Materials requirements planning (MRP) is a production planning, scheduling and inventory control system used to manage production processes. Most MRP systems are software based, but it is also possible to do MRP manually.
An MRP system aims to achieve three objectives simultaneously:
- Make sure materials are available for production and products are available for delivery to customers.
- Maintain the lowest possible level of materials and products in the store
- Plan production activities, delivery schedules and purchasing activities
Difference between MRP and ERP
Make sure materials are available for production and products are available for delivery to customers.
Maintain the lowest possible level of materials and products in the store
Plan production activities, delivery schedules and purchasing activities
What does MRP do?
- Investment planning: Material requirements planning allows your business to easily make investment planning. Since it increases production and efficiency, it also aims to improve the service offered to the customer.
- Production planning: MRP systems plan every stage of the production process and determine business activities accordingly.
- Determining material time and amount: MRP and mass and multiple production companies determine the stage and amount of the material they will use by planning their material needs. The materials are also prepared according to this determination. The amount of material also changes with time. You can see the details of this information in the next article.
- Time management: With MRP, businesses can divide their production into times. Thus, order programs can be prepared in daily, weekly and monthly periods. Thus, a product is dated according to its last production stage, and its previous stages are determined in tables back from that date. Thus, all phases emerge. The materials to be used for these phases are also determined in advance and fixed on the table.
- Ability to create supply according to demand: MRP offers businesses the chance to create supply according to demand. Since it is a time-oriented system, businesses have the opportunity to prepare the materials they need to order in advance and in sufficient time, even if they have different lead times. With MRP, materials are planned until they reach their lead times. Thus, the organization works without any bottleneck in production, and since it can control materials and capacity, the business avoids waiting for orders.