MRP (Material Requirements Planning)
The algorithm that compares demand against supply to suggest the purchase, transfer, and production orders needed to keep stock balanced.
Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is the algorithm that compares demand (sales orders, forecasts, production component needs, transfer requirements) against supply (on-hand inventory, open purchase orders, planned production orders, transfer orders) and suggests the new purchase, production, and transfer orders needed to keep stock balanced through the planning horizon. In Business Central it runs through the planning worksheet; in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management it runs through Planning Optimization, the modern in-memory engine that replaced the legacy MRP. Output is a set of action messages — New, Increase, Decrease, Reschedule earlier, Reschedule later, Cancel — that planners review and accept.