A product load profile approach to MRP capacity planning

This paper discusses a feasibility study of applying the product load profile (PLP) approach to capacity planning in MRP systems. The advantage of the PLP approach is that it greatly simplifies the computation of capacity requirements. But the accuracy of the resulting capacity plans has to be compromised because of certain simplifying assumptions made in constructing individual product load profiles. Simulation experiments of a real MRP system are performed to test the effectiveness of the PLP approach under conditions of uncertainty in operation work contents and demand fluctuation. The results reveal that under a wide range of test conditions the PLP approach is able to generate accurate capacity plans, demonstrating the potential of PLP as an efficient and effective method for capacity planning in MRP.