Material Requirements Planning (MRP) performs net requirements calculation by comparing existing stock and planned receipts (supply) with existing and future requirements (demand). Sales orders are a primary demand element, representing a concrete customer requirement for a specific quantity of a product on a particular date. The MRP run evaluates these sales orders to determine if production or procurement is necessary to fulfill the customer's request on time.

B. Planned orders: These are supply proposals created by the MRP run to cover net requirements. They are an output of MRP, not an input demand element.

C. Scheduled lines: While MRP evaluates the schedule lines within a sales order for dates and quantities, "Sales orders" is the complete business document representing this customer demand.

D. Purchase requisitions: These are also outputs of an MRP run for externally procured materials. They represent a formal request to purchase, acting as a planned supply element.

1. SAP S/4HANA Product Documentation

SAP Help Portal. Section: Material Requirements Planning (PP-MRP) -> The Planning Process -> Checks in the Planning Run -> Net Requirements Calculation. This section details that the system compares available stock with requirements

explicitly listing "Sales orders" as a requirement type.

2. SAP S/4HANA Product Documentation

SAP Help Portal. Section: Material Requirements Planning (PP-MRP) -> Requirements in the Planning Run. This document states

"Sales orders and deliveries place requirements on materials that are planned and produced in-house or procured externally."

3. TS410: Integrated Business Processes in SAP S/4HANA

SAP SE. Unit: Production. The lesson on Material Requirements Planning describes the MRP run's logic

identifying sales orders as a key demand-side input that triggers the planning process to ensure material availability for customer fulfillment.