planaufträge

Planaufträge, often translated as planning orders, are planning documents used in production planning and control and in material requirements planning. They represent tentative production or procurement requests for a material in a given plant within a planning horizon. A plan order does not yet commit resources, does not cause stock movements, and does not carry production costs. It serves as input to capacity and material planning.

Plan orders are created by MRP when there is a net requirement for a material and no existing order covers it, or they can be created manually by planners. Typical data include material number, plant, planned quantity, start and end dates, and reference to the planning run or demand. They are stored in the planning system as planning data and may have a release status.

The lifecycle usually involves release (firming) and subsequent conversion to a production order (in-house manufacturing) or to a purchase requisition / purchase order for external procurement. After conversion, the planning order becomes a concrete order with scheduling, operations, costs, and reservations. If not released or if requirements change, plan orders can be adjusted, split, or deleted.

Planaufträge help to balance supply and demand, evaluate feasibility, and support capacity planning before committing to actual orders. They are a common feature in ERP systems with production planning modules, notably in SAP PP, where MRP generates planned orders that can be converted into production orders or procurement documents.