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Students studying operations management often lack a framework for relating their experiences to the subject at hand. Describes the university decision making process in the context of the closed‐loop MRP model. The university is familiar to students, so it gives them a point of reference in their studies. Using the university as a frame of reference also shows how manufacturing concepts may be applied to service organizations. For each step in the process, describes the decisions at hand, who must make them, and the timeframe in which they must be made.

This paper focuses on production activity control (PAC) techniques used in Polish manufacturing companies. Investment in Polish plants by Western European, Japanese, Korean, and US companies raises the question of how ready Polish manufacturing companies are to implement various managerial techniques that have been used for many years in industrialized countries. A survey was sent to over 300 Polish companies. It asked the managers how they deal with typical shop floor control problems such as authorization to start work on an order, determining the sequence at work centers, deciding when to make the schedule and who can make changes in the schedule, adherence to due dates and determining lot sizes. Most of the managers received education from Polish schools and were not taught the principles of modern PAC techniques. The study shows that in many cases the managers learn fast and are in the process of understanding modern shop floor control principles. The research results should help many potential foreign investors to better understand the readiness of Polish manufacturing management to implement modern production planning and control techniques such as MRP, MRPII, or JIT.