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 the planning and scheduling processes.

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) shows how planned production quantities in the MPS affect 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. Linking a sales forecast
8. General notes
9. Limitations

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.

The user must have the Read and Update rights for Production planning -> MPS to access and edit the MPS.

There are three additional settings for the MPS functionality:

• Timescale period: choose weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
  • The production plan and sales forecast quantities will be recalculated if the period is changed from shorter to longer.
  • If the period is shortened, all manually entered values will be evenly distributed across the remaining 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 for the first time, this view is empty.

1. Add your products by pressing the "+" button in the top-left corner.
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 with an issue in the third 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.
  • In the next columns, the values are equal to the ending inventory of the previous period.
• Sales forecast - The forecasted sales for the product.
  • Values can be entered manually or populated from a linked sales forecast if Sales Forecasting functionality is enabled (see "Linking a sales forecast" below).
  • 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. For example, if there are more firm orders than forecast, they 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 to the MPS view.
2. Add the Production plan numbers for each product, corresponding to the desired manufacturing output, for 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. 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 recalculate the available hours.
  • 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 simulating what-if scenarios with lower loads than those already scheduled.
  • Color coding of required hours:
    • Light blue: When less than the minimum load value for the WSG set in the 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, providing an overview of material demand rather than product demand.

When opened for the first time, this view is empty.

1. Add your parts by pressing the "+" button in the top-left corner.
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 the amount you plan to procure 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 have yet been 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 the “In stock” number.
  • In the next columns, the values are 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 with this material in the BOM.
• Planned quantity - The quantity to be purchased.
  • 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 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), subassemblies are automatically considered part of the top-level product when added to the Master Production Schedule (MPS).

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

The subassemblies should not be added separately, or they will result in duplicate capacity and material requirements.

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 is generated only for procured materials in the kit's BOM.
  • If any sub-assemblies or products must be manufactured as part of the kit, their production will not be considered.
  • The subassemblies should be added to the MPS separately.
• 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.

Linking a sales forecast

If the Sales Forecasting enterprise function is enabled, the MPS supports linking a sales forecast to a product to automatically populate the Sales Forecast row.

To link a sales forecast to a product in the MPS:

1. Find the product in the MPS view.
2. Next to the Sales forecast label, click the dropdown button.
3. Select a forecast from the dropdown list. The list contains non-expired forecasts for the product with future end dates.
4. The Sales forecast row is populated with the values from the selected forecast.

When a forecast is linked:

• The Sales forecast label is replaced with the forecast's name, and the link leads to the forecast's details page.
• If any forecast values in the MPS are manually changed, the forecast is unlinked.

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 at any time.
• 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 through the view from the current period to up to 5 years of future periods.
• The period column names reflect the corresponding period's start date.

Limitations

Parametric products with Matrix BOMs are partially supported:

• Variation part numbers must be enabled.
• BOMs with parameters that change quantity are supported.
• BOMs with relations are not supported. These are excluded from the material demand calculation.