M4E #29 : Materials Requirement Planning (MRP)
Welcome back to Manufacturing 4 Everyone and happy 2023 to everybody! After the holidays period, it’s time again for weekly newsletter updates.
Many of you have probably dedicated some time during Christmas holidays or at the beginning of the year to plan your tasks so we will begin this year with a new related topic: manufacturing planning. And we will begin talking about it introducing MRP: Materials Requirements Planning. As usual, see the next short video from Edspira to find out what this means!
Time for Insights
MRP is one of the earliest computerized methods used for manufacturing planning, scheduling and inventory management, appearing in the 70s. Hence the importance of knowing how it works as it influenced other methods and improvements that we will explore in next posts and are mentioned in the next bullets.
The evolution of the MRP concept is, surprise, surprise: MRP II (and no, MRP IV doesn’t exist, at least for now). However, it stands for Manufacturing Resources Planning, thus the II to differentiate both terms. The 80s was the age of MRP II.
ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems incorporated MRP, MRP II and other features in a single solution to integrate all the departments in a manufacturing company. The last decade of the 20th century was the rise of ERP solutions.
One of the biggest cons of MRP systems is their need to have accurate input data and demand forecasts. Otherwise, the company risks having inventory problems. MRP systems work best in companies with simpler operations and smooth demands.