Production supply with PMR
A production material request (PMR for short) is a document in SAP EWM that maps the material requirements of a production order and serves as the basis for material staging with extended production integration. When the production order is released, the PMA is generated, on the basis of which warehouse tasks are created and the required materials are moved from the warehouse to the production supply area. Production then takes place there.
However, what sounds so simple had to be readjusted in some places - especially in discrete manufacturing - because until now it was not possible for the system to provide an exact quantity of the required material for production using PMA. Instead, the system used to work exclusively with a replenishment logic in which a replenishment quantity was defined depending on the production supply area and material, and only this quantity was provided. So if 3 pieces of article ABC were actually required for a production order, but the defined replenishment quantity provided for a box of 10 pieces, the entire box of 10 pieces was moved to the production supply area. The result was unnecessarily torn open cartons in production with residual quantities, unnecessary effort due to restocking, and materials that were not available in the system despite being physically available because they were in open replenishment warehouse tasks.
There is a simple reason why an exact quantity calculation for production supply with PMR could not be achieved through system settings until now. Historically, the process was developed for special supply scenarios in process manufacturing, in which work is not carried out with exact quantities, but in volume or weight-based units of measure. For example, the food and chemical industries work with liquids that are not supplied in exact quantities, but rather in containers or drums. Nevertheless, many companies in discrete manufacturing also opt for PMR-based provision.
In order to be able to use the process for cases such as the one described, many companies have helped themselves by adapting the BAdI /SCWM/EX_MFG_STAGE_INFO. This is now obsolete with the new type of quantity calculation, which is available from SAP S/4HANA Release 2023 or in OSS note 3321845. The new function was initiated by CONSILIO as part of SAP's Customer Influence Program.
Exact quantity calculation with PMR
With the new solution, all open quantities can now be cumulated on the selected production material requirements. This is solved via the new quantity calculation type "Calculation based on PMAs", which is available as an additional option 3 in the settings of the app "Allocate PVB space - Warehouse" (transaction /SCWM/PSASTAGE). With the new option, the exact quantity of material required is now calculated and only this quantity is moved to the production area.
Do you need support with the settings for the new quantity calculation type? Please contact us!
Production supply with delivery based provision
For the sake of completeness, the alternative provision type should be mentioned at this point: delivery-based production supply. As the name suggests, the staging process here is based on the delivery document type. In contrast to PMR-based staging, no replenishment logic is used for delivery-based production supply. The material is staged here with an exact requirement quantity.
The fact that many companies still opt for the PMR process is justified in many cases. There are reasons for this, such as document reduction in the interface or system independence from ERP in decentralized EWM. Integration with SAP DM is also only possible with the use of PMR and the allocation of stock in the production supply area to the production order can only take place with PMR. Further advantages of the respective solutions can be compared as follows:
Which type of production supply is the right one for your company cannot be determined across the board without a closer analysis of the company processes. However, the following aspects should be taken into account to support the decision-making process:
Summary
With the new function, SAP enables PMR-based production supply with exact quantities. This is an extremely helpful function that was previously only possible with a BAdI customization, but will be available in standard SAP from release 2023. The additional settings that need to be made with the introduction of the new calculation type should be checked with an experienced partner such as CONSILIO.
