Chemicals · MRP
MRP for chemical distributors
Today
A large order comes in for a product that needs repacking from bulk, and nobody can say whether there's enough tank stock, drum capacity and labour to meet the date until the warehouse is asked directly.
Generic distribution planning reorders stock codes against a reorder point. It doesn't know that some of your stock lives in a tank, some has to be repacked or blended to order, and some has shelf life that expires before it sells.
With Worldover
Worldover MRP connects tank and drum stock levels, shelf life, supplier lead times and MOQs, and repack or blend capacity to the order book.
Repack and blend work is planned against real constraints, so promised dates hold and expiring stock is used before it's written off.
USED BY 250+ INDUSTRY LEADERS
The problem
Why generic MRP failschemicals distributor teams.
Tank and drum stock are treated as one pool
Bulk in a tank and repacked drums on a shelf have different lead times to become sellable, and a flat stock figure hides that.
Shelf life is discovered at the goods-out check
Material bought ahead of demand expires quietly, and the write-off is found at stock count rather than planned around.
Repack and blend labour is invisible to planning
Turning bulk into saleable drums takes time and capacity that generic planning doesn't account for at all.
A working day
Planning a large repack order
A customer orders a volume that requires repacking bulk stock into drums, alongside routine orders from the same tank.
Today: planning checks tank level in one system, drum stock in another, and asks the warehouse whether there's capacity to repack in time.
In Worldover: the plan shows tank level, existing drum stock, expiry dates and repack capacity in one view.
The order is scheduled against a specific tank draw-down that avoids leaving other customers short.
When a supplier confirms a delayed refill, the affected customer commitments are flagged immediately.
How it runs
How MRP worksinside Worldover.
01
Stock is planned by form, not just quantity
Tank, bulk container and repacked drum stock are planned separately, reflecting the lead time to make each sellable.
02
Shelf life drives priority
Stock nearing expiry is surfaced for allocation ahead of newer stock, rather than discovered at write-off.
03
Repack and blend capacity is a planning constraint
Labour and equipment needed to convert bulk into saleable units are scheduled alongside the order, not assumed to be free.
04
Exceptions surface early
Late supplier deliveries, expiring stock and capacity clashes are raised as actions while there's time to act.
What's in it
The detail behindMRP.
Manufacturing Execution System (MES)
Electronic batch records, dual signatures, QA release and full lot traceability.
Electronic batch records
Replace the paper batch record with records captured live across the manufacturing process.
Three-level order structure
Mixing, encapsulation and finished goods modelled as a linked order hierarchy, with material and lot flow between each level.
Dual-signature control
Performer and verifier electronic signatures against each recorded step, supporting 21 CFR Part 11 electronic signatures.
Multi-stage sampling and QA release
In-process sampling points and staged quality releases before a batch can progress.
Lot and batch traceability
Full lot traceability across every stage.
Incoming goods QA
Goods-in quality checks on receipt, with an internal lot ID assigned to every received material.
Demand Planning
Demand forecasting and sales velocity tracking feeding production planning.
Demand forecasting
Forecast from raw order data pulled through the Shopify and Fulfill APIs, with seasonality and trend analysis. Forecasts recalibrate as demand changes.
Sales velocity tracking
Sell-through by product, channel and region, replacing the manual demand work that drives stock-level and production inconsistency.
Production planning integration
AI-proposed manufacturing jobs from current inventory, incoming demand, safety stock and supplier lead times, surfaced for manual approval, then fed into production planning with automatic raw material ordering.
Production Planning
Production orders, scheduling, BOM explosion and AI-led capacity planning.
Production order management
Orders linked to formulations, BOMs and inventory, tracked through every manufacturing stage.
Scheduling and capacity planning
Schedule from a full resource map of machinery, labour, shifts and skill matrices, allocating machine slots, packing, filling and labour for maximum utilisation.
Labour costing and allocation
Cost labour against orders with configurable rate cards.
Bill of materials explosion
Explode BOMs from formulations to generate material requirements for each run.
PO management
Purchase orders linked to production requirements and supplier lead times.
AI-led automated production planning
Scheduling that optimises across machine throughput, staff capability, raw material lead times and job priorities, surfacing issues in real time with suggested fixes. Replaces the manual scheduling spreadsheet. Requires Inventory Management.
Inventory Management
Stock control, purchasing and supplier management in one place.
Inventory overview
A dashboard of stock levels for every item: raw materials, packaging and finished goods.
Stock and non-stock items
Separate items you always hold from items ordered for a specific job.
Request stock
Team members request stock against particular jobs.
PO management
End-to-end management of customer purchase orders.
Supplier order management
Supplier orders in one place, removing the email switching procurement relies on today.
Stock log audit
The audit trail underneath every stock calculation.
Warehouse Management
Locations, receiving, picking and dispatch with barcode scanning.
Location management
Zones, aisles, racks and bin locations with configurable hierarchies.
Receiving and putaway
Receive against purchase orders and assign putaway locations with barcode scanning.
Pick, pack and dispatch
Pick lists from production or customer orders, with pack confirmation and dispatch workflows.
Bin and location transfers
Stock movements between locations with a full audit trail.
Integration with Inventory
Natively linked to Inventory Management for real-time stock visibility.
The difference
Why the substance recordmakes the difference.
Distribution planning is planning a substance in several physical forms at once. Holding tank, bulk and repacked stock against the same substance record is what lets a large order be planned without guessing at what the warehouse can actually deliver.
Better together
What changes when MRPshares a record with the rest of your setup.
MRP + ERP
Purchasing and order promising work from the same plan and stock position.
Explore ERPMRP + QMS
Only released, in-date stock counts as available for planning and repack.
Explore QMSMRP + PLM
Blend and repack specifications determine the material and capacity requirements planning uses.
Explore PLMWillow
What teams actually askonce the record is in one place.
- Do we've enough tank stock and repack capacity to meet this order by the requested date?
- Which stock expires before it's likely to be allocated to an order?
- If this supplier delivery slips a week, which customer orders are at risk?
Willow doesn't replace expert judgment. It removes the searching, re-keying and chasing between the systems that hold your answers.
Request a demo
We'll walk through your current workflow, then show the same workflow running on one record.
Research
Compared with the alternatives
If you're still building a shortlist, these break the market down side by side.
- ShortlistBest MRP software for cosmetics and chemicals in 2026Planning and materials tools ranked for substance-based manufacturing.Read it
- ComparisonWorldover vs Dynamics 365 for chemicalsWhat Dynamics needs bolted on to handle substances.Read it
- ShortlistBest chemical ERPs in 2026Ranked shortlist of chemical ERPs, with pricing bands and who each one suits.Read it