Watch the video below for an introduction to integrated planning – how the various operations in the organisation and their plans are connected.

Inorder for MRP, DRP and DDMRP to function correctly there are a number of levels of planning and processes for data collection and sanitation that need to be in place. Without these processes in place, even a small error in data input can be catastrophic.

For example:

Your organisation

When you combine all the relatively small errors in the data collections over the entire organisation, you are left with a rather low overall data accuracy.

A business unit may be impressed by these individual numbers; however, the total picture is quite different.

Given the above accuracies, the probability of an MRP system providing the correct planning messages is only 38%. That means that 62% of the planning messages that just an MRP system outputs will be incorrect, without considering the erroneous outputs of the DDMRP and DRP systems. If one adds DRP into that mix with Bills of Distribution and capacity data, that probability drops significantly over the entire system. Systems with this data profile will most likely not be used by the users who are supposed to benefit from the system the most.

In order to change these profiles, it is important that the correct processes are used within the multiple levels of manufacturing and distribution planning.