Material requirements planning for each MRP area allows you to have specific control over the staging and procurement of parts produced in-house and purchased parts for each shop floor and assembly area. If, for example, you define an MRP area for the production storage location of an assembly line, the system plans the material requirements for the assembly line separately from all other requirements (see Planning Components for a Production Line).

You can also carry out planning for components to be provided in subcontracting using an MRP area by defining an MRP area for every subcontractor and assigning the components to be provided to the MRP area of the subcontractor. You therefore plan the requirements to be provided for these components for one subcontractor separately from all other requirements (see Planning for Components to be Provided in Subcontracting).

In the following graphic, each subcontractor corresponds to an MRP area.

Depending on the requirements situation, the system creates either stock transfer reservations from the plant to the stock of material provided of the subcontractor or it creates purchase requisitions within subcontracting/third-party order processing, according to the special procurement key settings.