The Impact Of Demand Driven Material Requirements Planning
T
oday
most
manufacturing
terribly wrong i.e. the people who use the
enterprises throughout the world use
MRP don’t trust them because the use the
a planning method and tool called
spreadsheets to work around the MRP
material requirements planning (MRP) is
calculations is rampant, several studies
the availability of the computer assured in
have shown that on an average 70% of
the era of MRP. Joe Orlicky brought MRP
companies
into the mainstream in his 1975 book
spreadsheets.to augment or supplant the
“Material Requirement Planning: The new
MRP planning equations despite them
way of life for production and inventory
having limited capability, scalability and
management”. MRP was a revolution for
transferability and addition to that they
the industry as it featured time phase
are also error-prone with nearly 90% of
planning, level by level BOP explosion
spreadsheets containing some form of
and dependent demand planning. It
error. This is not news to seasonal supply
promised to synchronize all components
chain personnel and demonstrates how
needs to end item demand, reduce
little faith they have in MRP. Therefore, the
inventory and improve the ability to
big question is what happened to the
prioritize. It changed the method of
promise of the tool and so to answer the
manufacturing in 1975 only 700 instances
question one basic thing we need to
of MRP existed in the world with the
realize is that today’s supply chain look
release of oral accused book and others
nothing like the supply chain of the 1950’s
like it, led to the proliferation of MRP
or 1970’s when the MRP rules were written
throughout the world. It became the life
but now complex and volatile is the new
for planning but we should not overlook
normal. If these rules have not changed
the fact that MRP was conceived in the
MRP still plans the way it did 50 years ago
1950’s, codified in the 1960’s and then
but now there is a huge gap between the
commercialized in the 1970’s and by 1990
circumstances the MRP was meant for
most manufacturers had it. Today almost
and the circumstances in which it is
every supply chain is dominated by MRP
currently being used. This change of
systems conveying signals up and down
circumstances has huge implications for
the chain to each other but something is
supply chain planning. Supply chains
[13] issue 1 Analyzia Magazine
have
meant
to
using
