Manufacturing software

Material requirements planning. Spot the shortage before the line stops.

Material requirements planning (MRP) in Lean ERP sets all demand and all supply per item side by side over time. You see where and when a shortage arises, and you order from that same calculation.

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How does Lean calculate material requirements?

The calculation runs per item through time. On one side is the supply: what is in stock, what has been ordered from suppliers, what is in production and what is in transit between sites. On the other side is the demand: sales orders, the consumption of components by production orders, and the minimum or safety stock you want to keep.

Lean lists those lines in chronological order and keeps a running stock. If it drops below zero, there is a shortage, on that date. Each line stays linked to the order and order line it comes from, and to the final demand: the sales order or project that needs the material.

What you see

Stock forecast per monthPer item and per site, the expected stock for the next six months. Negative figures are shown in red.

All movements of one itemClicking a month opens all movements of that item, in date order, with the order alongside.

Purchasing assistant per supplierPer item and supplier, what is needed, in time buckets: overdue, within 7, 14 or 28 days.

Purchase orders from the calculationFrom the purchasing assistant, you create the purchase orders. Nobody copies the figures into a separate document.

Production proposalsWhat needs to be made appears as a provisional production order that the planner confirms.

What has been ordered for this sales order?

On the sales order, a separate tab shows which purchase orders, supplier quotes and production orders are planned for that order. Below it, you see the material requirements filtered on that one order.

So your salesperson can answer the customer's question ("will my delivery arrive on time?") without having to call purchasing or the planner.

Purchasing ›

A shortage on the shop floor

If the components of a production order are not at the workplace, the shop floor cannot book output and the operator gets a message. He can record the interruption with the reason "material shortage", so that time does not count as working time.

In the material requirements, the planner sees which item falls short and which order should cover it.

Shop floor ›

Good to know

The calculation runs as a full recalculation of all items, not with every click. After a new run, the stock forecast and the proposals are up to date.

Lean works with the demand that exists: orders, consumption and the stock you want to keep. A separate module for reorder points and order quantities per item (min-max) is not available today. How you handle that for your items, we look at together at the start.

Material requirements planning is switched on and configured per company.

The material is there. Is the information there too?

An order can have all its components and still be unable to start because an approval or a measurement is missing. IRP shows per process step which information is needed and what is still missing, alongside the material requirements.

How IRP works ›

Frequently asked questions about material requirements

Does Lean have MRP?

Yes. The calculation sets demand and supply per item side by side over time, shows the expected stock and the shortages, and you create purchase orders from that calculation.

Does the calculation take bills of materials into account?

Yes. The consumption of components by production orders counts as demand. So you also see a shortage of a raw material that goes into a semi-finished product.

Does my salesperson see what has been ordered for their order?

Yes. The sales order shows the purchase orders, supplier quotes and production orders planned for that order.

Production orders and BOMs ›Production planning ›Inventory ›Purchasing ›

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We start from a situation in your work. You see what works in the software today, and we discuss how it fits your process.