1) The function of determining the need to replenish inventory at branch warehouses. A time-phased order point approach is used where the planned orders at the branch warehouse level are "exploded" vi a MRP logic to become gross requirements of the supplying source. In the case of multilevel distribution networks, this explosion process can continue down through the various levels of regional wareh ouses (master warehouse, factory warehouse, etc.) and become input to the master production schedule. Demand on the supplying sources is recognized as dependent and standard MRP logic applies. 2) More...