Materials Requirements Planning (MRP) is fundamentally a systemised inventory management function that automatically generates inventory replenishment recommendations based on pre-defined parameters.

​

Parameters:

• Safety Stock – Trigger point for replenishment.

• MOQ/EOQ – Minimum/Economic Order Quantity.

• Order Multiple – Replenishment multiples above MOQ/EOQ.

• Lead Time – Days between confirming replenishment requirement and receipt.

• Max – Maximum quantity per replenishment order.

​

MRP is typically part of core ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) functionality and is the simplest of the planning solutions that provides unconstrained supply replenishment recommendations and alert messages to the user.

​

Although MRP is typically core ERP functionality, in many cases management of inventory, whether it be for planning of production or purchasing of materials, is maintained externally from the system and as such replenishment doesn’t always follow best practices, as a result inventory can become misaligned to policy and demand requirements causing customer service and excess inventory challenges.

​

In order to support inventory management aligned to MRP principles and best practices, HMS has created an Excel based Materials Requirements Planning solution that can be integrated to key data sources i.e. demand requirements, supplier data, purchase orders, inventory policy, and provides automated replenishment recommendations and alert reporting based on the same system functionality.

 

In addition, reporting functionality has been included to provide the user with forward demand projections to support supplier communication, visibility of active PO data to assist with supply management, and inventory projection and coverage senior management.