This strategy and Planning with a Planning Material (60) are probably the most widely-used strategies in a make-to-order environment. Like all make-to-order strategies, you should use strategy 50 if production is unique for each and every customer; in other words, it is not possible to change the stock for different sales orders.

• Strategy group 50 on the MRP screen
• Consumption parameters (Consumption mode, Bwd consumption, Fwd consumption) so that the independent requirements can be found. If no independent requirements can be found, default values are taken from the MRP group.
  For more information, see Consumption Strategies and Logic.
• Item category group (for example, NORM) on the Sales Organization screen

For a detailed example of the entire process, see Sample Scenario: Strategy 50.

1. Production quantities can be planned effectively. It is possible to use information from the Sales Information System, SOP, or other planning tools to plan production quantities.
2. Procurement of the components is planned by means of planned independent requirements entered at the finished product level. The system creates special planned orders at the finished product level for these planned independent requirements. These orders are only relevant for production once a sales order for the finished product exists.

Planned independent requirements that are planned using this particular strategy are listed in a separate segment in the MRP list. The planned orders are created with the order type VP and are unconvertible. The sales orders for this strategy are entered as individual customer requirements and are maintained in a separate segment in the planning run.

3. The assemblies are, however, produced or procured before the sales order is entered. Production is carried out up to one level before the finished product level, and the assemblies and components required for producing the finished product are placed in stock to await the incoming sales order.
4. Final assembly is triggered once a sales order has been entered.
5. An availability check is performed on the basis of planned independent requirements. This means that unplanned stock (such as returns) is not considered for sales. See Availability Check.
6. The incoming sales order consumes the planned independent requirements, and this in turn reduces the unconvertible planned order quantity.
7. The system creates a new convertible planned order for the sales order quantity. If the unconvertible planned order quantity is not completely used up by the sales order quantity, it remains in the system. If the sales order quantity exceeds the planned independent requirements quantity, the unconvertible planned order quantity is increased. See Coping with Insufficient Coverage of Components for more information.
8. Planned independent requirement of the finished goods quantities that are left unconsumed increase the warehouse stock of the components and cause procurement to be decreased or not to take place at all in the next period. This process is called netting.

Strategies 50 and 60 are very similar to strategies 52 and 63. The following table shows the differences between the strategies:

See Stockkeeping at Different BOM Levels.