A simulation‐based finite capacity MRP procedure not depending on lead time estimation

The two main limits of material requirements planning (MRP) systems are: (1) MRP does not take into account production capacity constraints and (2) lead time values are pre‐defined input of the procedure. The approaches developed so far solve the first limitation by considering capacity constraints out of the procedure. Target of this paper is to define a new MRP method that overcomes these limitations. In particular, the proposed procedure, through a simulation model, allows to obtain a plan, which complies with resources capacity and which does not need to receive estimated lead time values as input. The proposed method has been applied to a case presenting all the elements of complexity of the MRP phase. A comparison of the performance of the new procedure with the traditional one shows that the new one takes effectively into account capacity constraints and provides feasible plans.