Pulse Dashboard — MRP Engine Documentation¶
Welcome¶
This knowledge base documents the MRP (Material Requirements Planning) Engine within Pulse Dashboard — the planning and shortage-analysis layer that sits on top of your Macola ERP data. Whether you are a planner reviewing daily shortage reports, a customer service representative investigating back-order situations, a production supervisor tracking component availability, or a developer maintaining the regeneration logic, this resource provides the depth of explanation you need.
The documentation covers three interconnected areas:
| Area | What It Covers |
|---|---|
| MRP Engine Logic | How Pulse processes demand and replenishment records in chronological order, maintains projected on-hand quantities, identifies shortages, and optionally cascades demand through the bill of materials |
| Configuration & Settings | Every option on the MRP Setup and Calendar Settings screens, with detailed explanations of each setting's effect on regeneration output |
| Reports & Data Tables | The internal tables that power Pulse's shortage reports, including the MRP Core table, Flat Forecast table, Flat BOM table, and Component Level table |
Where to Begin¶
If you are new to Pulse's MRP Engine, start with the Engine Overview for a plain-English explanation of what the engine does and why it exists. Then read How Shortages Are Calculated to understand the core netting logic before exploring configuration options.
If you want to understand how a specific report works, what it presents, and how to configure it, see the Reports section. Because these reports consume data produced by the MRP Engine, a solid understanding of the engine logic is recommended for a complete picture of what the reports are showing and why.
If you are a developer or power user investigating the source code, every article contains a Developer Reference block below the horizontal rule that links calculation logic directly to the relevant VB source files.
Modules That Use MRP Data¶
The MRP Engine feeds three distinct areas of Pulse Dashboard:
- Material Requirements → MRP Orders — A report for inventory planners and materials managers providing a unified view of all demand and replenishment transactions with an optional shortage filter.
- Customer Service → Items Causing Shortages — A report for customer service representatives and inventory planners, surfacing items with customer orders that cannot be fulfilled.
- Production → Components Causing Shortages — A report for production planners, buyers, and shop floor supervisors, surfacing items with production or shop floor orders that cannot be fulfilled.
All three reports draw from the same underlying MRP Details table, which is rebuilt each time MRP is regenerated.
Key Concepts at a Glance¶
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| MRP Regeneration | The process Pulse runs to rebuild all MRP data from scratch using the current state of Macola orders (customer, purchase, production, shop floor, and in-transit), inventory levels, and optional sales forecast data |
| Demand | Any transaction that consumes inventory — customer orders, production component requirements, in-transit transfers, and forecast entries |
| Replenishment | Any transaction that adds to inventory — purchase orders, completed production orders, shop floor orders, and in-transit arrivals |
| Netting | The process of applying demand and replenishment records in chronological order to maintain a running projected on-hand quantity for each item |
| Shortage | A condition where a record's projected on-hand quantity falls below the configured minimum quantity floor after netting |
| Minimum Quantity | The inventory floor used to evaluate shortages. Can be set to Zero, Safety Stock, or Reorder Level in MRP Setup |
| BOM Explosion | An optional step that traces finished-good demand through every level of the bill of materials and generates component demand entries for weeks where projected quantities fall below their configured minimums |
| Planning Week | A seven-day window starting on the Production Week Start day configured in Calendar Settings. Used as the time bucket for BOM explosion calculations. |
| Lean Inventory | Operating with minimal stock on hand, replenishing components only when projected demand signals a shortfall — a strategy Pulse supports through BOM explosion combined with safety stock or reorder level minimums |
About This Documentation¶
Use the search bar at the top of any page to locate specific topics, settings, or column names. The Tags Index in the Reference section provides an alternative way to browse by topic category.
The built-in AI Assistant (available via the chat icon in the bottom-right corner) can answer questions about any topic covered in this documentation, including questions about the source code logic.