Seminar 4 Discussion Questions

Chapter Six

6. What is meant by the term safety time?

The term safety time refers to scheduling orders for arrival and/or completion ahead of the tie they are needed. A sufficient amount of safety time eliminates and/or reduces the chance of waiting for items needed to fulfill an order (Stevenson, 2012).

9. What are some of the main advantages and limitations of MRP?

Some of the main advantages of MRP are: 1.) the ability to identify specific parts and keep track of material requirements; 2.) the ability to evaluate capacity generated by a master schedule; 3.) low levels of in-process or pending inventories and determine exact unit numbers needed; 4.) the means of distributing production time; and 5.) the ability to determine the dates when orders should be released based on lead times (Stevenson, 2012).

Some limitations of MRP are: 1.) MRP tried to do too much in software that cannot hold up all the time, such as dynamic, and often jumpy systems; and 2.) MRP has not operated well in various service applications (Stevenson, 2012).

15. How does the purpose of ERP differ from the purpose of MRP II?

The purpose of ERP differs from the purpose of MRP II as MRP II is an expanded method for production resource planning. MRP II involved other areas of a firm in the planning process, while also enabling capacity requirements planning. ERP is a combination of financial, manufacturing, and human resources all in a single computer system. ERP is generally used for standardized record keeping, which is different from MRP II (Stevenson, 2012).

Reference

Stevenson, W. J. (2012). Operations Management (11th Ed). New York: