Material Review Board (MRB)

A Material Review Board (MRB) is a formal, cross-functional body and process used in manufacturing to evaluate nonconforming materials or products and decide what should happen to them. MRB activity typically covers items that do not meet specifications, drawings, or requirements discovered during inspection, testing, or production.

What a Material Review Board includes

An MRB commonly includes representatives from functions such as:

• Quality or quality engineering
• Manufacturing or operations
• Design or product engineering
• Supply chain or procurement (for purchased parts)
• Regulatory or compliance, when required

In many plants, MRB is both:

• A governance body that is authorized to decide how to handle nonconformances.
• A defined workflow for logging, evaluating, approving, and closing dispositions in systems such as MES, QMS, or ERP.

Typical MRB responsibilities

Within industrial and regulated environments, MRB commonly:

• Receives and reviews nonconformance records, hold tags, or quality notifications.
• Assesses the severity and risk of the nonconformance, including potential impact on safety, performance, and compliance.
• Determines and documents disposition decisions, such as:

• Use as is (if still acceptable within defined criteria)
• Rework to meet specification
• Repair under defined limits and controls
• Scrap or destroy
• Return to supplier

• Ensures appropriate approvals are captured according to procedures and regulations.
• Triggers follow-up actions, such as corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) or design and process changes, when patterns are identified.
• Verifies that dispositions are executed and closed in the relevant systems.

Operational meaning in manufacturing systems

From a systems and operations perspective, MRB is visible as a controlled workflow across OT and IT systems. Nonconforming units or lots are often placed on physical and system hold, then routed through MRB steps in systems like:

• MES, for tracking affected units, routing, and rework instructions.
• QMS, for nonconformance records, risk assessment, and approvals.
• ERP, for material status, inventory value adjustments, and supplier interactions.

MRB cycle time (the time from detection of a nonconformance to final disposition and release or removal of material) is frequently monitored as an indicator of operational health, inventory quality, and schedule risk.

Scope and limits

MRB typically focuses on:

• Nonconforming raw materials, components, work in process (WIP), and finished goods.
• Items where a deviation from requirements needs formal, documented decision and authorization.

MRB does not usually cover:

• Routine process adjustments that stay within established control limits.
• Minor issues that can be corrected at the workstation following existing work instructions without formal disposition.

Common confusion

• MRB vs. nonconformance reporting: A nonconformance report records that something is out of specification. MRB is the structured evaluation and disposition process that follows, often using that report as input.
• MRB vs. CAPA: MRB decides what to do with specific affected material. CAPA focuses on eliminating the underlying causes of recurring nonconformances. MRB outcomes may feed into CAPA, but they are not the same process.

Link to the provided context

In the referenced context, MRB is discussed in terms of cycle time. In that usage, the focus is on how quickly and consistently a plant detects, evaluates, and disposes of nonconformances through the MRB process, and how delays can create hidden work in process, schedule uncertainty, and compliance exposure.