Creating production orders

A production order is the instruction to make a specific quantity of a product by a specific date, in a specific way. MRP does not create production orders. It creates planned orders, which are proposals: nobody can issue stock to them or confirm work against them. A production planner turns a proposal into an executable order by converting it, or creates an order manually when there is no proposal.

At Contoso Motor Co., MRP in plant 1710 Detroit has proposed a planned order for 200 alternators (CMC-ALT-100) to cover a replenishment requirement. The planner reviews it in the stock/requirements list (MD04) or the Fiori material coverage apps, then converts it to a production order of order type PP01, the standard production order type in many systems.

Ways to create an order

Conversion copies the planned order's quantity, dates and production version into the order. Creating an order manually asks you for material, plant, order type and quantity, and the system then reads master data itself. Either way, the order is firm: MRP will not change it or delete it the next time it runs, which is why planners convert only what they are ready to build.

What the order copies from master data

When the order is created, SAP S/4HANA selects the production version, which points to one bill of material (BOM) and one routing. It explodes the BOM into a component list and copies the routing into operations, each assigned to a work center. It then schedules the operations and, if the order type is set up for it, calculates planned costs and creates a settlement rule.

Each component is linked to the operation where it is consumed: the stator goes to stator winding, the rotor and housing to final assembly. That link matters later, because backflushing posts consumption when the operation that uses the component is confirmed.

If the component list or operations look wrong, the cause is almost always master data: a BOM with the wrong validity date, a routing without the new work center, or a production version that points to an old BOM. Changing the order by hand fixes this order only. Fix the master data too, or the next order will carry the same error.

In the Fiori launchpad, supervisors work with apps such as Manage Production Orders and Manage Production Operations, which list orders and operations with their issues (missing parts, delays) and let them release, reschedule or confirm. In SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition these apps are the way to work; SAP GUI transactions such as CO01, CO40 and CO41 exist only in on-premise and Private Edition.