An Introduction to MRP Live
One of the biggest issues with "classic" MRP (i.e., MRP as run in SAP ERP systems) was that the system had to call all tables and read through data stored in those tables sequentially with every MRP run. This step created a tremendous burden on system performance.
MRP Live is a complete redesign of MRP that runs on SAP HANA. Unlike classic MRP, MRP Live can read data in parallel, calculate shortages, and write planned orders and production orders at the database level instead of at the application server level. This new logic significantly improves system performance, allowing planners to run MRP more frequently with a dramatically shorter runtime and make better decisions based on more up-to-date supply and demand information.
Planners now have one transaction for MRP Live — MD01N — with greater flexibility in data selection and performance improvement.
Other MRP Live benefits include the following:
- MRP Live provides better flexibility to define the planning scope. With SAP S/4HANA, a material planner can use MRP Live to plan for a group of materials, a single product group, materials for which the planner is responsible, or a single material across all plants.
- MRP Live can also be used to plan for a single material with either multilevel planning or single-level planning. These two functions are very similar to Transactions MD02 and MD03 in classic MRP.
After every run, MRP Live provides a detailed log for analysis. For example, it will show how many materials were planned and failed, and how many materials were processed with classic MRP or MRP Live.
