A master production schedule (MPS) says how much of each finished product you'll make, week by week. It sits between sales and the kitchen: on one side, the forecast and the customer orders already promised; on the other, batches in whole batch sizes and the capacity of the kitchen. For each product and week it works out demand, the larger of forecast and orders, then schedules enough batches to keep projected on hand above a safety stock. Two more lines make it useful day to day. Free to promise shows how much a new order can take in a given week without breaking orders already promised. And batches a week against capacity shows where the kitchen is overbooked or idle, so batches can be moved to level it. The MPS feeds material requirements planning, which turns the batches into what to buy. In the example below, a hot sauce maker schedules three sauces for six weeks and answers a grocery chain's order. Below are the lines, the example, and a free template.
The short version
- An MPS says how much of each product to make, week by week.
- Demand each week is the larger of the forecast and the orders.
- Batches are scheduled in whole batch sizes to stay above safety stock.
- Projected on hand = last week's + what's made − demand.
- Free to promise = on hand + scheduled batches − orders already promised.
- Batches a week against capacity show where to move work.
- TaroStack plans what to make and when on Standard at $99 a month. More below.
The lines
| Line | How it's worked out |
|---|---|
| Forecast | What you expect to sell that week |
| Customer orders | What's already promised for that week |
| Demand | The larger of forecast and orders |
| Scheduled to make | Enough whole batches to keep projected on hand above safety stock |
| Projected on hand | Last week's projected on hand + scheduled − demand |
| Free to promise | On hand + everything scheduled so far − every order so far |
| Batches against capacity | Batches scheduled across products, against what the kitchen can make |
What to buy for the batches is in material requirements planning example, and the daily run sheet in production schedule example.
An example: a hot sauce maker's six weeks
Blue Ridge Hot Sauce, the made-up hot sauce maker in Roanoke, Virginia, I use in these examples, makes three sauces in batches of 600 bottles, three batches a week at most:
| Original hot sauce, week | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forecast | 500 | 500 | 550 | 600 | 650 | 700 |
| Customer orders | 620 | 410 | 300 | 200 | 100 | 0 |
| Demand | 620 | 500 | 550 | 600 | 650 | 700 |
| Scheduled to make | 600 | 0 | 600 | 600 | 600 | 1,200 |
| Projected on hand, from 900 | 880 | 380 | 430 | 430 | 380 | 880 |
| Free to promise | 880 | 470 | 770 | 1,170 | 1,670 | 2,870 |
| All sauces, week | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batches scheduled | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
Week 2 has nothing scheduled while weeks 3 and 5 are full, so green chile's week-3 batch moves to week 2; it still keeps green chile above its safety stock, and week 3 gets slack for a surprise. Then a grocery chain asks for 600 bottles of smoked habanero in week 2. Its free to promise in week 2 is 400, so Blue Ridge promises 400 that week and 200 in week 3, when the next batch lands, instead of saying yes and shorting the stores it already serves. How the sauces are packed for a chain is in selling to grocery stores requirements.
Get the template
Download the master production schedule template. One sheet: type the kitchen's batches a week, and for each product its on hand, safety stock and batch size, then each week's forecast and customer orders; demand, batches scheduled in whole batch sizes, projected on hand, free to promise, and batches against capacity fill in, with overbooked weeks in red. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Three sauces and six weeks fit. Ten products, a co-packer's run in the middle of the month, orders arriving every day and a forecast that's wrong by Thursday turn a weekly sheet into a daily chore.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack's planning works from your forecast, orders, stock and recipes, and says what to make and when.
What to make, and when. Planning looks at what's on hand, what's on order from customers and what's forecast, and proposes what to make and when, shelf-life aware.
The capacity schedule. Work centers and their hours make a capacity schedule, so a week's plan shows where the kitchen is overbooked.
From plan to batches. A run you plan becomes a production order and then a batch that takes its ingredients and bottles off stock, so the plan and the stock stay in step.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What to make each week | An MPS sheet | Planning's proposals |
| Kitchen capacity | Batches counted by hand | The capacity schedule |
| A new order's date | Free to promise, worked out | Stock, orders and plans together |
| Plan to production | Retyped | Production orders and batches |
Planning, the forecast and the capacity schedule are on Standard at $99 a month; recipes, batches and stock are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.