UNIT 4 Reservations

Lesson 1
Creating Manual Reservations 105

Lesson 2
Evaluating Reservations 111

Lesson 3
Checking Availability and Missing Parts 119

UNIT OBJECTIVES

● Create a reservation manually

● Use reservations as a reference for a goods movement
● Execute the evaluations from the reservation menu
● Set up and perform the availability and missing parts check

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 Unit 4
Lesson 1
Creating Manual Reservations

LESSON OVERVIEW
This lesson covers the purpose and structure of a reservation, as well as the difference
between automatically created and manually entered reservations.

Business Example
To guarantee material availability, you need to reserve the required materials (with the
intended purpose), quantity, and requirement date. For this reason, you require the following
knowledge:
● An understanding of the structure of a reservation and the information it contains
● How to create a reservation manually, with and without a reference
● How to change the data in a reservation
● How to enter a goods movement with reference to a reservation

LESSON OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
● Create a reservation manually
● Use reservations as a reference for a goods movement

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Unit 4: Reservations

Function and Origin of a Reservation

Figure 45: Reservations

A reservation is the requirement of the warehouse to make the materials for a goods
movement (generally a withdrawal) ready at a later date and for a particular purpose. You
must consider reservations in materials planning so that a required material can be procured
at the right time. A reservation also simplifies and speeds up the entry process, and helps
prepare the work in the goods issuing department.
Typically, you preplan goods issues (GIs) and transfer postings with a reservation, but you
can also preplan goods receipts (GRs).
Preplanning of transfer postings is only possible for transfer postings in the one-step
procedure, from storage location to storage location (movement type 311) and plant to plant
(movement type 301). The preplanning of GRs with a reservation must only take place in
exceptional cases. If you are using purchasing and production, then GRs are planned with
purchase orders (POs) and production orders. Receipt reservations are not necessary.
You enter manual reservations and the SAP ERP application generates automatic
reservations.

The types of automatic reservations are as follows:

● Dependent reservations
These reservations are for orders, networks, and work breakdown structure (WBS)
elements.
When you open an order, network, or project, the system automatically reserves the
warehouse components.
● Stock transfer reservations

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 Lesson: Creating Manual Reservations

These reservations plan transfers between storage locations. If, for example, reorder point
planning is managed at storage location level, and the available stock falls short of the
reorder point, the system creates a stock transfer reservation in the plant with the amount
of the replenishment quantity.
Although you can display dependent reservations, you cannot maintain them directly. For
example, you cannot change a dependent reservation for an order directly, but need to
change the components in the order. The system then automatically updates the
reservation.

Structure of a Reservation

Figure 46: Structure of a Reservation

A reservation document consists of a header and at least one item. The header contains
general data about the reservation transaction (created by, movement type, account
assignment, and base date). The items describe the individually planned movements
(material, quantity, requirement date, plant, and storage location).

Caution:
You can only enter one movement type in a reservation and create one account
assignment (for example, a particular cost center). You cannot change these two
entries after posting.

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Unit 4: Reservations

Creation and Processing of a Reservation

Figure 47: Navigation - Transactions MB21, MB22, and MB23

You can also find the breakdown into header and item data in transactions Create
Reservation (MB21), Change Reservation (MB22), and Display Reservation (MB23). In these
transactions, you first see the initial screen from which you can reach other data screens.
When creating and changing reservations, you can quickly enter the important data for the
header and item on the collective processing screen.
To display the detail screens for the header data and each item, choose Goto → Header and
Goto → Details from Item.
To access an overview screen that displays the individual items with more-detailed data,
choose Goto → Overview.

Hint:
You cannot make changes on the overview screen. To make changes, go to the
collective processing screen (choose Goto → Collective Processing). From the
collective processing screen, you can also choose an item to display to the item
detail screen.

When you create a reservation, you can also refer to another reservation. You can then
change the base date, movement type, and account assignment data. The system suggests
the items from the reference reservation, and you can select the items you want to copy. You
can also change the quantities and requirement dates of the items.

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 Lesson: Creating Manual Reservations

Hint:
To specify whether copying is already set for all items in the reference
reservation, go to Customizing for Inventory Management and Physical Inventory
under Reservation → Maintain Copy Rules for Reference Documents.

To Change the Base Date of a Reservation

1. On the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Logistics → Materials Management → Inventory
Management → Reservation → Change.
The Change Reservation: Initial screen displays.

2. Enter the reservation number.

3. Choose Goto → Header.

4. Change the base date and choose Enter. This takes you to a screen that lists the old and
new requirement dates for the individual items.

5. If necessary, change individual requirement dates and copy the data by choosing Enter.

6. Post the reservation.

Goods Movement with Reference to a Reservation

Figure 48: GI with Reference to a Reservation

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Unit 4: Reservations

When posting a goods movement, you can refer only to reservation items for which the
Movement Allowed checkbox is selected. With this checkbox, you can also prevent a goods
movement from being posted to a reservation item. This is useful if the requirement date for
the material is far in the future.
If you determine the reservation with the search function during the goods movement, the
system selects only reservation items for which the Movement Allowed checkbox is selected.

Hint:
In Customizing, you can specify for each plant whether the Movement Allowed
indicator is selected when you create a reservation for the items.

Go to Customizing for Materials Management under Inventory Management and Physical

Inventory → Reservation → Define Default Values.
You can select or deselect the checkbox for all items. Choose Edit → Other Functions → For
All Items → Movement In/Out. With the Manage Reservations report, you can specify that the
system selects the checkbox automatically for several reservations.
If you issue the total reserved quantity during the GI, the system automatically selects the
Final Issue checkbox. You can select the checkbox manually if you do not issue the total
reserved quantity and the remaining quantity is no longer required. In this case, the remaining
quantity is deemed as unrestricted-use stock. You can select the Final Issue checkbox when
you enter the goods movement in the reservation.

LESSON SUMMARY
You should now be able to:
● Create a reservation manually
● Use reservations as a reference for a goods movement

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 Unit 4
Lesson 2
Evaluating Reservations

LESSON OVERVIEW
This lesson describes the evaluations that display in the reservations menu. These comprise a
list of reservations, the picking list for reservations, and the report for managing reservations.

Business Example
You want an overview of the reserved materials for the next few weeks. You know that you can
list all reservations with a requirement date in this time period. Using the picking list to stage
materials that were reserved for a cost center or production order, you can select the desired
reservations and post the goods issue (GI). For this reason, you require the following
knowledge:
● An understanding of whether reservations exist for a cost center
● An understanding of the functions of the picking list for reservations

LESSON OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
● Execute the evaluations from the reservation menu

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Unit 4: Reservations

Reservation List Inventory Management (Transaction MB25)

Figure 49: Reservation List Inventory Management

Use the reservation list for an overview of the reservations.

From the reservation list, you can select reservations containing some or all of the
following information:
● Material
● Requirement date
● User name (created by)
● Goods recipient
● Account assignment (such as cost center, order, Work Breakdown Structure element)

The report issues a list with reservation items according to the selection. Receipt reservations
are highlighted in yellow.

The reservation list report displays the following detailed information for each item:
● Reservation number and item
● Material
● Requirements quantity
● Movement type
● Account assignment

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 Lesson: Evaluating Reservations

● Requirement date
● Difference quantity between the reserved and already reduced quantity

If you require further data and want to evaluate it in detail, enhance the current layout or
select another existing layout by choosing Settings → Layout.
For more information about all the functions of the SAP List Viewer (ALV), see the SAP
documentation for the SAP ERP Central Component under Cross-Application
Components → General Application Functions (CA-GTF) → SAP List Viewer (ALV): Classic (or
SAP List Viewer for SAP GUI (Classic)).

Hint:
In Customizing for Inventory Management and Physical Inventory, you can
change the display of the output list from SAP List Viewer to SAP Grid Control
under Reporting → Set Up Print Functions for Reporting. The SAP Grid Control
form offers enhanced functions and is easier to use.
To display a reservation from the list, double-click the reservation number. If you
double-click the reservation item, you can see the details of this item.

Reservation Management: Transaction MBVR

With the Reservation Management report, you can select the Movement Allowed checkbox for
reservations created manually through a mass change. You can also delete reservations with
the reservation management report.
The base date is located in the reservation header. For this report, the base date serves as a
selection value, and only reservations with a base date that falls before or on this date are
taken into account in further processing. The base date is also used in this report to calculate
the time intervals used in mass changes and deletion of reservations.

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Unit 4: Reservations

Figure 50: Managing Reservations: Allow Goods Movement

When creating reservations, you decide whether the Movement Allowed checkbox is to be
selected for the items. To book goods movements for a reservation item, you must select this
checkbox.
With this report, you can now automatically select the Movement Allowed checkbox for all
reservation items whose requirement dates lie within the next ten days.
For example, if you enter October 1 as the base date, movements are allowed for all items with
requirement dates before or on October 11, provided that the base date in the header of the
reservation is before or on October 1.
Specify a requirement date and, if necessary, any other selection criteria (for example, the
reservation number) on the initial screen. Select the Movement Allowed checkbox in the
Actions to be performed area, and then execute the report.
As long as the requirement dates of the selected reservation items lie within the period of the
requirement date, plus a number of days (determined in Customizing), the Movement Allowed
checkbox is selected in this reservation item. You can specify the number of days (the
standard is 10 days) in Customizing for Inventory Management and Physical Inventory under
Reservation → Define Default Values.

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 Lesson: Evaluating Reservations

Deletion of Reservations

Figure 51: Management of Reservations – Deletion of Reservations

You can prevent the reservation file from becoming too large by regularly deleting finished,
old, and extra reservations. The management program marks the reservation items for
deletion. If all the items of a reservation are marked, the reservation is removed from the file.
When deleting reservations, you also need to specify a base date for the selection. To do this,
select the Set deletion incl/delete reservation checkbox and then execute the report. For all
selected reservations, the system checks whether the requirement date of the individual
reservation item lies before the date calculated by the system. The system calculates this
date from the base date minus a fixed number of days defined in Customizing (the standard is
30 days).
For example, if you enter October 1 as the base date, all reservation items with requirement
dates that lie before or on September 1 are marked for deletion, provided the base date in the
reservation header lies before or on October 1.

Hint:
On the selection screen, you can determine that only completed items are
marked for deletion. In addition, a completed reservation item must be
withdrawn completely or marked as final issue. If all items of a reservation are
marked for deletion, the reservation is physically deleted. It is possible to delete
only the reservations that were created for a particular account assignment (cost
center or order). To do this, enter the account assignment as a selection
criterion.

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Unit 4: Reservations

Default Values for Reservations

Figure 52: Default Values for Reservations

The number of days for managing reservations is defined with further default values in
Customizing for Materials Management under Inventory Management and Physical Inventory
→ Reservation → Define Default Values (OMBN).

In Customizing, you can define the following default values and actions for each plant:
● Whether the Movement Allowed checkbox is proposed when you create reservations
● The number of days used for calculating the period for setting the Movement Allowed
checkbox in the Manage Reservations report
● The number of days used for calculating the period for deleting the reservations in the
Reservation Management report
● Whether the relevant storage location stock data is automatically created when you post a
reservation for a material

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 Lesson: Evaluating Reservations

Picking Lists for Reservations (Transaction MB26)

Figure 53: Picking List for Reservations (1)

The picking list allows you to create and post goods movements for several reservations in
one processing step. When creating a picking list, you can select according to reservations,
material and account assignments, and production orders.
Before posting, you can change the entry quantity for each item, select the Final Issue
Effected checkbox, and, if necessary, enter a storage location. To determine the stocks to be
posted for stock transfers and GIs, you can call up stock determination by choosing
Goto → Stock Determination, and batch determination by choosing Environment → Batch
Management → Batch Determination. If it is necessary to split an item for a goods movement,
choose Edit → Splitting.
Sort and Filter are other functions of the picking list.

Caution:
When you post the goods movements, all the reservations and production orders
that correspond to the selection criteria are taken into consideration. This list
includes the items that you hid with the filter function. If there are items for which
you do not want to book goods movements, you select and remove them from
the list by choosing Edit → Delete.

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Unit 4: Reservations

Printing a Picking List

Figure 54: Picking List for Reservations (2)

You can also print a list of the materials to be picked. To do so, choose List → Print. You then
receive a list of goods movements for which you can adjust the current layout, or choose an
existing layout by choosing Settings → Layout. To print the list, choose List → Print again.

LESSON SUMMARY
You should now be able to:
● Execute the evaluations from the reservation menu

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 Unit 4
Lesson 3
Checking Availability and Missing Parts

LESSON OVERVIEW
This lesson covers availability and missing parts checks, the application areas in which these
checks can be used, and the necessary settings to perform these checks.

Business Example
When you create a reservation, you want to be informed if the quantity you need is unavailable
on the desired date. To achieve this, you must set up the availability check for reservations.
You also want to test the use of the missing parts check. To perform these tasks, you require
the following knowledge:
● An understanding of the settings for the availability check for reservations
● How to name other applications where the application check can be used
● An understanding of the purpose of the missing parts check
● An understanding of the settings for the missing parts check

LESSON OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
● Set up and perform the availability and missing parts check

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Unit 4: Reservations

Types of Availability Check

Figure 55: Availability Check

The availability checks are as follows:

● Static availability check
Availability check of the stock types in inventory management
● Dynamic availability check
Check of available stocks from the viewpoint of material requirements planning (MRP)

Static Availability Check

The static availability check takes only the stocks existing at the time of entry into account.
This check is carried out automatically, and no settings can be made for it in the system.
The static availability check covers the relevant stock affected at plant, storage location, and
special stock level. The stocks affected are determined via the movement type.
Nonavailability leads to an error message.
For example, you enter a transfer posting for a material with movement type 321, transferring
20 pieces from stock in quality inspection to unrestricted-use stock. The system then checks
whether 20 pieces of the material actually exist in stock in quality inspection at the specified
plant and storage location.

Dynamic Availability Check

In addition to checking the availability of stocks in the warehouse, the dynamic availability
check can also be used to check available stock from the viewpoint of MRP.

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 Lesson: Checking Availability and Missing Parts

In MRP, planned receipts and issues can be taken into account. The dynamic availability
check enables you to prevent an already reserved quantity from being withdrawn or reserved
for another purpose.
For example, today there are 100 pieces of a material in unrestricted-use stock in the
warehouse. Thirty pieces of the material are reserved for withdrawal tomorrow, and another
20 pieces are reserved for withdrawal the day after. Consequently, only 50 pieces of the
material are available today, because the rest have already been reserved for other purposes.
If you tried withdrawing 60 pieces today, the system would display a warning or error
message, depending on the configuration.
The dynamic availability check is used in several applications. You can use this availability
check not only in inventory management when entering reservations and goods movements,
but also when entering a sales or production order.

Settings for Dynamic Availability Check in Inventory Management

Figure 56: Dynamic Availability Check: Reservation

The figure illustrates dynamic availability check and the important factors concerning the
check.

To perform the dynamic availability check, the following prerequisites must be fulfilled in
the system:
● You must assign a checking to the transaction in Customizing.
● You must maintain a checking group in the material master record (MRP data).
● For the combination of checking group and checking rule, you must have defined the
stocks, receipts, and issues that are to be taken into account in the check (in
Customizing).
● You must specify the type of message (error, warning, or information) you want the
system to display for the movement type in cases of availability and nonavailability (in
Customizing).

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Unit 4: Reservations

You can maintain the settings for the dynamic availability check in Customizing as
follows:
● For goods movements
Go to Customizing for Materials Management under Inventory Management and Physical
Inventory → Goods Issue/Transfer Postings → Set Up Dynamic Availability Check (OMCP);
or under Inventory Management and Physical Inventory → Goods Receipt → Set Dynamic
Availability Check (OMCM).
● For reservations
Go to Customizing for Materials Management under Inventory Management and Physical
Inventory → Reservation → Set Dynamic Availability Check (OMB1).

Customizing: Set Up Dynamic Availability Check

Figure 57: Customizing: Set up Dynamic Availability Check

To set up the dynamic availability check, perform the following steps:

1. Specify the settings for movement type.

2. Define the checking rule.

3. Specify the checking rule in detail, depending on the checking group.

4. Assign the checking rule to the transaction.

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 Lesson: Checking Availability and Missing Parts

Hint:
To specify the Customizing settings for the checking group, go to Customizing
for Production under Shop Floor Control → Operations → Availability
Check → Define Checking Group (OVZ2).
You can also specify the settings under Sales and Distribution → Basic
Functions → Availability Check and Transfer of Requirements → Availability
Check → Availability Check with ATP Logic or Against Planning → Define
Checking Groups (OVZ2).

When performing the detailed specification of the checking rule, you can choose whether
safety stock, stock in transfer, stock in quality inspection, or blocked stock are to be counted
as the available stock.
Similarly, planned receipts and future sales requirements or reservations can be included in
the calculation of the available quantity through consideration of purchase requisitions,
purchase orders (POs), or production orders.

Customizing: Control of Availability Check

Figure 58: Customizing - Control of Availability Check

Normally, the replenishment lead time (RLT) is taken into account in the availability check.
For example, if there is insufficient stock for a requirement in four weeks, but the RLT is in one
week, no warning message is issued. Selecting the Check Without RLT checkbox specifies that
the RLT for the material is not to be taken into account in the check.

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Unit 4: Reservations

Example of an Availability Check

Figure 59: Example of an Availability Check

The figure shows a simple example of the availability check when a reservation is entered.

At the beginning of the example in the figure, the following data exists for the material:

Date Stock Quantity Planned Goods Receipt (GR)

and Goods Issue (GI)
<Today> 100 PC
<Today + 2 days> 80 PC GI for a reservation
<Today + 4 days> 50 PC GR for a PO

What happens when you try to reserve another 30 pieces for a withdrawal? Whether you get a
warning message depends on the requirement date selected and the relevant Customizing
settings.

Depending on the requirement date you selected, the system shows the following warning
messages:
Requirement Date Message

<Today + 1 day> 30 PC are not available

<Today + 3 days> 30 PC are not available
<Today +5 days> 30 PC are not available
Date after expiration of the RLT 80 PC are available

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 Lesson: Checking Availability and Missing Parts

Missing Parts Check

Figure 60: Missing Parts Check

A missing part is a stock of material that is already assigned to a GI at the time of GR and
represents a requirement that could not be covered from existing stock because of a shortage
of material or requirement undercoverage.
As a rule, a missing part bypasses the warehouse and, upon receipt, is directly forwarded to
the location where it is needed. However, this bypass is only possible if you and the
responsible materials planner are informed of such a receipt.

For the system to automatically inform you about a missing part when entering a GR, you
must define the following Customizing settings:
● Activate the missing parts check for the plant.
● Assign a checking rule to the transaction.
● Maintain a checking group for the availability check in the material master record (MRP
data).

The missing parts check builds upon the dynamic availability check. The same elements,
checking group, checking rule, and availability check control are used for both.
You can specify the settings for the missing parts check in Customizing for Materials
Management under Inventory Management and Physical Inventory → Goods Receipt → Set
Missing Parts Check (OMBC).

Settings for the Missing Parts Check

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Unit 4: Reservations

You must define the following settings for the missing parts check:
● Activate missing parts check per plant.
● Define a checking rule.
● Specify the details for controlling the availability check.
To use the missing parts check in the future for uncovered requirements, you must enter a
checking horizon for the missing parts check. The checking horizon indicates the number
of days in the future for which the system checks whether shortfall quantities exist for the
material. If you do not specify a checking horizon, only past uncovered requirements are
taken into account during the check.

Hint:
In the checking horizon, the current day is counted as one day. For a checking
horizon of two days, the uncovered requirements with a date equal to today or
tomorrow are taken into account.

● Assignment of checking rule

At transaction level, the missing parts check uses the same checking rules as the
availability check. However, you can maintain various checking rules at movement type
level. The checking rule of the movement type takes precedence over that of the
transaction. Note that an entry for the movement type without an entry for the transaction
has no effect.
● Specification of the mail recipient (e-mail user).
If a user ID is assigned to the materials planner, the system sends the missing part
message to the materials planner (MRP controller) responsible for the material.
● Specification of missing part expediter
If no user ID is assigned to the responsible materials planner, the message is sent to the
central missing part expediter responsible for the plant. This person is defined per plant.

If the system determines that a material is a missing part, an e-mail is sent from inventory
management informing the MRP controller that there has been a GR for a missing part.
For a specific plant, you can specify whether the missing part message is to be output in a
summarized or nonsummarized form.

For different message output forms, the system sends e-mails as follows:
● In nonsummarized missing part messages, a separate e-mail with a maximum of five MRP
elements is sent per missing part material.
● In summarized missing part messages, a list of missing part materials without
specification of MRP elements is generated per material document and plant.

LESSON SUMMARY
You should now be able to:
● Set up and perform the availability and missing parts check

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