The person who originally put me on to the subject was John Beukema, who developed his own MRP II package for PC LANs.

When it comes to efficiency, he is possessed: ''If something is inefficient, it is wrong,'' he told me.

With his own pack locking nicely into just-in-time (JIT) applications, Mr Beukema can be animated on the subject of JIT and wasteful inventory.

Worse than tying up capital, the parts stockpile became a monument to sloppiness because no matter how many production line defects there were, there would always be more materials to feed into the system, he said.

All sensible stuff. Unfortunately, my mind was not on faulty widgets spilling off conveyor belts. Factories, as far as I knew, were islands of efficiency compared to what was going on in the public sector.

A six-year-old, for example, was waiting to be cut from his parents and deported to China for allegedly not being born where his parents were legally resident.

At first, one was tempted to think it was just a grown-up getting heavy with a six-year-old. But in terms of raw mental energy - man to boy - the Government had no serious advantage.

We know this because the helper who signed the deportation order was the same person who lost count of how many tear gas canisters were needed to subdue sleeping Whitehead Centre inmates - he must have been confused by the labels.

He also proved hopeless in counting Whitehead casualties, getting the number wrong by hundreds.

But I want to get right on to the MRP lessons that we can draw from these messes security branch keeps dropping.

Take inventorial sloppiness: far too many tear gas canisters were left lying around, so, naturally, they were used.

Under an MRP system, international norms - say one canister for every 100 rioters - would be written into the riot control module and inventory would be pared down to JIT parameters.

That way, if the security branch became confused and decided to fire off 100 cans for every one rioter, a cautioning flag would come up on the screen.

A 10-second delay would allow for a course correction and, if not implemented, the module would trip a device discharging a 60,000-volt tingling sensation throughout operations headquarters.

This would also wind up tear gas action, freeing inmates to return to their normal activities - in this case, sleep.

MRP could be just as useful in other decision-making areas.

Take the six-year-old II. We know the order to deport him was signed 24 hours before his case was to be reviewed by the Governor. Had the order been channelled through a decision-scheduling module, the Governor's review date would have automatically flagged the expulsion order, setting off a 10-second delay and allowing a course correction. Again, if not implemented, a tingling sensation would be released.

Ethical standards could also be written into applications to cancel decisions rated for extreme variance from civilised norms.

Other modules could be used to rouse authorities when people were held without charge for more than 24 hours. Again, if warnings were ignored, the standard tingling sensation would discharge.

In this instance, MRP could rescue people who have been languishing for nine months now. In the end, it could rescue us all.