SAP Safety Stock

SAP Safety Stock is used to manage unexpected or unplanned requirements of stocks. It is common in certain industries that unexpected stock requirements arise due to different situations such as unexpected wastage, damages, environmental issues, manufacturing process issues, increased demands, etc.

SAP provides a method to handle such situations by maintaining a safety stock. The safety stock is maintained in the material master. If we go to the MRP 2 view of the material master, we can find the settings for the safety stock.

There are two types of safety stocks in SAP:

1. Absolute Safety Stock
2. Safety Days’ Supply

During the material requirement planning (MRP), the existing stocks available for the material are considered. If there are stocks available, demand is fulfilled using the stocks first, and then, if there is a balance requirement, the relevant procurement proposals will be created. If we have maintained a safety stock, it will be omitted from the net requirement calculations. This is done so because the purpose of the safety stock is to cover unforeseen material shortages and high demands.

The Safety Days’ Supply is also maintained in the MRP 2 view of the material master. If this is maintained, the system plans the receipt of the goods in advance by the time period specified as the safety time. When the goods receipt date is calculated by the system, it will consider the safety days and bring back the receipt date of the procurement proposals. In doing so, the system will also consider the factory calendar to determine the working days.

In order for SAP to consider the safety time, the safety time indicator must be set in the material master MRP 2 view. There are three settings for this indicator.

1. Ignores safety time
2. Safety time for independent requirements
3. Safety time for all requirements

We can set up a safety time period profile in customizing. The profile can be used to maintain the safety time in days and the safety time as a fraction. Follow the below path to set up the safety time profile.

SAP IMG -> Production -> Material Requirement Planning -> Planning -> MRP Calculation -> Define Period Profile for Safety Time

SAP Safety Stock Availability

There can be certain scenarios where planned orders are created for small quantities which can be otherwise covered by the safety stock. In this situation, we can give a percentage of the safety stock that can be used to cover the small requirement quantities.

When this percentage is maintained, the system will check the safety stock defined, and then based on the percentage maintained, it will calculate the possible quantity that can be allocated from the safety stock. If the demand quantity is lower or equal to this amount, SAP will allocate the quantity from the safety stock and new procurement proposals will not be created.

Follow the below configuration path to maintain the safety stock availability percentage. Give the required value and save.

SAP IMG -> Production -> Material Requirement Planning -> Planning -> MRP Calculation -> Stocks -> Define Safety Stocks Availability.

This completes the safety stock maintenance process in SAP.

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