Page 18 - Orlicky's Material Requirements Planning

Preface xvii

my appreciation for the incredible progress reflected in your work on ASR.
Congratulations! I wish we had some of these solutions back then. . . . I am
really blown away by the caliber and scope of this work.

In 1975, Joe Orlicky wrote the first book on MRP, entitled, Material Requirements
Planning. This first MRP book is still seen today as the “bible” and the genesis of stan-
dardized MRP to which every software company coded its product. In 1994, Joe’s close
friend, George Plossl, revised the book, and it was entitled, Orlicky’s Material Requirements
Planning (second revised edition). George was one of the thought leaders at the time in
the implementation of these concepts with Joe, Oliver (Ollie) Wight, and Richard (Dick)
Ling. These two editions have sold over 175,000 copies combined—clearly demonstrat-
ing this impact.
In the spring of 2010, McGraw-Hill offered Chad and Carol a contract to write the
third revised edition. We are humbled to stand on the shoulders of these giants and bring
MRP up-to-date and into the future. You hold in your hands the result of this journey. We
understand that most readers of this book are planning personnel bound by various pol-
icy and metric restrictions; believe us, we understand. Persuade your executives to
explore the alternative (and superior) metrics and rules of the demand driven methodol-
ogy. The case can be made effectively. Focus on services levels, cash, and return on work-
ing capital employed (ROCE). Then demand better and more appropriate tools from your
technology providers. Please go to www.demanddrivenmrp.com to see how changing
the rules and tools to fit the volatile and demand driven world of the twenty-first centu-
ry is not only possible but also practical. Please contact us with questions, feedback, and
requests for help.
We would like to thank our colleagues and friends who have helped so much with
this version. Of special note are Dick Ling, who so graciously contributed his latest break-
throughs with Andy Coldrick in S&OP; Gene Thomas, one of the original developers of
the earliest precursors of MRP, who so generously shared the detailed history in
Appendices A and D in addition to his review of the manuscript; David Turbide for his
review and Foreword contribution, in addition to being part of the overall development
of the DDMRP idea back to the concept of rapid priority management (RPM); John
Ricketts of IBM for his detailed review of the manuscript; Jim Cox and John Schleier for
their encouragement to write this book in the beginning; and Bruce Spurgeon for his
review. We acknowledge the partners and staff of Constraints Management Group, par-
ticularly Greg Cass and Paddy Rama, for sharing their ideas, verbalizations, and experi-
ences. Finally, we would very much like to acknowledge and thank our spouses and fam-
ilies for putting up with our absence during the writing process.

Carol Ptak
Chad Smith