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Material Requirement Planning Is Here…Sort of

Grenville Goosen

Aug 14 2020

3 min read

There has always been a demand for Material Requirements Planning (MRP) within NetSuite. Currently in NetSuite, we have Demand Planning, but this functionality is not sufficient to satisfy our clients’ requirements.

NetSuite recently released their Supply Planning Workbench just last month. The nuts and bolts are in place for Material Requirements Planning (MRP), including the ability to create supply from the demand that is sourced from Sales Orders, Forecasts, Minimum levels, Maximum levels, and Safety Stock. This demand will allow the User to create Purchase Orders, Work Orders and Supply Orders.

However, while the nuts and bolts are in place for MRP, the Supply Planning Workbench doesn’t do everything needed for full Material Requirements Planning.

Setting up the Supply Planning Workbench

The setup has a great feature that allows the User to have multiple Planning Strategies. This feature will allow the user to plan for different product lines within their business. Within these strategies, the user is able to create multiple Planning Item Categories that allow the user to filter by these Item Categories within in a Planning Strategy. Then within these Planning Categories, the user can have multiple Item Groups, allowing for a further filter within Planning Categories.

MRP Hierarchy

Planning Strategy allows for Multiple Planning Strategies.
The Planning Item Category allows users to filter Multiple Item Categories within a Strategy.
Planning Item Group allows to filter Multiple Item Groups within an Item Category.

Refreshing the MRP Calculations

NetSuite allows two methods to refresh the MRP calculation. The first is a Complete Refresh that allows the user to update the Snapshot with a complete new range of data. This is great when there are so many changes to the data, e.g. new Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Works Orders and Transfer Orders.

The second is a Net Change Refresh, which is handy when only certain data has been updated. For example, perhaps the Planning Strategy has changed, and the user wishes to re-run MRP and identify the results based upon the new Planning Strategy.

MRP Limitations for the Supply Planning Workbench

As of this release, the new Supply Planning Workbench is only allowing for Supply Orders. There are currently no indications from NetSuite when the ability to create Purchase Orders and Works Orders from the Supply Planning Workbench will be available.

Have any questions about the NetSuite Supply Planning Workbench and how it can help with Material Requirement Planning? Please contact us at any time!

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About the Author

Grenville Goosen

Grenville Goosen is a senior consultant on the NetSuite Business Solutions team and has lead software implementations for over 35 years. He specializes in manufacturing, distribution, and re-designing customer processes to align with best business practices, resulting in reduced costs and overall efficiency. His areas of consulting expertise include manufacturing and distribution and supply chains. Grenville has an extensive background in leading medium and large customers through implementations in Africa, Asia, and the US.