Adopting Rescheduling Capability in DRP to Deal with Operational Uncertainty in Logistics Systems Available to Purchase

Safety stock, safety lead time, and safety capacity are the conventional methods used to deal with operational uncertainty. With the advent of material requirements planning (MRP) systems, the rescheduling capability can be viewed as an alternative to buffer production systems against uncertainty. Logistics systems have characteristics similar to production systems in the face of uncertain events occurred in the operating environments. After presenting the rescheduling capability of a counterpart of MRP in logistics systems, distribution resource planning (DRP), as a viable uncertainty buffering method, we discuss the operational implications of these buffering methods from the perspectives of (1) the nature of the business, (2) the decision‐making hierarchy, (3) the cost of implementation, and (4) the impact of operating environments in logistics systems. The discussion on operational implications should lead to a better understanding regarding how to evaluate these buffering methods in logistics systems.