Oracle MRP Vs APS

In my previous post, I had mentioned that MRP came into existence in 1970 and APS came into existence in 2000. So it is obvious that APS will be the first choice for companies implementing planning solution. However, there are many clients who still wants to evaluate both products from need perspective before taking any decision.

Some time back I had interaction with a client who asked one specific question many times, "why not MRP?". He had very valid reason for not favouring APS in unconstrained environment. But when I explained some of the key APS features and above all the future direction of MRP as a planning product, he become suspicious and finally decided for APS.

APS has some of the unique features which MRP can never compete. But this is also a fact that MRP was developed based on IT infrastructure (hardware, processors, database) available at that time. Now availability of fast processors and sophisticated databases has made it possible to focus on optimizing supply chain through APS.

In the following table, MRP and APS products are compared against some of the key decision points. We can write hundreds of APS functionalities which are not available in MRP. But a serious planner or scheduler can be convinced for APS by just saying one simple statement, "MRP is a unconstrained planning while APS is a constrained/Optimized planning."

Now Oracle is not promoting MRP as a planning product and in near future Oracle may stop supporting MRP.

In future I will write some details on de-centralized planning environment or decision rules based planning to clarify how they can play an important decision points.

APS Evolution

APS evolution can be traced from 1970 when MRP concept was first formalized. But this does not mean that planning systems were not existed before MRP. Earlier planners were using many unstructured manual planning process to compute material and resource requirements. Re-order point planning and min-max planning were some of the key process which were in use before 1970 also. A brief time-line of APS evolution is explained below.

1. MRP - 1970
Features - Unconstrained planning, MRP, CRP, MPS, Backward Scheduling

2. MRP II - 1980
Features - Unconstrained planning, Closed loop material planning, Integrated financial process

3. ERP - 1990
Features - Integrated Financial, HR, Costing, Distribution, Planning and Manufacturing

4. APS - 2000
Features - Holistic planning, Optimization

From business users and consultants perspective, the current APS system is not self sufficient. There are many drawbacks and limitations in existing APS system and hence expecting a new APS 2.0 in near future can't be denied.