📆 The operational planning horizon is a short one, generally 4 - 12 weeks. The planning bucket is typically days or weeks.

The planning processes that happen in the operational horizon are MPS, deployment, MRP. They have separate activities which commonly are performed in different tools.

If MPS and deployments are done in Excel or a planning tool + heuristic then the MRP usually happens in the ERP system. When using an optimizer, they all can be included in the same tool.

The options for planning in a software are

1️⃣ Manual planning

2️⃣ Heuristic + manual adjustments

3️⃣ Optimization + manual adjustmens

The main differences between manual planning in Excel and a software is that we have integration, automation and visibility over the full network. The planning activity is still time consuming but gathering and preparing the data is much faster.

When it comes to planning in a short horizon the most tricky constraints are

• lot size at product and product group level

• capacity balancing

• campaign planning.

Capacity balancing means keeping the load on the resource usage constant, let’s say 90% each week. It is not acceptable 60% one week and 120% next week.

When we have campaigns we need to

🎯 group products based on an attribute, e.g. flavour, thickness, colour etc.

🎯 sequence the campaigns (e.g. flavours) such that changeovers are minimised - sometimes the changeovers are not symmetric so the order is key

🎯 calculate the length of the campaign as you need to cover the demand (of the flavour) between 2 campaigns.

Campaign planning is when we have just the grouping. For campaign optimization we need the sequencing and the optimal campaign length as well.

Let's see a comparison between heuristics and optimization when it comes to the lot size, capacity balancing and campaign planning.

With a heuristic

🔷 lot size: you CAN do lot size at product level and you CANNOT do lot size at product group level (lot size at flavour level is not possible!).

🔷 capacity balancing requires (at best) extra customisation and creation of new data (another small project).

🔷 campaigns: grouping is possible depending of the rules; sequencing and optimizing the length is NOT possible.

Using an optimization tool (solver) they are ALL possible: lot size at product and group level, capacity balancing and campaign optimisation (grouping, sequencing, optimal campaign length).

When selecting a planning software for an MPS it is recommended to check in the vendor selection about these ones. If you need them and the software cannot technically deliver them, there is not way around it.