Unleashed MRP for small manufacturers

For many small local manufacturers in Australia, forecasting raw materials has been difficut to achieve as Material Requirement Planning (MRP) systems aren’t usually built for micro and small‑scale operations.

Auckland‑based inventory software company Unleashed has now released an alternative MRP system that is specifically designed for small and micro manufacturers. 

The system has evolved from the company’s existing demand forecasting module, AIM, into a simplified MRP which is suitable for small-scale manufacturers including those in the food industry.

AIM is an MRP-style module built into Unleashed that focuses on materials procurement, demand forecasting, production planning and stockholding strategy. The tool is designed to connect thousands of product-level demand forecasts into the raw material purchasing plans — and assembly schedules — needed to meet them.

The module works by letting users create forecasts via a simple interface. It then works backwards through each product’s bill of materials to reverse-engineer a plan for buying and sub-assembly requirements to match the set demand.

The system accounts for factors like the time required for production, supplier lead time performance and any stock-out risk, so that purchasing managers can replenish via their different suppliers at the correct time — and for an optimised quantity.

Another recent release for manufacturers — byproducts — is a feature that is designed to ensure secondary products of manufacturing processes can be tracked and accounted for. Whether that be sheet metal offcuts that are sold to scrap merchants, or spent grain from brewing used as animal feed, the new functionality is designed to provide users with better visibility of these common additional products and revenue streams.

The cloud-based inventory management software company also has a simple but effective tool for use in container deposit schemes and similar recycling and product lifecycle tracking programs. While these schemes vary across jurisdictions, the principles are the same, with requirements to report on and lodge payments for packaging that might enter the waste stream.