Abstract: A material/quantity requirements arithmetic determination system which can ensure enhanced processing speed by uniformizing a load occurring in execution of arithmetic processings and suppressing occurrence of overhead to a possible minimum. The material/quantity requirements arithmetic determination system includes a plurality of material/quantity requirements planning (MRP) arithmetic units disposed in parallel for determining arithmetically types of items, quantities thereof and delivery-appointed terms thereof which are required for manufacturing a predetermined article on the basis of a production schedule of the article.

Abstract: A method of determining the packaging sequence of a packaging machine for mounting parts on a substrate at a plurality of designated positions by placing a substrate on a table and displacing the table relative to a parts holding device the method includes the steps of determining the displacing sequence to satisfy a constraint concerning the packaging sequence and to minimize the total amount of displacement of the table when mounting the parts on the substrate, and grouping together the parts that are to be successively mounted on the substrate at each of the designated positions after the table has been displaced relative to the parts holding device.