Resource planning

Once the preliminary production plan is established, it must be compared to the existing resources of the company. This step is called resource requirements planning or resource planning. 2 questions must be answered:

- Are the resources available to meet the PP?
- If not, how will the difference be reconciled?

A tool often used is the resource bill. This shows the quantity of critical resources needed to make one average unit of the product group. For instance, suppose the labor normally available in a period is 1600 hours. The priority plan requires 1735 hurs, a difference of 135 hours or about 8.4%. Extra capacity must be find or thepriority plan must be adjusted.

A bill of resources (BOR) describes a list of resources, such as labor, needed to complete a saleable product. It is used in capacity planning to prioritize and schedule work in manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) by highlighting critical resources. Critical resources are resources that are in short supply or that have long lead times.[1]

The bill of resources complements the bill of materials (BOM), which lists physical sub-components of a product. Like a bill of materials, BORs are hierarchical with the top level representing the finished product or sub-assembly.