Page 217 - Orlicky's Material Requirements Planning

196 PART 3 Managing with the MRP System

1. Recommending when orders should be released
2. Maintaining validity of order priorities
3. Providing data for planning capacity and other uses

The early promise of MRP also was dimmed by emphasis on using “standard MRP
systems.” Self-proclaimed but underqualified system evaluators rated commercial soft-
ware packages against the raters’ specifi cations, which included many features inappro-
priate for some businesses. Repetitive manufacturing with no need for lot-order identity
is an ex ample. Reluctant to risk low ratings by not meeting all standard specifications,
software suppliers included trivial features that added cost and complexity with little
value to most users. This was exacerbated further with the advent of client-server tech-
nology and the accompanying evolution of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
Implementation was viewed as “getting software running on the com puter,” not as
using the programs to run the business more effectively, so users were poorly prepared,
incomplete systems were installed, and proper founda tions were not put in place. This part
of this book will cover the effective use of the currently available MRP tools and techniques.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

E. Goldratt, E. Schragenheim, and C. Ptak. Necessary but Not Sufficient. North River Press, 2000.