Peter Townsend knew that he would have to make some decisions pretty soon. His sports goods manufacturing business, Psycho Sports, had grown so rapidly over the last two years that he would soon have to install some systematic procedures and routines to manage the business. His biggest problem was in manufacturing control. He had started making specialist high-quality table tennis bats but now made a wide range of sports products, including tennis balls, darts and protective equipment for various games. Furthermore, his customers, once limited to specialist sports shops, now included some of the major sports retail chains. ‘We really do have to get control of our manufacturing. I keep getting told that we need what seems to be called an MRP system. I wasn’t sure what this meant and so I have bought a specialist production control book from our local bookshop and read all about MRP principles. I must admit, these academics seem to delight in making simple things complicated. And there is so much jargon associated with the technique, I feel more confused now than I did before. ‘Perhaps the best way forward is for me to take a very simple example from my own production unit and see whether I can work things out manually. If I can follow the process through on paper then I will be far better equipped to decide what kind of computer-based system we should get, if any!’ Peter decided to take as his example one of his new products: a table tennis bat marketed under the name of the ‘high-resolution’ bat, but known within the manufacturing unit more prosaically as Part Number 5654. Figure 14.12 shows the product structure for this table tennis bat, showing the table tennis bat made up of two main assemblies: a handle assembly and a face assembly. In order to bring together the two main assemblies to form the finished bat, various fixings are required, such as nails, connectors, etc. The gross requirements for this particular bat are shown below. The bat is not due to be launched until Week 13 (it is now Week 1) and sales forecasts have been made for the first 23 weeks of sales:
Weeks 13–21 inclusive, 100 per week
Weeks 22–29 inclusive, 150 per week
Weeks 30–35 inclusive, 200 per week.

Questions
1. Why did Peter have such problems getting to the relevant information?
2. Perform all the exercises which Peter set for himself. Do you think he should now fully understand MRP?

Transcribed Image Text:

0499 Handle assy 1 per 1821 Handle 1 per 9110 Nail 2 per 7754 Shaft 1 per 0955 Connector 1 per Figure 14.12 Product structure for bat 5654 5654 Bat 1 per 9110 Nail 4 per 6511 Rubber face 2 per 8744 Rivet 4 per 2547 Wooden inner 1 per 0772 Face assy 1 per 8561 Foam panel 2 per