MRP Training at Variohm

There is a good chance you may have heard of MRP.

MRP stands for Material Requirements Planning and is implemented by software in many companies who deal in any kind of stock handling, for example distribution or manufacturing.

Why learn about MRP? 

MRP is part of our software system – so why do we need to learn about it? We are in the process of changing our processes so that all of the parts we order are flagged up using MRP.

Rather than simply installing the software and teaching our employees how to operate it, we want to give them extra knowledge so that they understand how it works and why parts are being called in at specific times. This way, we know what the computer is doing when we are pressing the button. It’s very tempting to alter dates and quantities based on personal opinions rather than trust the computer.

Materials Requirements Planning is a great way to order parts and keep stock at the right level. Depending on the information you input about each stock number, including minimum stock requirements, minimum order levels and minimum order values, the system will alert you when stock needs ordering as well as informing you how many parts are needed and how many come in a batch from our supplier. It will ensure that you don’t run out of stock but also that we don’t end up with too much.

What did the MRP training involve?

The MRP training was conducted by an external training company and involved exercises and challenges as well as a lot of theory.

Cristina Day is one of our assistant buyers; she attended the training and found it very useful, she says “It has definitely given me a better understanding of how the system ‘’thinks’’, the logic at the back of our actions. The course also explained the importance of the accuracy of the data imputed in the system and the need to revisit this date so we make sure we are not losing money by ordering parts that we don’t need anymore”

We are also conducting a second training day at Herga Technology, another of the companies in the Variohm Holdings group. We are hoping that they will find it equally useful!

About Hilf Supply Chain Solutions.

The training was conducted by Mr. Lindsay Harding from Hilf Supply Chain Solutions, a UK based Management Training Consultancy specialising in MRP as well as Demand Planning and Inventory Management and Forecasting. To find out more about them, visit their website www.hilf.co.uk