Materials Requirements Planning (MRP) is a planning module that will load the entire horizon with orders that in the short term (determined by the lead-time of the part) need to be approved and then released to the execution modules of Purchasing and Shop Floor Execution. For that reason, order release is considered to be a “bridge” between the two (i.e., planning and execution). How you approach order release will ultimately determine how the execution modules are replenished.

When you design your order release system you are answering how and when to send these orders across the bridge. You will see in this session that there are many different ways to do so and that those methods are not mutually exclusive and form one of the most important processes in the implementation of your MRP system.