MRP Display says "Safety Stock" even though part is negative to allocation

I’m not sure I fully understand your question, but here’s what I’m seeing.

You have 2 units on hand, less demand for 5 units, thereby reducing your available inventory to (-3) units.  You have your safety stock quantity set to 8 units, which should reflect the number of units that should meet your daily demand until you can fulfill a production order to replenish your stock.  This should effectively reflect your reorder point.

You Minimum Order Quanty (which should not be confused as a re-order point) and, not coincidently, your Lot Size quantites of 24 units is sufficient to replenish your inventory beyond the eleven units of product needed to meet your current production demand of 3 units, plus your safety stock level of 8 units.

The detail inquiry is basically stating that after you fulfill your production order of 24 units, which was triggered by the safety stock reorder point, you will have 21 units available due to the immediate production demand of your inventory.  Therefore it is unnecessary for MRP to associate any additional supply replenishment to your production demand as it’s coverd by the Safety Stock replenishment plan.  

Does that help at all?

Yes, I agree with your analysis, but when looking at the Detail Inquiry for other items on the MRP Display above there doesn’t seem to be a clear reason why some are Safety Stock and others are Production Material. Both of the items below have demand which will pull the quantity below the safety stock level and one appears as Safety Stock and the other as Production Material on the display. We’re really trying to understand why the difference so we can either adjust our preferences and / or parameters so that we use the results appropriately.

Thanks!

Thank you for the thorough answer. It does make more sense now, however it also means that the warehouse manager will need to look at all MRP Display items as there is no easy way to differentiate between items which are critical based on real demand and items which are for safety stock.

There is a type on the MRP display so you could sort by those that say Safety Stock vs MRP requirement. There is a difference between MRP and Item Replenishment, which can often create a bit of confusion. 

MRP will look at getting to your Safety Stock, on the assumption that the safety stock will provide sufficient material to meet your additional demands.  Item Replenishment will look at the MAX quantity, and will show you what to purchase differently.

If you are utilizing MRP buckets, it can potentially help with looking at the information as well.  Critical materials and items to expedite would be showing up on the MRP Exceptions page as well.