Master Production Schedule

The Master Production Schedule (MPS) at Production planning -> MPS is a powerful inventory and production planning tool that focuses on medium- and long-term demand projections.

It helps to

• make a period-by-period plan for the foreseeable future;
• plan production against a sales forecast and firm orders;
• plan material purchases;
• plan inventory levels;
• test what-if scenarios;
• perform rough cut capacity planning;
• separate planning and scheduling processes from each other.

The MPS functionality comprises three different views:

1. The Master Production Schedule (MPS) is where the products and sales forecasts are entered, and a production plan is created.
2. The Required Capacity (RC) will show how planned production quantities in the MPS impact the workloads of workstation groups.
3. The Procurement Schedule (PS) provides a detailed overview of material demands by period.

Jump to:

1. Demo video: Master Production Schedule.
2. Enabling the MPS functionality.
3. Master Production Schedule view.
4. Required Capacity view.
5. Procurement Schedule view.
6. Multi-level BOM in MPS.
7. General notes.

Enabling the MPS functionality

To enable the Master Production Schedule functionality, go to Settings -> System Settings -> Enterprise Functions -> Master Production Schedule and set the value to Yes.

To be able to access and edit the MPS, the user must have the Read and Update rights for Production planning -> MPS.

There are three additional settings for the MPS functionality:

• Timescale period - choose whether the plan is weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
  • If the period is changed from shorter to longer, the production plan and sales forecast quantities will be recalculated.
  • If the period is changed to a shorter one, all manually entered values will be evenly distributed over the periods.
• Minimum workstation load - enter a minimum workstation group's load as a percentage, below which the required capacity value will be highlighted in light blue in the Required Capacity view.
• Maximum workstation load - enter a maximum workstation group's loads as a percentage, above which the required capacity value will be highlighted in orange in the Required Capacity.

Master Production Schedule view

The Production planning -> MPS -> Master production schedule (MPS) view is the primary sheet for master planning.

When opened the first time, this view is empty.

1. Add your products by pressing the "+" button on the top left.
2. The Starting inventory of the current period (on-hand inventory right now), the Firm orders (confirmed COs), and Scheduled already (MOs) are filled with current data in the system.
3. Enter your product sales forecast in the Sales forecast row.
4. Enter your planned total production output in the Production plan row.
5. Check the Ending inventory for each period and make up a production plan with satisfactory values.

For example, here’s a plan for a product where there is an issue in the 3^rd period, due to a new large order.

Master Production Schedule rows

The individual plan for each product in the MPS consists of 6 rows:

• Starting inventory – The starting inventory of this period.
  • The current period shows the “In stock” number right now.
  • In the next columns, the values equal to the ending inventory of the previous period.
• Sales forecast - The forecasted sales for the product.
  • Must be entered manually.
  • Not in use and not editable for the current period.
• Firm orders - Confirmed customer orders from the CRM module for which the delivery date falls within the period.
  • The current period includes overdue customer orders that have not yet been delivered.
  • All COs with a status of "Confirmed", “Waiting for production”, “In production” and “Ready for shipment” are considered.
• Production plan - The total planned production quantity (production forecast) for the period.
  • Must be entered manually.
  • If the production plan is not equal to the Scheduled already quantity, it will be highlighted in orange.
  • Not in use and not editable for the current period.
• Scheduled already -  The product quantity from manufacturing orders that are already scheduled in the Production Planning module.
  • The current period includes overdue MOs that are still in progress.
  • MOs with statuses “New”, “Scheduled”, and “In progress” are considered.
• Ending inventory -  The projected ending inventory quantity for the period.
  • Ending inventory = Starting inventory – GREATER OF(Forecast, Firm orders) + GREATER OF(Production plan, Scheduled MO)
  • The GREATER OF means that the greater of the two values is used. E.g. if there are more firm orders than forecast, then firm orders are considered.
  • The current period does not consider the Forecast or the Production plan.
    • Ending inventory (Current period) = Starting inventory - Firm orders + Scheduled MO.
  • Color coding of ending inventory:
    • Green, when equal to or greater than the product reorder point.
    • Yellow, when between 0 and the reorder point.
    • Orange, when negative.

Required Capacity view

The Production planning -> MPS -> Required Capacity (RC) view shows how many hours each workstation group has available in the period, and how many are required to fulfill the Production plan numbers from the MPS view.

To create a capacity plan:

1. Add your manufactured products in the MPS view.
2. For each product, add the Production plan numbers for desired manufacturing output in each period.
3. Check the Required Capacity view and compare the Total capacity (available working hours) with the calculated Required hours (hours of work needed to complete the production plan).
4. In order to simulate increased or decreased capacity manually overwrite the available hours for any period.

For example, here’s a plan for a workstation group, where the capacity is manually reduced in the 2nd period (e.g. due to annual leaves), and there is little work planned for the 4th period:

Required Capacity rows

The individual capacity plan for each workstation group (WSG) consists of 2 rows:

• Total capacity, hours - The total working hours for the entire workstation group.
  • The user can manually edit this to simulate a change in available capacity, in which case the number will be colored red. Empty the cell to auto-calculate the available hours again.
  • Calculated based on the weekly working hours of the WSG and the number of workstations, rounded down to the full hour. Idle times of workstations are ignored.
• Required hours - The total time required for operations across all products included in the MPS view where this WSG is present in the routing.
  • Calculated as the hours in all listed products' routings multiplied by their Production plan quantity for the period, rounded up to the full hours. The setup time is ignored.
  • The "Scheduled already" values from the MPS are ignored. This allows to simulate what-if scenarios with lower loads than already scheduled.
  • Color coding of required hours:
    • Light blue: When less than the minimum load value for the WSG set in MPS Settings.
    • Light green: When between the minimum and maximum load for the WSG set in MPS Settings.
    • Orange: When greater than the maximum load value for the WSG set in MPS Settings.

Procurement Schedule view

The Production planning -> MPS -> Procurement Schedule (PS) is used for procurement planning. It differs from the MPS view in that it provides an overview of material demand rather than product demand.

When opened the first time, this view is empty.

1. Add your parts by pressing the "+" button on the top left.
2. The Starting inventory of the current period (on-hand inventory right now), the Demand from MPS (based on planned production in MPS view), and Ordered quantity (expected POs) are filled with current data in the system.
3. Enter how much you plan on procuring in the Planned quantity row.
4. Check the Ending inventory and make up a procurement plan with satisfactory values.

For example, here’s a procurement schedule for a part, where no POs are yet created for future periods:

Procurement Schedule rows

The individual plan for each part in the procurement schedule consists of 5 rows:

• Starting inventory – The starting inventory of this period.
  • The current period shows “In stock” number right now.
  • In the next columns, the values equal to the ending inventory of the previous period.
• Demand by MPS – The calculated material demand that is based on the MPS view.
  • Demand by MPS = Sum of [Quantity from BOM x GREATER OF(Production plan, Scheduled already)] for all products where this material is in the BOM.
  • The current period does not consider the Production plan, only scheduled MOs are considered:
    • Demand by MPS = Sum of (Quantity from BOM x Scheduled already) for all products where this material is in the BOM.
• Planned quantity - The planned quantity for purchasing.
  • Must be manually entered.
  • Not in use and not editable for the current period.
• Ordered quantity - The expected quantity to be received from created POs.
  • According to the expected dates of the POs.
  • Not received POs are considered.
  • The current period includes items from actual purchase orders that are scheduled to arrive, and overdue POs that have not yet been received.
• Ending inventory -  The projected ending inventory quantity of the period.
  • Ending Inventory = Starting Inventory - Demand by MPS + GREATER OF(Planned quantity, Ordered quantity).
  • The current period does not consider the planned quantity, only created POs are considered:
    • Ending Inventory (Current period) = Starting Inventory - Demand by MPS + Ordered quantity
  • Color coding of ending inventory:
    • Green for values equal to or above the item reorder point.
    • Yellow for values between 0 and the reorder point.
    • Orange for negative values.

Multi-level BOM in MPS

For products with a multi-level Bill of Materials (BOM), the subassemblies will be automatically considered as part of the top-level product, when added to the Master Production Schedule (MPS).

• The Required Capacity view will show the required capacity for the subassemblies.
• The Procurement Schedule will show the required materials for the subassemblies.

The subassemblies should not be separately added, or there will be duplicate capacity and material requirements for them.

Kits (bundles) are treated in the same way as when creating MOs for them:

• If the kit is the product that is added to the MPS:
  • Multi-level BOM is not considered. The demand only for procured materials in the BOM of the kit is created.
  • If there are sub-assemblies or products that must be manufactured as part of the kit, the production of these will not be considered.
  • The subassemblies should be added separately to the MPS.
• If the kit is a subassembly in a product that is added to the MPS:
  • Multi-level BOM is considered. All its parts and subassemblies will be included.
  • Materials demand and capacity requirements will be created for all parts and subassemblies at all levels.
  • The subassemblies in the kit should not be separately added to the MPS.

General notes

• All the data is autosaved.
• Each time the MPS is opened the data is refreshed.
  • You can press the Refresh data button to reload the data anytime.
• The individual tables for products, parts, or workstations can be expanded and collapsed.
• The individual tables can be dragged up or down.
• The parts and products can be removed by clicking the “X” button.
• The first period in the view is the current period, stretching from this moment until the beginning of the next period.
  • Users can scroll the view from the current period to future periods, up to 5 years.
• The names of the period columns reflect the start dates of the corresponding periods.