Hegemi vs Traditional MRP: Why Digital Twins Change Everything

The Fundamental Problem

Traditional MRP (Material Requirements Planning) systems were designed in the 1960s and 70s. They answer one question well: "How many parts do I need?"

This made sense when manufacturing meant stamping out identical widgets. But modern complex assembly—aerospace, medical devices, defense systems, high-end electronics—requires answering different questions:

• Which specific unit has this serial number?
• What's the complete build history of this assembly?
• When was this component attached, and by whom?
• Has this part ever been in a different parent assembly?

Traditional MRP can't answer these. Hegemi can.

Quantity Tracking vs. Identity Tracking

Example: Swapping a Subassembly

Imagine you have a GPS receiver that uses two antenna boards. One fails QA. You need to swap it.

Traditional MRP approach:

1. Decrement antenna board inventory
2. Increment it when replacement arrives
3. Maybe log a transaction note

Hegemi approach:

1. Detach event recorded on the specific antenna board instance
2. Full history retained: who detached it, when, from which parent
3. New attachment event recorded with the replacement
4. Both antenna boards retain their complete history
5. Parent assembly shows the swap in its event timeline

Six months later, when a customer asks "was unit SN-12345 ever serviced?"—Hegemi shows the complete story. Traditional MRP shows... inventory moved.

The Activity Histogram Difference

Every row in Hegemi displays an activity histogram—a Gantt-style visualization of when events occurred.

This means:

• At a glance, see which units are actively being worked on
• Instantly identify stalled builds or idle inventory
• Spot patterns in manufacturing activity over time

Traditional MRP shows you a snapshot. Hegemi shows you a movie.

Inventory Analysis That Understands Partial Builds

Here's a scenario that breaks traditional MRP:

You're building 10 units. Each needs 8 screws. Some units are 50% complete—they already have 4 screws attached. How many screws do you actually need to order?

Traditional MRP: 80 screws minus whatever's "allocated" (if your allocation system even works correctly)

Hegemi: Examines each instance, counts what's actually attached per slot, calculates true shortage: exactly 40 screws.

This isn't a minor difference. For companies building expensive assemblies with long lead times, over-ordering ties up capital. Under-ordering delays production.

Who Should Use What

Traditional MRP is fine if:

• You manufacture commoditized products
• Serialization isn't required
• "Lot tracking" is sufficient for compliance
• You don't need to know build history after shipping

Hegemi is built for:

• Complex, serialized assemblies
• Regulatory environments requiring full traceability
• Products that get serviced, repaired, or upgraded
• Operations where "which specific unit" matters

The Migration Question

"But we already have an MRP system."

Hegemi isn't trying to replace your ERP's financial modules or your purchasing workflows. It's specifically built for the instance tracking and digital twin problem that traditional systems handle poorly.

Many Hegemi users run it alongside existing systems:

• ERP handles financials, HR, broad purchasing
• Hegemi handles serialized instance tracking, build history, component traceability

The integration point is typically inventory: when parts arrive via your existing purchasing system, they appear as available stock in Hegemi for assignment to specific instances.

Conclusion

The question isn't "MRP vs. no MRP." It's whether your manufacturing complexity has outgrown what quantity-based tracking can provide.

If you're still tracking complex assemblies in spreadsheets because your MRP can't handle per-component granularity, or if your "serialization module" is really just a text field on transactions—Hegemi offers a different approach.

Try it free and see if digital twin tracking changes how you think about inventory.