Material requirements planning: calculate the real job shortage

Material requirements planning, or MRP, tells you what a production job still needs after considering its BOM, usable stock and supply due in time. In Optiwise, Smart Suggest connects those inputs with purchase, in-house production and subcontract actions.

Download the job material-position worksheet

job material-position worksheet (Excel workbook) includes a worked example and a separate sheet for your inputs. Blue cells are editable; formula cells calculate the result. Replace the illustrative figures with your factory records.

Start with the released requirement

Identify the finished item, job quantity, required date and approved bill of materials. The BOM gives the gross component requirement. Use the correct units and revision, and separate a stocked subassembly from the components needed only when you make more of it. Our BOM worksheet helps check a trial order.

Next, establish usable stock and supply expected before the job needs it. Material physically present but awaiting mandatory quality release cannot be treated as ready for issue. Existing commitments must be counted once, and an overdue PO needs a new confirmed date.

Work the shortage with held and late supply visible

The illustrative job needs 100 assemblies, each using two bearings and one motor. Gross demand is 200 bearings and 100 motors. There are 80 physical bearings, including 20 held, so 60 are usable. Fifty more are confirmed usable in time: available supply is 110 and the bearing gap is 90.

Another 40 bearings are due late. They remain visible in the worksheet but do not reduce the immediate 90-piece gap. Forty usable motors and no incoming supply leave a 60-motor gap. These figures assume no additional commitments; enter any that apply without deducting them twice.

Choose the right work for the gap

Smart Suggest checks BOM demand, available stock, existing production and open purchase orders. You can create in-house jobs, purchase indents and subcontract service orders for the work still required. The planner reviews the quantity and route before release, while purchasing follows up the promised supply date.

A shortage may call for a transfer, an expedited receipt or a changed job sequence instead of another purchase. Keep the difficult decision visible: material arriving after the required date can close a total-quantity gap while leaving the job late.

Review the result after actual movements

Stores records issues and returns, production records output and extra consumption, and quality records acceptance or rejection. Use those changes to update the next material decision. If stock or the BOM is wrong, correct the responsible record rather than treating the suggestion as an engineering instruction.

For a documented example of demand-to-material planning, see ERPNext’s production-plan documentation. Our finished-goods plan explains the step before component planning.

Turn one material gap into executable work

Bring a job, its BOM, usable stock and an open PO with a date. We will follow the remaining quantity into the appropriate factory action. Explore the Optiwise workflow or book a factory walkthrough. We charge ₹0 for implementation. Subscription, optional add-ons and IoT hardware are separate.