Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is a concept of creating material plans and production schedules based on the lead times of a supply chain. An MRP system is intended to simultaneously meet three objectives:
· Ensure raw materials are available for production and products are available for delivery to customers.
· Maintain the lowest possible material and product levels in store.
· Plan manufacturing activities, delivery schedules and purchasing activities.
This platform does not include accounting or the Customer Relations Management (CRM). However, some companies prefer to have a separate system for these components in case of a system crash.
A certain degree of redundancy in supply chain is important to reduce errors. Some companies will incorporate additional layers of technology to achieve this goal like blockchain. Further, companies are always looking to increase profit and reduce costs. It is why Artificial intelligence is the fastest growing technology that is used to perform certain human tasks, such as manufacturing, answering phone calls, etc.