When to use MRP Live as compared to conventional MRP:
Though the Material requirement planning (MRP) from the outside world looks simple process by picking the receipts (supply) of different elements such as vendor receipts, stock transfers and in-house production etc.., Issues to meet the customer demand, the system will calculate the requirements for future needs, there are lot of issues in today’s world that impacting the business . Some of the challenges that MRP systems are facing today are - systems are not able to predict the right quantities to meet the future needs, unable to capture the latest changes in the supply and demand, Increase in the MRP processing time due to increase in the volume of data in terms of master data and transactional data. In some of the SAP projects it has been observed that due to program performance and database issues, MRP runs executed in a batch job mode at certain intervals and not in regular interval even though there is a business need.
SAP has come up with a new MRP program powered by HANA that will address the issues mentioned in the above section. This document provide some insights on when to use MRP live, features of MRP live and steps to be followed while setting up MRP live program.
MRP can be executed in two ways i.e either through classic MRP transaction (MD01) or with MRP Live (MD01N) where the SAP system has been powered by SAP HANA. It means MRP live can be used by business suite on HANA or S4H 1511 system onwards. Instead of using multiple transactions such as MD01, MD02 and MD03, one can use a single transaction MD01N to run either in foreground or background with multiple options. Here is the selection screen of MD01N that can be executed with multiple combinations.
Another additional feature with MRP live is by selecting the check box of “Stock transfer materials”, it is possible to plan material in the supplying plant if there are stock transfer requirements associated with a particular material. Since performance is not a constraint with HANA, SAP has taken out “Net change planning in planning horizon” in the selection screen.
Also, for any reason if the BOM components are having issues in MRP live, the system will execute them using classical MRP program (MD01)
The outcome of MRP Live run is as follows.
MRP Live also can be executed using MRP fiori apps that have been discussed in my other blog. refer this blog to get more details on the list of apps available for planning purpose. The MRP Fiori Apps can only be used if the business function LOG_PPH_MDPSX_READ is active.
To improve the performance of MRP live on HANA (MD01N) further, one can exclude certain materials and those materials can be executed using MRP classic run ( MD01). Ideally if the volume of data is high, it is suggested to classify the material based on consumption pattern, business priority, demand fluctuations etc. Materials that have regular consumption and where the demand keep changing continuously, it is better to go for MRP live for those materials. MD_MRP_FORCE_CLASSIC transaction will be helpful to exclude materials from MRP live on HANA and to run with classical MRP.
Selection screen:
Setting up classic MRP run for a set of materials:
Also, this report will be helpful to restrict the display of materials in MRP fiori apps. It means if the business would like to exclude “C” class items from Fiori app, you can filter them out using this program.
Here are some of the benefits of MRP Live
The functions that are not supported by MRP live as of current version has been summarized below and SAP is planning to add some of the functionalities in the upcoming versions.
Functions Not Supported | Reason | How to Upgrade |
BAdIs no Longer Supported | MRP Live (transaction MD01N) does not process BAdIs for materials that are completely planned in SAP HANA. | For such materials, you have to force the MRP Live run to call classic MRP by setting the Plan in Classic MRP indicator in transaction MD_MRP_FORCE_CLASSIC. |
Total Requirements not Supported. Total customer and total dependent requirements are not supported. | Total requirements were used for performance reasons which is now no longer necessary. | Before activating the business function, make sure you have no total requirements in your system. |
Planning Horizon MRP Live does not support net change planning in the planning horizon. The planning horizon is ignored. | This planning run type was a performance measure only which is now no longer necessary. | After the upgrade, a new report is available to carry out MRP Live. The new report does not offer this planning run type. |
Planning File Entries in Table MDVM Only planning file entries in table DBVM are supported. Planning file entries in table MDVM are no longer supported. | Performance of reading DBVM is much better because it has a proper key. | Run report RMDBVM00 if it has not already run before. |
Planning Sequence of Plants Table T439C has been decommissioned. | Table T439C only allows you to define the planning sequence of locations not location materials. With the sequence defined in table T439C you cannot support the stock transfer of different materials in different directions between the same two locations. | The MRP logic determines the planning sequence of plants automatically. There is no need to define a planning sequence in a table. No special activities are necessary. |
Creation Indicator for Purchase Requisitions The creation indicator for purchase requisitions is not available in MRP Live. MRP Live always creates purchase requisitions for external procurement. It does not support the process where planned orders are created first that have to be converted into purchase requisitions later. | Simplification of the procurement process. The reason for using planned orders in the external procurement process was to separate responsibilities. The purchaser was responsible for purchase requisitions and the production planner for planned orders. The conversion of planned orders into purchase requisitions transferred responsibility from the production planner to the purchaser. This process is no longer required. | After the upgrade, a new report is available to carry out MRP Live. The new report does not support the creation of planned orders for external procurement. If you require planned orders for external procurement, you have to use classic MRP. |
Creation Indicator for Delivery Schedule Lines The creation indicator for delivery schedule lines is not available in MRP Live. MRP Live always creates delivery schedule lines if the material’s source list entry tells MRP to do so. | There is no conversion of purchase requisitions into delivery schedule lines. Therefore an MRP run that does not create delivery schedule lines, renders delivery schedules useless. | No upgrade activity necessary. |
Destinations for Parallel Processing For MRP Live, destinations for parallel processing no longer have to be defined in table T462A. The Customizing activity Define Parallel Processing in MRP is no longer necessary. | Destinations can be determined automatically using server groups. There is no need to define them separately | Define server groups. |
Subcontractor Planning Segments Subcontracting is only supported with explicit MRP areas (BERTY 03). Subcontractor planning segments (PLAAB 26) are not supported. | Subcontractor MRP areas support all features of subcontractor planning segments. This is an attempt to reduce redundant features. | You have to activate subcontractor MRP areas by creating an MRP area of the type subcontractor for every subcontractor. Then you have to assign every subcontracting part and every vendor that requires the part to the MRP area. |
Multi-level, make-to-order planning (transaction MD50) is not optimized for MRP Live. | Multi-level, make-to-order planning was a performance measure only which is no longer necessary. | Use MRP Live for the top-level material and include the BOM components in planning. |
Individual project planning (transaction MD51) is not optimized for MRP Live. | Individual project planning was a performance measure only which is no longer necessary. | Use MRP Live for the top-level material and include the BOM components in planning. |