During the planning run the system tries to determine the valid bill of material that is suitable for the planning situation.

For material requirements planning, the BOM must be maintained in the planning plant. If production is carried out in a different plant from the planning plant, then the BOM must also be maintained in this other plant.

The validity period represents the time period during which the bill of material is valid. This time period is defined by entering a Valid from date and a Valid to date.

However, the bill of material (or alternative BOM) can have various validity periods on the time axis, caused by changes (for example, in the BOM structure). Each change status then has a Valid from date and a Valid to date.

During the planning run, the bill of material is chosen with the validity period in which the order start date of the planned order falls.