Master planning versus order planning

Enterprise Planning offers two basic planning concepts:

• Master planning
• Order planning

Master planning

• Roughly comparable to traditional MPS planning
• Planning data is recorded in terms of time buckets (plan periods)
• Supply is planned in the form of a supply plan, containing supply quantities by plan period
• If you use master planning for production planning, only critical materials and critical resource capacity are taken into account

Order planning

• Roughly comparable to traditional MRP planning
• Planning data is recorded on a second-by-second basis
• Supply is planned in the form of planned orders
• If you use order planning for production planning, all necessary materials and all necessary resource capacity are taken into account

For each plan item, you can either choose one of these methods for supply planning, or combine them.

Item master plan

An item master plan contains item-specific planning information by plan period.

Master planning requires an item master plan. However, master-plan functionality is not confined to master planning:

• Some types of master-plan data (demand forecasts, inventory plans) can also be used as input for order planning.
• An item master plan supports functionality that is not available otherwise.

If you plan all supply for an item by order planning, an item master plan is optional.

On the one hand, an item master plan gives access to functionality that is not available otherwise. On the other hand, item master plans have an adverse effect on system performance. Therefore, you should only maintain an item master plan if you need specific master-plan functionality.

Combinations

For each plan item, you can choose between the following combinations:

• Supply planned by order planning; no item master plan
• Supply planned by order planning; item master plan
• Short-term supply planned by order planning, and long-term supply planned by master planning; item master plan
• Supply planned by master planning; item master plan

The following sections contain a diagram that explains each of the previously mentioned combinations.

Supply planned by order planning; no item master plan

In this situation, basic functionality is available for:

• Demand forecasting
• ATP
• Component CTP
• Inventory planning

Supply is planned in the form of planned orders.

Supply planned by order planning; item master plan

In this situation, advanced functionality is available for:

• Demand forecasting and forecast generation
• ATP and CTP
• Inventory planning and inventory-plan generation

Supply is planned in the form of planned orders.

Supply planned by order planning and master planning; item master plan

In this situation, advanced functionality is available for:

• Demand forecasting and forecast generation
• ATP and CTP
• Inventory planning and inventory-plan generation

Within the order horizon, supply is planned in the form of planned orders. Within the master-planning horizon, supply is planned in the form of a supply plan.

Supply planned by master planning; item master plan

In this situation, advanced functionality is available for:

• Demand forecasting and forecast generation
• ATP and CTP
• Inventory planning and inventory-plan generation

Supply is planned in the form of a supply plan.