with Agreement Type LPA are supported.

In the solution view, the shortage lines are marked with red or orange. By clicking or tapping somewhere on a proposed solution card, the system simulates the effects of the solution. The data record that corresponds to the simulated solution is marked with blue. Some or all of the shortage lines marked red or orange change to green. This indicates that the selected solution will solve your shortages. After simulating the possible solutions, you can choose the solution card that best solves your issue to apply the changes. If you are not able to apply the changes to a purchase order or stock transport order immediately, you can contact the vendor to request the changes. You can then find all the change requests you have either already placed or have collected for your vendors in the Manage Change Requests app.

In the solution view, you always have the option of accepting the shortages, especially if no other solution is possible. When you accept a shortage, any other solution cards are disabled and the system sets the status of the item to processed. A new card is displayed with which you can revoke your acceptance. Shortages that have been accepted are marked with gray.

When you refresh your list or start the app again, the processed items whose shortages have been completely solved or accepted are no longer displayed in your list. If the shortage of an item is solved only partially or it has another shortage, this item is still displayed in the list.

You can find the materials for which you accepted one or more shortages in the Monitor Material Coverage app. There you also have the option of revoking your acceptance so you can process the materials again.

More Information

For more information about app-specific MRP settings, see Business Background Information.