MRP Runs — running material requirements planning
MRP Runs compute what to buy and what to build — run material requirements planning against open sales orders, review recommendations and convert them to purchase or works orders.
Section 01
What is MRP?
1 minute
MRP (Material Requirements Planning) reads all open sales orders with delivery dates inside your planning horizon, looks at what coverage already exists (active works orders and purchase orders), and emits a gap-filling list of recommendations. Each recommendation is either a Purchase order (buy from supplier) or a Works order (make in-house from a bill of materials).
New to this? How the whole order-to-despatch loop fits together — the terms this guide assumes.
- MRP runs are point-in-time snapshots — re-run whenever your sales order book or stock levels change materially
- Each run produces a list of Recommendations split into Suggested → Approved → Converted → Rejected stages
- Products are skipped if they are already covered (on-hand + on-order meets demand + safety stock) or if they have no Bill of Materials
- The planning horizon is configurable — the default is 90 days (≈ 3 months)
Section 02
The MRP dashboard
2 minutes
Navigate to Planning → MRP Runs to see the MRP dashboard. It shows three headline stats, the Run MRP panel, recent run history, supporting data links, and a last-run summary.
| Stat card | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Last Run | The date of the most recent MRP execution — 29 Jun 2026. Status shows whether it completed successfully. |
| Recommendations in Last Run | The total number of recommendations produced by the last run — 35, split as 6 works orders and 29 purchase orders. |
| Total Across All Runs | The cumulative recommendation count across all MRP runs for this company — 70 from 3 runs. |
Section 03
Running MRP
1 minute
The Run MRP panel lets you trigger a new planning run. Set the horizon in days, then click Run MRP now. The system reads open sales orders, subtracts coverage already in flight (works orders + purchase orders), and emits recommendations for the gap. You are taken to the results page automatically once complete.
Reads open sales orders with delivery dates inside the horizon, subtracts coverage already in flight (works orders + purchase orders), and emits recommendations for the gap.
window
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Horizon (Days) | The number of days ahead MRP looks for demand. Default is 90 days (≈ 3 months). Only sales orders with delivery dates within this window are considered. Increase for longer lead-time products. |
| Run MRP now | Triggers the MRP engine. The run is recorded with a timestamp and the user who triggered it — e.g. Naeeb Syed. You are redirected to the run detail page when complete. |
If MRP encounters inconsistent data (e.g. a BOM loop or a product with missing units), the run fails with an IntegrityError status and produces 0 recommendations — as seen in the 22 Jun 2026 run. Fix the underlying data issue and re-run.
Section 04
Recent runs & supporting data
2 minutes
The lower section of the dashboard shows the most recent MRP executions and links to the data sources that feed into each run. Click any run row to open its full detail page with all recommendations.
Recent Runs
Latest MRP executions — click to view recommendations
29 Jun 2026, 10:38 am
35
rec.
24 Jun 2026, 06:32 am
35
rec.
22 Jun 2026, 11:03 am
0
rec.
Work Centres
Machines, benches, teams
Replenishment Rules
Min / max thresholds
Last Run Summary
| Column / field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Run datetime | When the run was triggered — e.g. 29 Jun 2026, 10:38 am. |
| Horizon | The planning window used — e.g. 90d. |
| Triggered by | The user who ran MRP — e.g. Naeeb Syed. |
| 🔧 WO / 🛒 PO chips | The split of recommendations: works orders (make) and purchase orders (buy). Runs 1 and 2 both show 6 WO · 29 PO. |
| rec. count | Total recommendations produced — 35 for the two complete runs, 0 for the failed run. |
| Status | ● Complete (green) — ran successfully. ● Failed (red) — run errored, e.g. IntegrityError on 22 Jun 2026. |
| Last Run Summary | SOs considered: 14 · Products considered: 41 · Products planned: 35 · Skipped (no BOM): 0. |
Section 05
MRP run detail page
1 minute
Click any run row to open its detail page. The header shows run metadata — when it started, the horizon, and who triggered it. Four stat cards summarise the run. Below them are the recommendation tabs and the "Considered but not recommended" callout.
Status
● Complete
Recommendations
35
Suggested
23
Converted
1
| Stat | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Status | ● Complete — all recommendations generated. Other states: Running (in progress), Failed (error). |
| Recommendations | Total items across all tabs — 35. This is the headline output of the run. |
| Suggested | Recommendations still awaiting a decision — 23. These need to be Approved or Rejected. |
| Converted | Recommendations already turned into real orders — 1. Approved items can be converted to a PO or WO. |
Section 06
Suggested tab — reviewing recommendations
2 minutes
The Suggested tab lists all recommendations awaiting a decision. Each row shows what to buy or make, how much, when it's needed, which sales order drives it, the suggested supplier, and the estimated cost. Click Approve to move a recommendation to the Approved tab, or Reject to dismiss it.
| Product | Type | Source | Quantity | Needed By | For SO | Supplier | Est. Cost | Status | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
M8 Hex Bolts — Grade 8.8 Timeline SKU: MHB-8.8-A | 🛒 Purchase | Batch | 2 | 20 Mar 2024 | SO-159 | supplier FedX — 1 ▾ | GBP 2.00 | ● Suggested |
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Product | The product name and SKU. |
| Type | 🛒 Purchase — buy from a supplier. 🔧 Make — produce in-house using a BOM and works order. |
| Source | Batch — the recommendation covers a batch of demand. Other modes may appear for individual-order sourcing. |
| Quantity | The quantity MRP recommends ordering or making. |
| Needed By | The date by which the stock is required to cover the sales order — e.g. 20 Mar 2024, 22 Jun 2026. |
| For SO | The sales order number driving this demand. |
| Supplier | The suggested supplier — e.g. supplier Fed X — 1, TCS — 1. "Not set" if no supplier is configured for the product. |
| Est. Cost | The estimated purchase cost based on supplier price × quantity. Blank for Make recommendations. |
| Status | ● Suggested — awaiting decision. Will change to Approved, Rejected or Converted. |
| Approve / Reject | Approve moves the recommendation to the Approved tab. Reject dismisses it. Rejected items are tracked but excluded from conversion. |
Section 07
Approved tab — converting to orders
2 minutes
The Approved tab shows recommendations you have approved and are ready to convert into real orders. For Purchase recommendations click → Convert to PO to create a Purchase Order. For Make recommendations click → Convert to WO to create a Works Order. Once converted, the item moves to the Converted tab.
| Product | Type | Source | Quantity | Needed By | For SO | Supplier | Est. Cost | Status | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
M8 Hex Bolts — Grade 8.8 Timeline SKU: MHB-1-A | 🛒 Purchase | Batch | 134 | 20 Mar 2024 | SO-151 | FX — 10 ▾ | GBP 6.70 | ● Approved |
Purchase recommendations (🛒) generate a Purchase Order in the Purchasing module, pre-filled with the supplier, product and quantity. Make recommendations (🔧) generate a Works Order in Production, routing through the Work Centres defined in the BOM.
Section 08
Considered but not recommended
2 minutes
At the top of the run detail page, an amber callout shows products that had demand but were already covered — meaning MRP considered them but decided no action was needed. Click Show why to expand the table and see the exact coverage calculation for each product.
These products had demand but were already covered — click to see why
| Product | Reason | Coverage Detail |
|---|---|---|
| M8 Hex Bolts — Grade 8.8 | Covered by stock / on-order | demand 4002 + safety 0 ≤ on-hand 15,997 + on-order 1001006 |
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Product | The product name — e.g. M8 Hex Bolts — Grade 8.8. These had demand in the horizon but did not receive a recommendation. |
| Reason | Covered by stock / on-order — the existing on-hand stock plus outstanding on-order quantity is sufficient to cover demand plus any safety stock requirement. No purchase or make action needed. |
| Coverage Detail | The MRP formula in full: demand + safety ≤ on-hand + on-order. For example, M8 Hex Bolts — Grade 8.8: demand 4,002 + safety 0 ≤ on-hand 15,997 + on-order 1,001,006 — amply covered — only safety stock needed, on-hand sufficient. |
Products appear in the "Considered but not recommended" list when they are covered. Products are skipped entirely (not listed at all) when they have no Bill of Materials — shown as Skipped (no BOM): 0 in the last run summary, meaning all products in this run had BOMs defined.