Master Planning and Scheduling, 4th Edition

3The Mechanics of Master Planning and Scheduling

You can definitely make mistakes, but you can't make mistakes indefinitely.

The Importance of Master Planning and Scheduling

One of the objectives of master planning and scheduling (MPS) is to plan the impact of demand on materials and capacity. This is a vital function because every company must deploy its people, equipment, material, and capital in the most efficient way possible. Master planning and scheduling does this by ensuring that enough product is available for customers, while costly and unneeded inventories as well as unacceptable lead times are avoided. This is the process of balancing demand and supply.

In addition, master planning and scheduling lays out product‐mix plans/schedules along with detailed build schedules in support of the aggregate volume plans developed during the integrated business planning (or sales and operations planning) process. By ensuring that the product‐mix and detail plans are within the constraints of the overall aggregate volume plans, the master planner along with the master scheduler implements the leadership team's directives.

Finally, the master plan and/or master schedule is/are used to establish some degree of control and accountability: Who is accountable for the different inventory levels the company maintains? Who is accountable for managing capacity? Who is accountable for bringing the needed materials in‐house? Who is accountable for managing the lead times that are used ...