Interactive methods for the study and operation of material requirements planning (MRP)

An operational, interactive MRP system can be used for the study of the impact of suboptimizing models on the economics of production as well as pretesting the effects of the inevitable changes caused by engineering revisions, vendor delays, production interruptions or customer demand and schedule changes. Both optimizing techniques and common hueristics applied to a modest Master Production Schedule can be treated with the simulation model incorporated in the MRP program. Since the advent of computer based MRP systems, managers have had the visibility to anticipate shortages through the planned availability displays of MRP exception reports. However, the economics of a decision are difficult to test in a real environment but with an MRP simulation model, the alternatives of expediting, de-expediting, lot size changes and Master Schedule changes can be costed particularly with respect to inventory investment.