Materials Management: MRP, Stock Control and Warehousing

Advanced Logistics and Materials Management Course is a 1-week course for professionals who plan, buy, store and move the items a plant, hospital or distribution business runs on. You work across demand planning, MRP, stock policy, vendor performance, warehousing and freight, and leave with a Materials Improvement Plan for your own stores. Mercury Training Center delivers this logistics and materials management course.

About This Course

Stores often hold too much of the wrong items and too little of the critical ones, while buyers, planners and warehouse teams work from different numbers. You should already plan, buy or control stock at work. You practice on consumption histories, item masters, vendor data and freight cases from industrial, healthcare and retail settings.

Who It Is For

• Setting stock policies, reorder points and service levels for stores and spare parts.
• Running MRP, forecasts and replenishment for production or maintenance demand.
• Buying from vendors and reviewing their delivery and quality performance.
• Running warehouses, receiving, cycle counts and item records.
• Booking freight, choosing modes and handling import and export documents.

This course is not for readers new to stores and purchasing, who are better served by an introductory course on stock control, or for staff whose work is chasing late orders day to day, who need a focused expediting course.

Competencies You Will Build

• Network Mapping: drawing how items flow from vendor to user with the SCOR model.
• Exposure Assessment: listing internal, external and vendor threats to item availability.
• Vendor Segmentation: grouping vendors by spend and exposure and setting a buying approach for each.
• Replenishment Setting: choosing reorder points, safety stock and min/max levels by item class.
• Warehouse Control: keeping record accuracy high through coding, physical control and cycle counts.
• Freight Decisions: choosing mode, route and Incoterms for each shipment.

What You Will Be Able to Do

By the end of the course you will be able to:

• Given a year of consumption data, classify items by ABC and set an EOQ and reorder point for each class.
• From a bill of materials and planned work orders, run a simple MRP calculation and spot shortages.
• Using spend data, build a purchase price index and a total ownership comparison for key items.
• From an item master, find duplicates and propose a cataloging and coding fix.
• Given an import order, choose the freight mode, Incoterm and documents and state who carries each liability.
• Using your own findings, write an action plan with savings and working capital targets.

Course Content

Day 1: The Materials Function and Its Exposures

• SCOR Model Mapping of Plan, Source, Make, Deliver and Return Steps
• Evolution of Integrated Networks and Process Mapping of Internal Handoffs
• Exposure Register Covering Internal, PESTLE, Stock, Disruption, Security and Purchasing Threats
• Resource Planning and Peak Demand Alignment Across Stores, Purchasing and Finance
• Cash Flow Effect of Stock Holding and Working Capital Targets

Day 2: Sourcing Economics and Vendor Performance

• Spend Analysis and Purchase Price Index Construction
• Total Cost of Ownership Comparison for Repeat-Buy Items
• Kraljic Matrix and Porter's Five Forces for Vendor Portfolio Segmentation
• Order Cycle, Lead Time and Strategic Purchasing Plans
• Vendor Scorecards, Delivery Reviews and Negotiation Preparation

Day 3: Demand, MRP and Replenishment

• Item Forecasts from Consumption History and Planned Work Orders
• Material Requirements Planning (MRP) with Bills of Material
• Safety Stock, Reorder Points and Min/Max Settings by Item Class
• Formal Stock Decision Procedures for New, Slow and Obsolete Items
• Cataloging and Item Coding to Remove Duplicates and Speed Buying

Day 4: Warehousing, Stock Control and Freight

• Pareto ABC Analysis, Carrying Charges and Economic Order Quantity
• Stock Goals, Rationalization and Physical Control in the Warehouse
• Record Accuracy Measurement and Cycle Counting Routines
• Mode Choice, Intermodal Options and Strategic Freight Decisions
• Incoterms Rules and Liabilities, Freight Documents and Dangerous Goods Shipments

Day 5: Practice on Your Own Stores

• Min/Max and Safety Stock Reset Exercise for a Spare Parts Store
• Vendor Segmentation and Scorecard Review Exercise
• Freight Mode and Incoterm Selection Exercise for an Import Order
• Action Planning Against Savings and Working Capital Targets
• Completing Your Materials Improvement Plan

Case Studies and Exercises

The items below are suggested activities.

• Case study: a refinery maintenance store holds slow-moving spares while critical seals run out; you decide which items to reclassify and which levels to reset.
• Case study: a hospital medical supplies store loses stock to expiry; you redesign reorder points and the counting routine.
• Exercise: a retail distribution center faces seasonal peaks; you set forecast-based replenishment and warehouse staffing assumptions.
• Exercise: a construction contractor imports equipment by sea and air; you choose mode and Incoterm and list the documents.

What You Take Back

The Materials Improvement Plan is a short plan for your own stores, built during the course. In your first month back you use it to agree new stock levels with planners, start a cycle counting routine and review your top vendors with purchasing and finance.

• An ABC item classification with reorder settings.
• A vendor segmentation and scorecard.
• A warehouse accuracy and counting routine.
• An action list with savings and working capital targets.

Quick Answers (FAQ)

What should I know before a logistics and materials management course?

You should already work in stores, purchasing, planning or warehousing and know basic stock terms such as lead time and reorder point. Spreadsheet skills help, since the item classification and replenishment exercises are worked in one.

How does logistics and materials management training differ from an expediting course?

It covers the whole materials function: forecasting, MRP, stock policy, vendor performance, warehousing and freight. An expediting course focuses on following up specific orders with vendors so that they arrive on time.

How do you set safety stock for spare parts with irregular demand?

Start by classifying parts by criticality and usage pattern. Critical parts with rare, lumpy demand are often held as insurance stock set by lead time and failure impact, while regular movers use reorder points based on demand variability and service level.

What do I take back from logistics and materials management training?

You take back a Materials Improvement Plan for your own stores, with an ABC classification and reorder settings, a vendor scorecard, a counting routine and an action list with savings and working capital targets.

For Your Manager

After the course, the team member will be able to set stock levels by item class, run basic MRP, segment and score vendors, improve warehouse record accuracy and choose freight terms. They return with a Materials Improvement Plan, first used to reset stock levels and agree a counting routine for the stores they look after.