Planned Order Cannot Be Converted

The planner reports that a planned order sits in MD04 with a red or yellow exception and will not turn into a production order. Sometimes the conversion button in CO40 does nothing, sometimes it throws a message about a missing BOM or routing, sometimes about no production version found. The planner's description is usually simpler than the cause: 'MRP created the order but I cannot release it into production', or 'the system says there is no BOM for this material even though we make it every week', or 'it converts for every other planned order on this material except this one batch'. Production control escalates it as urgent because the shop floor is waiting on a work order that does not exist yet, and the due date on the sales order or the stock-out is approaching. At this point nobody has looked at production versions, routing validity, or lot-size ranges - that comes next.

Pull the planned order record for the material and plant and compare its production version field against the production version master data - a blank or mismatched version confirms the primary cause. Cross-check the version's lot-size range and validity window against the planned order's quantity and start date; a range mismatch shows up immediately as the order quantity falling outside the version's minimum or maximum lot size. If the version looks correct, check the routing and BOM status fields directly rather than trusting the MD04 exception text, which sometimes reports the wrong one of the two.

If the production version is missing, expired, or the lot-size range excludes the order quantity, the fix is a data change in C223 - extend validity or lot-size range, or create the missing version - owned by the PP master data team, no transport required. If routing or BOM status or validity is the block, that is also a data fix in CA02/CS02, usually owned by process planning or engineering. If the material master lacks work scheduling views, extend the material via MM01 for the plant, a data action, though it may point to an incomplete material creation process worth raising separately. If the order-type dependent parameters at plant level do not permit conversion or lack a default order type, that is configuration and needs a change request and transport, owned by the PP configuration team - do not patch this per-order. If the block is a missing cost estimate, run and release the standard cost via the costing team before retrying conversion; this is a process sequencing issue, not a defect. Always re-run CO40 after each fix to confirm the exact blocking condition has cleared rather than assuming it based on the first message.

The reflex fix is to delete the planned order and let the next MRP run generate a fresh one, or to skip the planned order entirely and create the production order manually through CO01. Both mask the problem. A new MRP run regenerates the same order against the same broken production version, routing, or BOM link, so it fails again on the next attempt. Creating the order manually through CO01 breaks the pegged relationship between the planned order and the requirement it was covering, which can leave the original demand unconsumed and generate a phantom shortage on the next MRP run, or a duplicate order once the planned order resurfaces.

Production version, routing, and BOM data gaps are owned by PP master data or process/production engineering, not by IT. Order-type configuration blocks are owned by the PP configuration team and travel through a transport. The handover note should carry the material, plant, planned order number, the exact CO40 error message and number, the production version checked in C223, and whether the fix applied was a data change or a configuration change awaiting transport.