A method for the effective planning of the resources of a manufacturing company. Ideally, it addresses operational planning in units, financial planning in dollars, and has a simulation capability to answer “what if” questions. It is made up of a variety of functions, each linked together: Business Planning, Production Planning, Master Production Scheduling, Material Requirements Planning, Capacity Requirements Planning and the execution support systems for capacity and material. Output from these systems would be integrated with financial reports such as the business inventory projections in dollars, etc. Manufacturing Resource Planning is a direct outgrowth and extension of closed loop MRP. MRP II has also been defined, validly, as a management system based on network scheduling. Also, and perhaps best, as organized common sense.