How do you plan and schedule food manufacturing?

3. Comparing Demand and Capacity: Gap Analysis: Compare your demand forecasts with your production capacity. Identify where demand exceeds capacity and where there is excess capacity. Scenario Planning: Create different scenarios based on varying levels of demand and capacity. This helps in preparing for potential fluctuations and ensuring flexibility in your production plan. Adjust Production Plan: Based on the analysis, adjust your production schedules, resource allocation, and inventory levels. This might involve increasing shifts, adding temporary workers, or optimizing production sequences.

As per my experience, effective food manufacturing planning demands precision and adaptability. Employ historical data and market insights for accurate demand forecasting. Collaborate with sales for promotional insights. Prioritize schedules based on demand, shelf life, and orders. Optimize inventory with ROQ based just-in-time system. Coordinate with procurement team, for stable material supply. Develop detailed production plan and optimize equipment use. Allocate resources strategically and integrate quality control (HACCP). Build flexibility into schedules for unexpected changes, use technology (ERP) for streamlined processes, and monitor KPIs (OEE) for continuous improvement. Regularly review and promote efficiency enhancements.

I agree that forecast can be very challenging and when this forecast is given by corporate based on nacional forecasted demand, it became very tricky. Plant production planners need to interact with corporate and adjust accordingly their market, taking in consideration line capabilities, materials and sometimes even the weather. Historical data and planning software will never replace experience.

Demand forecasting is one of the most challenging processes in whole supply chain and also very important, since that every process that comes later in the chain depends on demand. Historical data can give very good base for forecasting but new trends must be taken into account. It is important that demand planner is constantly in contact with Sales team and all other people who in some way can affect sales (teams that can suggest or approve some special offers for customers for example, because that can cause significant issues in process of covering demand). From my experience tool that is mostly in use for demand planning was excel, although there are some changes to Power BI and software Forecast Pro (for creating forecast).

Demand planning is what we can forecast with a Bottom up and Bottom down approach. The concurrence of these approach will give us a most optimum approach for our concept. Of course historical tools and BI would help us on the precision of our forecast and speed on the turnaround.

Assuming you're running an early-stage manufacturing operation, simplicity is key. To identify demand, project at least four weeks of historical sales into the future for a two-week period. It's crucial to maintain precise inventory records for raw materials, finished products, and work in progress. Additionally, ensure you have accurate lead time information for the raw materials ordering. To facilitate just-in-time demand planning, deduct the forecasted future demand from your current finished inventory. This straightforward approach provides you with the necessary information to plan production. If you have any questions or need further clarification, please feel free to leave a comment.

An example I've seen is creating monthly and weekly plan. Depending on complexity (number of products, number of production lines etc.) plans can be more or less detailed, but from my experience main purpose of them is to show if some issues can arise (for example lack of capacity, need for increased quantity of raw materials etc.). Excel is still main tool for very complex systems.

When it comes to planning and scheduling food manufacturing, the next step is to create a master production schedule (MPS). This schedule is a detailed plan that outlines what, when, and how much to produce for each product or product family. The MPS should be based on the demand and capacity defined in the previous step and consider factors such as lead times, inventory levels, batch sizes, and product specifications. There are various tools available such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, material requirements planning (MRP) software, or spreadsheet models that can be used to develop and update your MPS.