From MRP to MRP II

When considering production management, we first need to mention the concept of MRP, or Material Requirements Planning. MRP was first proposed as a manufacturing operation method in the 1960s and enables efficient planning of orders, procurement, inventory control etc. of the required material quantities from bills of materials (BOM).

In the 1980s, MRP developed into MRP II.

Unlike the 1960s MRP, the letters in MRP II stand for Manufacturing Resource Planning. MRP II is a planning and control method that integrates the material requirements planning of MRP with all elements related to manufacturing such as personnel, facilities, and capital.

Initiatives for production management systems

From the late 1980s, B-EN-G tackled the area of production management centered on MRP II.
This was positioned as information systematization in production planning that uses MRP II, in contrast with the previously mentioned FA and CIM, which were, if anything, oriented toward information systematization centered on manufacturing facilities. However, not all our customers are able to adopt MRP II, and there are many who require production management that does not use MRP II.

In short, B-EN-G views MRP II not as production management itself but as one option for resolving the challenges faced by our customers within their production management, and of course we have other options as well.

Toward the era of ERP

As the 1980s came to a close, inquiries about plant construction suddenly began to arrive from European manufacturers. These requests incorporated not only requirements related to information systems but also requirements on plant facility aspects. These included SAP, an acronym unfamiliar to us. That was the first time for us to come into contact with SAP. There had been little information on SAP in Japan, let alone our company, so we immediately contacted the German SAP Corporation and began to gather information about it.

The era of SAP R/2, precursor of SAP R/3.
In those days we did not have a Japanese language manual, and we underwent technical training in Singapore. Our efforts came to fruition when in 1993 we received an order for our first national SAP project from a pharmaceutical manufacturer.

The concept of ERP, by which subjects of planning and control were expanded from materials to people, facilities, capital, and then further to functions such as HR, accounting, sales and marketing, began to spread throughout the world. SAP became the market leader of this ERP.

From the late 1990s, ERP was being installed in a great number of companies.