Introduction
The built-in ERPNext MRP Manufacturing functionality (as of version 15) is limited in two main ways:
Firstly every manufacturing order and related purchases must be planned manually using the Production Planning tool. This tool is the only method of traversing any manufacturing BOMs to create Material Requests and Work Orders from Sales Orders. This means there is no automated processing of order demand and material lead times to help a company understand whether products can be manufactured and when shortages of components will occur.
Secondly, any view of future Item stock is restricted to a single quantity per Item called Projected Quantity. This value only accounts for actual quantities in the system for individual Items for individual warehouses, like current stock level, Purchase Orders, Work Orders, Material Requests, etc. Projected Quantity does not take into account components in a BOM related to an unplanned Sales Order for example. Neither is there a way to refer back to the documents that relate to a particular stock quantity change. There are a couple of reports which help a user understand where this value comes from: Stock Projected Qty and Stock Analytics, but they have limitations.
Stock Projected Qty shows the various quantities in the system that are used to give the Projected Quantity of every item per warehouse, but the values only take into account Sales Orders that have already been planned manually. There is also no overall view across all warehouses without manual calculation.
Stock Analytics shows a time-based (weekly, monthly, etc) view of the actual stock ledger history per Item. There is no way to show a forecast of the demands on materials, i.e. uncompleted Work Orders, unplanned Sales Orders, Opportunities, etc.
The CaseSolved MRP module for ERPNext addresses all of these issues by giving a consolidated historical and forecasted view of stock using any demands in the system. This includes Opportunities at particular Sales Stages, unplanned and planned Sales Orders, work in progress and actuals. The module will also predict the latest date that Items must be procured based on lead times, manufacturing times and customer delivery dates, and give what transactions in the system are causing the stock change.