Aggregate Production, Master Schedule, and Materials Requirement Plans - Essay Example

The inventory at hand by this quarter is 86,400 fans that are calculated as 126% of the 2006 first-quarter production levels. Due to the application of this cushion by Riordan, a viable production plan will be easily maintained without minor adjustments on the plan of 2005. Riordan requires the master production schedule (MPS) to help in the determination of the parts that will be needed weekly to meet its quarterly projected needs.

The fact that this company uses a make-to-stock system makes it able to easily satisfy its customer demands without any delays in production. In case the inventory level drop to a given level, theres an automated system with a fixed order quantity method that I used to order parts. Whenever the capacity remains unremarkable, and theres a high reliability on the Riordans suppliers so that there are no significant delays in delivery, a flexible time fence is used (Soares & Vieira, 2009). At the Riordans Chinese facility, for a fan production, the material requirement plan (MRP) is usually based on the master production schedule (MPS).

The MPS is used for the finished product that is the fans, and it also predicates the MRP. It is important that a well-reviewed production schedule is based on the inputs from every department so as to balance conflicting objectives, maintain inventory levels low and use resources efficiently.