Quantitative Analysis for Management, 13/e

6.12 Enterprise Resource Planning

Over the years, MRP has evolved to include not only the materials required in production but also the labor hours, material cost, and other resources related to production. When approached in this fashion, the term MRP II is often used, and the word resource replaces the word requirements. As this concept evolved and sophisticated computer software programs were developed, these systems were called enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

The objective of an ERP system is to reduce costs by integrating all of the operations of a firm. This starts with the supplier of the materials needed and flows through the organization to include invoicing the customer for the final product. Data are entered once into a ...