Material Requirements Planning/Raw Materials

Some Definitions:
 * A material which is purchased from a supplier (vendor) and used directly or indirectly in producing a product.
 * A manufacturing item which has had no processing done since it was acquired, i.e. it is Raw (uncooked)

Learn by examples Now I am going to use a manufacture example to show readers the concept of Raw Materials more clearly.

There is a factory whose major work is to produce 3-Shelf Bookcase.Every week they buy 3cm Plank, 2cm Ply, 2cm Plank,Varnish,Stain,Panel Pin,Glue and some other materials from other companies or suppliers. They use professional machines to cut those Plank or Ply into Roughcut shelf,side, back or Front Panel.Then the next stage is to turn these roughcut items into finished state or grooved.After these intermediate items are finished, Assembled 3-shelf Bookcase can be made with those items and some others like Panel Pin and Glue. Finally, after the work with Varnish and Stain, a 3-shelf Bookcase product is done.

Here is a product structure diagram to show the above progress:

As we know,those roughcut or finished items as well as the grooved ones are made by this factory themselves from the wood materials bought from others.So they are not raw materials ( They are Intermediate Items ), the raw materials in this manufacture process are those 3cm Plank, 2cm Plank, 2cm Ply.And also those Panel Pin,Glue,Varnish and Stain.

Following are some pictures to show some of these raw materials: Plank:

Ply:

Panel Pins: