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CHAPTER 10 A New Way of Looking at Things 195

2. Business planning. Long-range, focusing on product-family marketing and services.
3. Production planning. Midrange, focusing on facilities, technologies, and all types
of resources.
4. Master schedule planning. Short-range, defining specific end items and driving
detailed plans for resources.

In many companies, interfaces between these were weak at best and often missing.
Strategic plans, developed by top management, had little influence on production and
master schedule planning. Marketing/sales business plans were largely ignored by pro-
duction people. Their produc tion plans, often used only for budgeting, were not linked
to the MPS. Pre- computer manual systems were very difficult to link, and habits devel -
oped then were carried on long after powerful computers and software were available.
Pre-MRP planning methods not only were fragmented and crude, but they also com-
pletely lacked an ability to replan—to respond to change.
More attention was given to integrated planning and control systems in the late
1970s and to the task of educating people in the body of knowledge, language, principles,
and techniques of manufacturing plan ning and control. APICS began to certify practi-
tioners through a set of examinations covering these areas.
With the tools of planning and control understood and available, the focus in the
1980s was on solving the problems of execution. Long believed inevitable and unsolv-
able, the causes of upsets and interference with smooth, fast flow were attacked success-
fully by many companies. Unfor tunately, too many others had already succumbed to
competitors, most of whom were in foreign countries.
Computer-based MRP programs made possible six revolutionary ad vances:

1. Masses of data could be stored and manipulated cheaply at blind ing speeds.
2. Plans could be integrated over products and processes.
3. Complex product structures were easily loaded, stored, and retrieved for multi-
ple uses.
4. User options were available for classification, lot-sizing, safety-stock, and other
techniques.
5. Myriad of data were available for many uses.
6. Frequent, rigorous replanning was possible easily, quickly, and inex pensively.

Early applications of MRP focused on items 1, 3, 4, and 6; items 2 and 5 in the list
were neglected, although these had great potential benefits and met many important
needs. MRP eliminated the greatest excuse for not executing the plan—that it was not
valid. Overenthusiasm for MRP created the unfortunate impres sion that it was a system
that could improve customer service, reduce inventories, and cut manufacturing costs
simultaneously, along with performing other miracles. The truth, of course, is that MRP
is not a system; it is a technique that can help people to do their jobs by: