Checking Availability and Missing Parts

Types of Availability Check

There are two types of availability check.

• 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

Availability Check of the Stock Types (Static Availability Check)

For every material movement, the system automatically performs an availability check of the stock types. This availability check prevents the book inventory balance of the various physical stock types (for example, unrestricted-use stock) from becoming negative. With this type of availability check, only the stocks available at the time of entry are taken 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.

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Check of available stocks from the viewpoint of material requirements planning (Dynamic Availability Check)

In addition to checking the stocks that physically exist in the warehouse, available stock can also be checked from the viewpoint of Material Requirements Planning. With the dynamic availability check, planned receipts and issues can also be taken into account. This check enables you to prevent an already reserved quantity from being withdrawn or reserved for another purpose, for example.

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.

This type of availability check is used in several applications, for example, in:

• Inventory Management when creating a reservation or entering a goods issue
• Sales and Distribution when creating a sales order
• Production when creating a production order
• Purchasing when creating a stock transport order

Settings for Dynamic Availability Check in Inventory Management

You maintain the settings for the 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→Configure Scope of 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→Configure Scope of Availability Check (OMB1).

Specification of the Checking Rule in Detail – Scope of Availability Check


Normally, the replenishment lead time (RLT = purchasing processing time + planned delivery time + GR processing time) is taken into account in the availability check. If, for example, there is not sufficient stock for a requirement in four weeks, but the RLT is only two weeks, no message due to unavailability is issued.

If you do not want the RLT to be taken into account in the availability check, you can adjust the settings for the Check Horizon (corresponds to the RLT).

If the RLT is not to be taken into account, that is, a message is always issued in case of unavailability, regardless of the RLT, then select the entry Ignore Check Horizon for the Result After Check Horizon field

If the RLT is to be taken into account in the availability check, select the entry Full Confirmation for the Result After Check Horizon field

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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.

Often, a missing part bypasses the warehouse and, upon receipt, is directly forwarded to the location where it is needed. However, this is only possible if the person entering the goods receipt and the responsible materials planner are both informed of this missing part situation.

You can use the missing parts check to ensure that the warehouse clerk and the materials planner are automatically informed in case of such a shortage of requirements when a goods receipt is entered.

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).

The following settings must be made in Customizing:

• Activate missing parts check per plant.For a specific plant, you can specify whether the missing part message is to be output in a summarized or nonsummarized form.​
  • 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 MRP controller, material document, and 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.
• 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.

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