Material Planning (MRP)¶

Stop guessing what to buy — let FilaOps calculate material requirements from your open orders and current inventory.

What You'll Learn¶

• How FilaOps MRP works and what demand sources it considers
• How to read the Buy List and Low Stock views
• How to turn MRP suggestions into purchase orders
• How planned orders work (their lifecycle and how to act on them)
• Where MRP results surface across the app

Prerequisites¶

• Staff access to FilaOps
• Products with Bills of Materials defined (see Managing Your Product Catalog)
• Open sales orders or production orders that create demand
• Reorder points and lead times set on your materials (see Managing Your Product Catalog)

What Is MRP?¶

MRP (Material Requirements Planning) answers three questions:

1. What do I need? — Which materials and components are required to fill your open orders
2. How much? — The exact quantities, accounting for what is already in stock and what is already on order
3. When? — Timing based on lead times and order due dates

Without MRP, you are either over-ordering (tying up cash in excess inventory) or under-ordering (stopping production because you ran out of a critical material). MRP finds the balance.

How FilaOps MRP Works¶

graph TD
    A[Sales Orders] --> D[MRP Engine]
    B[Production Orders] --> D
    C[Current Inventory] --> D
    E[Open Purchase Orders] --> D
    F[Bills of Materials] --> D
    D --> G[Net Shortage List]
    D --> H[Planned Orders]
    G --> I[Buy List]
    H --> J[Purchase Order / Work Order]

When you run MRP, FilaOps:

1. Collects open demand — Gathers all open sales orders and open production orders within your planning horizon
2. Explodes BOMs — Recursively walks through each product's Bill of Materials (and routing operation materials where applicable) to calculate the total raw material required
3. Checks current stock — Reads on-hand inventory across all locations
4. Checks incoming supply — Subtracts quantities already on open purchase orders (draft, ordered, or partially received)

5. Calculates net requirements — Applies the standard MRP netting formula:

   Net Shortage = Gross Demand − On Hand − Incoming Supply + Safety Stock
   

6. Generates planned orders — Creates suggested purchase orders (for bought materials) and production orders (for manufactured sub-assemblies) to fill those gaps

The Buy List¶

The Buy List is the fastest way to see what you need to order right now. It is a live, computed-on-demand view — it never needs a separate "run MRP" step.

Navigate to Purchasing > Buy List.

What the Buy List Shows¶

The summary cards at the top give you an at-a-glance status:

Reading the Buy List Table¶

Each row represents one component with a shortage. Expand any row to see which open orders are driving the demand.

Creating a Purchase Order from the Buy List¶

Step 1. Find the component row you want to order.

Step 2. Click Create PO on that row.

FilaOps navigates to Purchasing and opens the new purchase order form with the vendor and suggested quantity pre-filled.

Step 3. Confirm the vendor, adjust quantities if needed, and save the PO.

Low Stock Tab¶

The Low Stock tab combines reorder-point alerts with MRP-driven shortages into one prioritized list.

Navigate to Purchasing > Low Stock.

Urgency Levels¶

Each item is assigned an urgency badge:

An item can show both a standard urgency badge and the MRP badge at the same time. The Shortfall column then shows both figures.

Shortage Source Values¶

The Shortfall column shows how the shortage was identified:

Creating Purchase Orders from Low Stock¶

Single item:

1. Click Create PO on any row to open the new PO form pre-filled for that item.

Multiple items (bulk by vendor):

1. Check the boxes next to the items you want to order.
2. Click Create PO (n) in the toolbar.
3. Choose a vendor group from the dropdown — items are grouped by their preferred vendor.

Running Full MRP¶

The Buy List computes automatically. When you need a formal review-and-approve workflow — including planned orders — you run the MRP engine explicitly.

MRP Run Parameters¶

What a Run Produces¶

After a successful run the MRP engine records:

• Orders processed (sales orders + production orders)
• Components analyzed
• Shortages found
• Planned orders created

Planned Orders¶

When you run the full MRP engine, it generates planned orders — suggestions you review and approve before they become real purchase orders or work orders.

Types of Planned Orders¶

FilaOps determines the type automatically: items with a BOM become production orders; items without a BOM become purchase orders.

Planned Order Lifecycle¶

Planned  →  Firmed  →  Released
   │           │
   └─────── Cancelled ◄──┘

Working with Planned Orders¶

Firming a Planned Order¶

When you have reviewed a planned order and agree with the suggestion:

1. Select the planned order.
2. POST to /api/v1/mrp/planned-orders/{id}/firm (optionally include a notes string).

Firming locks the order so the next MRP run will not change or delete it. Firm orders when you are confident in the quantity but are not yet ready to release.

Releasing a Planned Order¶

When you are ready to convert a planned order into a real order:

1. POST to /api/v1/mrp/planned-orders/{id}/release.
2. For purchase planned orders, include vendor_id in the request body (required).
3. For production planned orders, no vendor is needed — FilaOps creates the work order automatically using the product's active BOM.

FilaOps creates the actual purchase order (visible in Purchasing) or production order (visible in Production) and marks the planned order as released.

Cancelling a Planned Order¶

If a planned order is no longer needed:

1. DELETE /api/v1/mrp/planned-orders/{id}.

Only planned or firmed orders can be cancelled. Released orders cannot be cancelled.

MRP Across the App¶

MRP results appear in several places beyond the Purchasing page.

Order Detail — Material Requirements¶

When viewing a sales order, the Material Requirements section shows a BOM explosion for that specific order and nets the quantities against available inventory. This lets you see at a glance whether materials are covered before you schedule production.

Dashboard¶

The main dashboard surfaces two MRP-related cards:

• Low Stock Items — items below their reorder point or with an MRP shortage. Clicking takes you directly to Purchasing > Low Stock.
• Orders Needing Materials — count of open sales orders in scope for MRP planning.

Stocking Policy per Item¶

Each item in your catalog has a Stocking Policy that controls how it interacts with purchasing alerts:

Set the stocking policy in Items > edit item > Stocking Policy.

Tips and Best Practices¶

• Use the Buy List for daily purchasing decisions — It is always current without a manual run. Reserve the full MRP engine with planned orders for formal review-and-approve workflows.
• Set accurate lead times — MRP timing is only as good as your lead time data. Update lead times when a vendor consistently delivers faster or slower than expected.
• Keep safety stock configured — safety_stock on an item raises the net shortage floor. MRP suggests enough quantity to cover demand plus your safety stock buffer.
• Set preferred vendors on all purchased items — The Buy List and bulk PO creation both group by preferred vendor. Items without a preferred vendor must be ordered individually.
• Firm planned orders before re-running MRP — If you have reviewed planned orders and want to keep them, firm them before running MRP again with regenerate_planned: true.
• Check the BOM when quantities look wrong — If MRP is suggesting unexpected quantities, review the product's BOM. The most common cause is a wrong quantity-per-assembly on a BOM line. Check whether routing-operation materials are overriding BOM lines (the BOM editor will warn you if so).
• Use "Include Draft Orders" for early planning — Set include_draft_orders: true (the default) so that draft production orders — not yet formally released — are included in demand. This gives you advance warning before orders are confirmed.

What's Next?¶

• Ordering Supplies — create and manage purchase orders
• Running Production — release work orders to the shop floor
• Tracking Inventory — keep stock levels accurate so MRP has good data
• Managing Your Product Catalog — maintain accurate BOMs and lead times

Quick Reference¶