Material plan (MRP)
MRP answers three questions for long orders:
- Will each operation have its parts on the day it starts?
- Which parts are short, and when?
- What should be bought, and by when?
It recalculates every time data refreshes, over a horizon of 8, 16 or 26 weeks.
How it calculates
For every part, MRP starts from today’s stock on hand and walks forward in date order.
- Supply adds on its expected date: open purchase orders and requisition lines (planned purchases).
- Demand subtracts on the date the operation that uses the part starts (matched by routing link code), for every Firm Planned and Released order, counting only what is not yet consumed. Demand already past due counts today.
- The running total is the projected available balance. Below 0 is short. Below the item’s safety stock is a warning.
- Planned purchase is enough to cover the lowest balance plus safety stock, rounded up to the order multiple, needed on the first short date. Order by is that date minus the item’s lead time. Past order-by dates are flagged late.
Orders are netted in date order, so an earlier operation takes stock before a later one. The “N parts short” and “Material short” warnings on Planning, Shop floor and order details come from this same calculation.
Three views
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To do opens first. It lists what to do about each part in plain words, most urgent first:
- Buy now: short and already past the time to order.
- Chase supplier: ordered, but it arrives after it’s needed.
- Buy soon: still time to order.
- Top up stock: drops below safety stock.
Each line says who needs the part, when, how much is short, and what to buy from which vendor by when. It has Buy (a requisition line in BC), Open order and Details buttons. Buy all suggested does the whole list.
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By order shows each production order with a colored dot and how many parts are missing. Open it to see, per operation, which parts are short and what to do.
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Week by week is the detailed timeline, week grid and part chart described below.
The top figures show parts short, parts below safety stock, parts past their order-by date, and parts planned.
Order readiness
One row per Firm Planned and Released order. Each operation is a bar on a week axis, with today (blue line) and the due date (black diamond). The number on a bar is how many part lines aren’t covered when it starts. Click a bar to list only its parts below.
| Bar color | Meaning | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Green | All parts covered on the start day | None |
| Blue striped | Parts still to buy, and there is still time (order-by date ahead) | Plan the purchase |
| Amber | A purchase order covers it but arrives after the operation starts | Expedite the vendor or move the operation |
| Red | Short, nothing ordered, order-by date already passed | Buy now, or reschedule |
| Grey | Operation finished | None |
Parts by week
One row per part, one column per week. With Exceptions only ticked, only short or below-safety parts show.
- Each cell shows the projected balance at the end of the week: green covered, yellow below safety stock, red short.
- A small green triangle marks a week with incoming supply.
- The Action column shows the planned purchase, for example “Buy 19 by Oct 11”. It is red when late.
- Hover a cell for that week’s demand and supply.
- Use the search box to find a part or vendor.
Part chart
Click a part to see:
- Its projected balance as a step line (green, yellow, red by level).
- Demand as dots colored by order, and supply as green triangles.
- The safety stock (dashed), today and the order-by date.
- Below the chart, every event with date, document, quantity and balance after. Click an order to open it.
Buy
- Tick parts, or Tick all planned purchases shown. Or use Create requisition line under one part’s chart.
- Press Create requisition lines in BC.
The lines appear in the requisition worksheet set in RAM Setup, with the item’s vendor. MRP counts them as supply at once, so the parts turn green.
A buyer then runs Carry Out Action Message in BC to turn them into purchase orders. Creating purchase orders straight from the app is not built yet.