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Preface
As the business climate has yo-yoed up and down over the years, we have seen the enterprise
resource management (ERP) marketplace equally oscillate as well. Back in the early days of mate-
rial requirements planning (MRP), computers were introduced to assist a business, automate their
planning, and scheduling using a somewhat integrated model (inventory, purchase orders, work
orders, and sales orders) to calculate dependent demand and explode through a bill of materials.
During this volatile time, there was a tremendous industry learning curve that was impacted by
such things as record accuracy, new roles and responsibilities, new tools, ...