MRP software that plans materials and machine time together
Material requirements planning answers one question well: what do we need to buy, and by when. The question that follows is harder: when does each order actually run, on which machine, and will it finish on time. ProductionPlanning.ai answers both on one schedule, so a shortage is tied to the job it stops and the day it stops it.
What MRP planning software does
Classic MRP takes demand (orders and forecasts), explodes each product into its bill of materials, subtracts stock on hand and open purchase orders, and tells you what is short and when to order it. It is the backbone of manufacturing resource planning software, and it is essential.
- Gross requirements from orders and forecasts
- Netting against stock and open purchase orders
- Lead times offset to a date to order
- A list of what to buy and what to make
The weak point is timing. Classic MRP assumes infinite capacity: it plans the date a part is needed as if every machine were free. On a real floor, the date a job runs depends on what else is queued on the same machine.
MRP for manufacturing, on a finite capacity schedule
ProductionPlanning.ai checks materials against the schedule the plant will actually run, not against an ideal one. When the scheduler places an order on a machine for Thursday morning, the materials for it are needed on Thursday morning, and that is the date the shortage list uses.
- Shortages listed per order, item, quantity and date needed
- Needed dates move automatically when the schedule moves
- Stock on hand and open purchase orders imported from your spreadsheet or ERP
- Jobs that cannot start for lack of material flagged before they reach the machine
- Shortages shown on the same screen as late orders and the bottleneck
Material shortages are included on the Plant plan and above. The result is a buy list you can trust, because it is timed to the real sequence on the floor. For a worked case, the home page shows a shortage of housing blanks tied to two specific orders.
Why an MRP system alone does not fix late orders
Plants often buy MRP software to fix late deliveries and find the problem did not move. Materials arrive on time, and the order is still late, because it sat in a queue behind the bottleneck. Material planning and capacity planning are two halves of the same promise date.
- MRP tells you what to buy. Finite capacity scheduling tells you when it runs.
- MRP assumes every machine is free. The schedule knows which ones are not.
- MRP dates move only when you rerun it. The schedule moves the moment a machine goes down.
If you are weighing a full MRP suite, read how MRP systems compare with finite capacity scheduling, or how to keep your ERP and stop planning in Excel.
MRP planning tools for plants that plan in a spreadsheet today
ProductionPlanning.ai fits the plant that has outgrown a spreadsheet but does not want a months long implementation to get a working plan. Material shortages come with the Plant plan, alongside unlimited work centers, changeovers and shop floor status.
See shortages on a real schedule
Run the demo, switch to the machine shop, and look at the shortage list under the Gantt chart.
Your data stays yours. Export or delete it any time. No card to try the demo.