Software for Manufacturing has evolved over the years due to industry demand. The first systems, called MRP (Manufacturing Resource Planning) involved the organization's bill of material (BOM), product files, inventory and basic scheduling. The main difference between these first generation MRP system and MRP II systems is additional scheduling functionality. MRP II included scheduling capabilities beyond the those of the first MRP systems.

MRP II systems have been almost entirely replaced with Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP systems. ERP includes additional applications, such as order entry/processing, project management, preventative maintenance (PM), human resources (HR), customer relations management (CRM) and accounting. Currently all manufacturing software providers offer ERP systems and do not refer to the software as MRP or MRP II which are considered outdated terms. (One exception is another acronym MRP which stands for Material Requirements Planning.)

Although exceedingly popular, ERP systems have their limits. Most ERP systems are "pre-packaged", meaning that they are produced for a massive number of customers and they are unmodifiable (or only modifiable to a miniscule degree). This inflexible model rarely works in manufacturing enviroments that require agility in their software systems. Custom systems are also available, but these are more costly and generally take 6 months to 2 years to develop. Custom software is also very difficult (sometimes impossible) to upgrade. These problems are the reason that most high dollar software implementations -- 60% -- fail. Such a prospect is disheartening considering the huge investment that companies when purchasing ERP systems.

Luckily hybrid software has been developed to solve these common problems. Tailorable software offers flexiblility without the high cost, upgrading difficulty, and lengthy development periods. Although many IT professionals are aware of such software, few outside this industry know of their benefits. Sometimes referred to as agile software, these systems are highly configurable so they offer all the advantages of custom software along with the best attributes of mass produced (out-of-the-box) software.