What can I do if MRP Live does not plan a material?

Back in 2015 I wrote the blog What can I do it MRP does not plan a material? trying to help people to solve one of the most common problems related to the MRP execution, that is a material not being planned by MRP. Since then, MRP Live became more popular in S/4HANA and in ECC, so I realized that the blog would need some updates to deal with MRP Live issues.

Therefore, I’m writing this blog with additional checks that should be performed when dealing with MRP Live. I strongly recommend you to go though the original blog first, in order to have an overview of the possible problems that could lead to this issue in Classic MRP and then understand what else should be checked when working with MRP Live.

1 – Check if there is a termination on the MRP execution

It is still a good practice to check if there was a termination in the background job. The main difference is that the MRP Live job in SAP S/4HANA is executed with program PPH_MRP_START.

Besides checking the job status in transaction SM37, we can also check the status of the MRP execution using transaction MD_MRP_PERFLOG. This transaction will provide an overview of the MRP executions, will tell how many materials failed during the MRP execution and if there was any kind of termination during the MRP run.

By double clicking a line, you will also have a detailed overview of the MRP execution, considering each step of the MRP execution and each low-level code.

2 – Check if there was an error for a material in transaction MD_MRP_MATERIAL_INFO

MRP Live will no longer generate MRP Lists, therefore, transaction MD05 is no longer useful to show the results of the MRP run. However, the new transaction MD_MRP_MATERIAL_INFO shows any error that might have occurred for a material during the MRP run. This transaction will not only show errors, but also the date and time of the last planning run for each material, therefore, we can find out exactly when this material was planned.

3 – Check if the planning file exists

MRP Live will still select materials for planning according to the planning file and the planning file is still shown in transaction MD21. The main difference here is that the planning file entries in SAP S/4HANA are stored in table PPH_DBVM and the report to setup and fix inconsistencies in the planning file is PPH_SETUP_MRPRECORDS.

You should run this report to create missing planning file entries or also to check for possible inconsistencies in the planning file that may be affecting the MRP run.

4 – Check if it is an MPS material

In classic MRP, different transactions are used to plan MPS and MRP materials. In MRP Live, however, the same transaction/program can be used to plan MPS and MRP materials. Field Material Scope is available in the MRP Live transaction MD01N, in order to choose if MPS materials should be planned.

Therefore, if you are using a MPS material, you must ensure that those materials are included in your MRP Live variant.

5 – Check for errors with Advanced Planning materials

MRP Live is capable of planning Embedded PP/DS Advanced Planning Materials, as of S/4HANA release 1610. In case of a specific PP/DS error for an Advanced Planning, you must check for errors using report /SAPAPO/RRPLOG1. This report shows specific PP/DS Heuristic planning logs and they are also helpful to identify errors that may potentially affect the planning run.