ABSTRACT
The entry describes the mechanics of the material requirements planning task. When demand is dependent, the amount of material needed can be calculated and not forecasted. The end items produced by the factory (i.e., those scheduled in the master production schedule) are the only independent‐demand items in the factory. They have to be forecasted or produced to actual demand. It is the task of materials requirements planning to calculate how many of each component are needed and when they are needed. There is confusion about MRP, because the software that has been developed to perform the tasks uses the same name. But, the task of materials requirements planning must be done regardless of whether software is used to do it.
