In many factories the plan is whatever the owner said on the floor that morning. It works until there are more than a few products, more than one shift, or customers who need firm dates. A written weekly plan, checked every day, is enough for most small and medium plants.
01The weekly plan, step by step
- List what has to be shipped in the next two weeks: confirmed orders with their dates, plus stock you keep for regular customers.
- Subtract finished stock you already have.
- Check material for what is left, using the bill of materials. Anything short becomes a purchase with a date.
- Load the capacity. Put each job on the line or machine that makes it, in hours. If a machine is loaded beyond its hours, move jobs, add a shift or tell the customer now.
- Fix the sequence. Group jobs that share a setup, such as the same die, colour or size, to save changeover time.
02The daily check
Each morning, the supervisor compares yesterday's output with the plan, line by line. Every gap gets a short reason: material late, machine down, people absent, quality hold. Over a month these reasons show where the plant loses time.
03Measures worth watching
- On-time dispatch
- orders shipped by the promised date.
- Plan achievement
- output against plan, by line.
- Changeover time
- minutes lost between jobs.
- Downtime by reason
- breakdown, no material, no power, no operator.
04As the plant grows
With several plants, plan each one separately, then look across them for jobs that can move to a plant with spare capacity. With dealers placing orders all month, freeze the plan two or three days ahead so the floor is not changing course every hour.
In MatruOS, the production supervisor agent drafts the week's plan from orders, stock and capacity, and shows the daily gaps with their reasons for the plant head to review.