- Consumer needs change rapidly
- Demand is variable and uncertain, and difficult to predict
- Supply chains have become complex: they are now more like networks than chains, and have a global dimension
- Planners spend their time making and breaking plans and dealing with emergencies.
Conventional methods (MRP, MRP2) were designed in the 1950s, in an economic context where demand was greater than supply. They are no longer suited to today’s SC.