The Bee Hive

MRP: The Great Enabler?

Some years ago, when Just-in-Time (JIT) was a new and shiny concept, I went through a brief period of choosing sides in the philosophical argument over which was best: JIT or materials requirements planning (MRP). Leading thinkers in our field quickly diffused the conflict by pointing out that, while JIT was the better tool for managing the factory execution, MRP was still needed for planning of purchased material and analysis of capacity requirement.Shortly thereafter, I resolved that when a company becomes a JIT manufacturer and buys components and raw materials from other JIT manufacturers, it will need MRP only for capacity analysis. And if a company ever reaches a point where all parts are manufactured in syncronoulsy-linked cells, capacity analysis will be simple enough to no longer require a computer and MRP may be eliminated completely.