Book Reviews

The Road to Class A Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRPII)

By Michael G. Tincher and Donald H. Sheldon, Jr.

Reviewed by Steve Buchwald, CIRM

The book's authors are executives with Buker, Inc., and have a vast amount of MRP II implementation experience as they have produced $200 million worth of results in client companies around the world. Although I am not convinced that every company will automatically become a better company by implementing MRP II, for those that need to implement it this is a great book to start with.

I liked the book for two reasons. The first is its primary premise that improvement starts with understanding your business. I have been preaching this for years. You cannot begin any improvement project until you understand how it fits within your business strategy. In fact by analyzing your business you may come to realize that MRP II is not what you really need now. The second is that it deals with MRP II implementation as a project. I have found that there are many books written on the details of MRP II but very few that outline the implementation project as thoroughly as this book does. On the front cover of this book is a passage that sums up my feelings perfectly. It says: "What every senior manager, project manager, and project team member needs to know to ensure a successful business implementation."

This book's step-by-step approach to excellence outlines the milestones, provides detailed sample documentation, and defines key activities in a time-phased approach to give the reader a definitive model to adapt to your environment versus having to develop these plans from scratch. The chapters are as follows:

• What is Manufacturing Resource Planning?
• Putting The Business Plan In Place
• Sales Planning For MRP II
• The Production Plan
• The Master Production Schedule
• Material Requirements planning
• Data Accuracy
• Capacity Planning
• Purchasing And Shop Floor Control
• Performance Measurements
• Implementing MRP II: Ten Steps To Success

Plus, there are three appendices: Monthly Operations review Meeting; Business Excellence Implementation; and Sample Project plan.

Let me be very clear that this is no magical guide to success in implementing MRP II. I'm sorry but that type of book just doesn't (and won't ever) exist. However, this valuable book is a great guide that not only gives you a step-by-step project approach but also conveys a clear understanding of the changes during and after the implementation. I highly recommend this book to anyone even remotely involved in analyzing whether or not to go to MRP II or anyone involved in an MRP II implementation.

Good reading!