SM5.5 Demand Driven Materials Requirements Planning (DDMRP)

The previous article, SM5.4 TOC Drum, Buffer, Rope Optimisation Techniques, introduced the concept of Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR) to demonstrate how to efficiently run a workflow.  If you have become an aficionado of TOC and want to know more about correctly evolving a DBR system, we have links to resources here that will help.   Brown Belt  

Demand Driven Material Requirements Planning is a multi-echelon planning and execution method which protects and promotes flow of information.
It is based on sound flow-based principles to give you a step by step blueprint. DDMRP has five sequential components:

• Position:
  • Strategic Inventory Positioning
• Protect:
  • Buffer Profiles and Levels
  • Dynamic Adjustments
• Pull:
  • Demand Driven Planning
  • Visible and collaborative Execution

There are a number of resources available for people interested in advanced Drum-Buffer-Rope. Here, we have chosen to guide you to them rather than attempt to reproduce what others can and have covered well.

Our favourite resource on this advanced topic is “Demand Driven Material Requirements Planning“, by CA Ptak and C Smith, 2016, Industrial Press.
The official website is: Demand Driven Material Requirements Planning – this has a link to the book.
As well as being a comprehensive guide in its own right, it will direct you to other resources as well.

If you want to read more on advanced concepts, but need something a bit lighter, there are a number of business novels that pass along ideas, but soften them by wrapping them into a story.

For example:
The four book set by Balle and Balle; “The Gold Mine Trilogy Study Guide“, “The Gold Mine“, “The Lean Manager: A Novel of Lean Transformation” and “Lead with Respect“
This can be purchased individually or as a set at: Lean Enterprise Australia