Production Planning Management

Production Planning Management is one of the core functions of an MES system. It transforms production orders issued by the ERP or enterprise resource planning system into detailed, shop‑floor executable tasks and ensures their effective management and scheduling.

Main Functions

• Order Receipt & Breakdown: The system accepts production orders from ERP or other planning sources and decomposes the master schedule into detailed, process‑level tasks according to plant capacity.
• Scheduling: Provides manual, semi‑automated or fully automated scheduling tools. Considering production constraints (equipment capacity, tooling, personnel skills, material availability, etc.), it generates optimised production plans that minimise waiting times and maximise resource utilisation.
• Resource Allocation: Assigns specific production tasks to designated production lines, equipment or work centres, and links them to operators.
• Plan Release: Releases the scheduled production plan to the shop floor; operators access their task lists and detailed work instructions via terminals or dashboards.
• Progress Tracking & Adjustment: Collects real‑time shop‑floor data (output, work hours, equipment status, etc.) to track plan execution. Supports dynamic plan adjustments—such as rush orders, plan pauses and task changes—to handle various exceptions.
• Material Requirements: Automatically calculates material requirements and timing based on the production plan, providing a basis for pull‑based and just‑in‑time production.
• Visualisation: Offers Gantt charts, resource‑load graphs and other visualisations to present production plans, resource utilisation and execution progress intuitively.

Benefits

• Improved Planning Accuracy: Comprehensive consideration of production constraints ensures plans closely match actual execution capabilities.
• Optimised Resource Utilisation: Intelligent scheduling reduces equipment idle time and waiting, improving overall production efficiency.
• Enhanced Shop‑Floor Transparency: Real‑time insight into plan execution allows for prompt issue detection and resolution.
• Increased Responsiveness: Swift responses to market changes and production anomalies through flexible plan adjustments.
• Enables Lean Manufacturing: Lays the groundwork for just‑in‑time material supply and pull‑based production.