MRP Process

Determine Accurate Inventory and Purchasing to Fulfill Production Schedules

The purpose of the MRP process is to inform production managers how and when to source the raw materials or component parts needed to fulfill production orders. Using the master production schedule as its source of truth, the MRP process accounts for the order of operations for producing a good, and works backward to plan items and processes accordingly. Ultimately, the MRP process ensures optimal levels of dependent demand inventory to minimize waste and carrying costs, yet satisfy current and future demand.

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What Is the MRP Process?

Most finished goods are comprised of multiple ingredients, materials or other components, and must undergo various processes and steps before they are considered complete. Because the finished good is dependent on these items, they are referred to as dependent demand, and they must be carefully managed in order to fulfill planned production orders.

The MRP process starts with the master production schedule, as it determines what quantity of a dependent demand product is needed and when. The MRP system then works backward from the master production schedule to calculate the quantity of each dependent demand item that is needed to produce the required amount of end product.

Next, the MRP process determines how much of each item the company currently has available in inventory, and aggregates it with upcoming scheduled deliveries. If there is a gap between what is needed and what is on-hand, the process will indicate that additional orders need to be placed. Finally, if the future net requirements of materials or components is projected to deplete inventory, planned orders can be created to account for each item’s lead time. In this way, the MRP process prevents future production downtime that might occur due to depleted on-hand inventory. Often, an MRP process must be performed for each dependent demand item.

While the MRP process can be carried out by hand, it is most commonly performed electronically, either by a homegrown or commercial material requirements planning (MRP) software solution.

Elevate Your MRP Process With MasterControl

With integrated and automated systems, any business process is made easier and more efficient. MasterControl Manufacturing Excellence optimizes the MRP process by automating manual manufacturing activities, integrating disparate enterprise software systems, digitalizing documentation, and storing data in a central location, making critical trends and insights easier to access, analyze and leverage.

MasterControl Manufacturing Excellence enables your company to:

  • Achieve full data transparency and integrity: Let the system check your production data for accuracy in real time as it is recorded, virtually eliminating the risk of common documentation issues such as illegible text, incorrect data formats, incomplete data, incorrect units of measure and more.
  • Eliminate paper from the production floor: Automatically compile a consistent and compliant documentation, regardless of whether you use batch records, device history records (DHR), production travelers, history records, batch production records (BPR) or any other type of production record.
  • Use data to inform mission-critical business decisions: Implement real-time continuous process improvements with increased visibility into production information and predictive analytics capabilities.
  • Empower people to make the right decisions: By reducing the interface between humans, machines and documentation, you can minimize risk and improve both human and machine productivity.
  • Improve operational efficiency and minimize downtime: MasterControl Manufacturing Excellence traces all production activities and actions and can easily identify the source of quality events and inefficiencies to resume production as quickly as possible.
  • Realize your digital transformation objectives: The fully paperless manufacturing floor eludes most manufacturers, but going paperless is the only way to truly reap the benefits of data-driven intelligence and other smart manufacturing technologies.

Learn More About MasterControl Manufacturing Excellence

For more information about MasterControl Manufacturing Excellence and how it can elevate your MRP process, please contact a MasterControl representative.