Production planning process flowchart template

What the production planning process flowchart process is

Production planning sits between the demand plan and the shop floor. It takes what sales and demand planning say will be needed, works out whether the plant can build it in the time available, checks the parts will be there, and turns the answer into sequenced production orders that can be released as works orders. The chart above maps that across five lanes, Demand planning, Production planner, Materials / Purchasing, Production and Quality, over five phases from demand through to execution and review.

It is worth being clear about what this process is not. It is not purchasing: when a material shortfall raises a requisition, the purchase requisition and purchase order processes take over and hand back a promised date. It is not stock control: reorder points, cycle counting and stock adjustments belong to the inventory management process. It is not inspection: sampling, testing against specification and nonconforming material sit in the quality control process. And it is not order fulfilment, which starts after production has finished and covers picking, packing and shipping a customer order. What is left is the planning decision layer in between, the part most manufacturers keep in a spreadsheet and one planner's head.

Two decisions carry the flow. 'Capacity sufficient?' compares the load the master schedule creates with the hours the lines and shifts genuinely give you, and its short branch opens a second decision with the three answers that actually exist: subcontract, overtime, or re-phase the schedule and accept the date change. 'Materials available on time?' does the same job for parts, sending shortfalls to a purchase requisition and re-checking against the confirmed date rather than the requested one. The loop at the end matters as much as either: a monitoring step and a 'Schedule still achievable?' gate return breakdowns and shortages to the capacity calculation, so re-planning is part of the process rather than an interruption to it.

What this flowchart covers

In this template

• Five swimlanes, Demand planning, Production planner, Materials / Purchasing, Production and Quality, laid out across five phases: demand, capacity planning, materials planning, scheduling and release, and execution and review.
• Demand into schedule: the demand plan is received, the forecast is reconciled with firm orders so the two are not double-counted, and the planner builds the master production schedule that everything downstream is calculated from.
• A capacity check with real options behind it: capacity requirements are calculated against available lines and shifts, then a 'Capacity sufficient?' decision whose short branch opens a 'How to close the gap?' decision routing to a subcontract enquiry, authorised overtime or an extra shift, or a re-phase that rebuilds the master schedule.
• A material requirements planning run followed by a 'Materials available on time?' decision, where a shortfall raises a purchase requisition and loops back to re-check availability once the supplier has confirmed a date, rather than assuming the requested date will hold.
• Scheduling and release: production orders created and sequenced, works orders released to the shop floor, and materials issued against the works order by the materials team before manufacture starts.
• Execution and review: manufacture against the works order, quality confirmed with scrap recorded, progress monitored against the plan, and a 'Schedule still achievable?' gate that routes breakdowns and shortages into re-planning back at the capacity calculation, or closes the cycle at orders completed to plan.

When to use this template

• You are documenting how demand becomes a schedule before configuring MRP or a planning module, and the handoffs between planner, buyer and shop floor have to be agreed before anything is set up.
• Orders keep going out late and nobody can say whether the failure is in the capacity check, the material plan, the sequencing, or the release to the floor.
• Capacity gaps are being closed informally, with overtime agreed in a corridor and subcontract placed on a phone call, and you want the option, the authority and the cost visible on one page.
• You are writing a planning procedure, or taking over from a planner who has held the schedule in a spreadsheet, and the sequencing and re-planning rules need to exist outside one person's head.
• A customer, auditor or certification body has asked for a current description of how production is planned and controlled.

How it works

1. Rename the lanes to your real roles

   Replace Demand planning, Production planner, Materials / Purchasing, Production and Quality with the functions you genuinely have. If the planner also raises the requisitions, merge those lanes rather than drawing a handoff that never happens. Give a subcontractor its own lane only if you actively manage one, so the boundary of your control is visible.

2. State how you measure available capacity

   Write down the basis on the capacity step: hours per line per shift, net of planned maintenance, changeovers and normal downtime. Note whether you are doing a rough-cut check against a few key work centres or a full capacity requirements calculation against routings, because the two give different answers and take very different effort to maintain.

3. Set the planning horizon and the freeze point

   Record how far ahead the master schedule is built, and how close to the build date it is frozen. Then name who may change a frozen order and what they have to do to get it moved. A schedule with no freeze point is re-planned constantly and trusted by nobody.

4. Write your sequencing rule onto the chart

   Annotate the sequencing step with the rule you actually apply, for example due date first, then grouped by changeover family or by colour, respecting minimum batch sizes. Undocumented sequencing is how the schedule becomes one planner's private knowledge and stops when they are on leave.

5. Decide who may close a capacity gap, and up to what cost

   Overtime and subcontract buy capacity with money; re-phasing spends the customer's delivery date instead. Put the approval limits and the named roles on the 'How to close the gap?' branches, and say who tells sales when a date moves, because that is the conversation the step exists to force.

6. Walk it against a real week, including one that went wrong

   Follow two or three live orders through the chart, then take a breakdown or a material shortage from the last month and follow that through the re-planning loop. Anything people do that is not drawn, or drawn but skipped, is the finding worth acting on before you publish the chart as a procedure.

Frequently asked questions

What are the steps in the production planning process?

Receive the demand plan, reconcile forecast with firm orders, and build the master production schedule. Calculate capacity requirements against available lines and shifts and decide whether capacity is sufficient, closing any gap with overtime, subcontract or a re-phase. Run material requirements planning, raise purchase requisitions for shortfalls, then create and sequence production orders and release works orders to the shop floor. Materials are issued, the job is manufactured, quality is confirmed and scrap recorded, progress is monitored, and anything off plan goes back through re-planning. The chart above shows all of it across five lanes.

What is the difference between production planning and production scheduling?

Planning decides what to make and how much over a horizon, and whether capacity and materials will support it. Scheduling decides the order and timing of that work on specific lines, machines and shifts. In this chart the planning half runs from the demand plan through the capacity check and the MRP run; scheduling starts at 'Create and sequence production orders' and ends when works orders are released. They are usually the same person's job in a smaller plant, which is exactly why the boundary is worth drawing.

Where does MRP fit, and what does it need to work?

Material requirements planning takes the master production schedule and explodes it through bills of material to net requirements by date, offsetting each one by its lead time. It needs accurate bills of material and routings, current on-hand and allocated stock, open purchase and works orders, and realistic supplier lead times. When an MRP output looks wrong, the cause is nearly always one of those inputs rather than the calculation, so fix the master data before overriding the plan.

How should breakdowns and material shortages be handled?

As a loop in the process, not an exception to it. Monitoring against the plan feeds a 'Schedule still achievable?' gate, and anything that is not achievable goes to re-planning, which returns to the capacity calculation so the knock-on effect on other orders is seen rather than discovered later. Agree in advance who may re-plan, how quickly the revised dates are communicated, and which customer commitments are protected when orders have to be resequenced.

Does this template help with ISO 9001?

It gives you a documented starting point, which is not the same as compliance. The relevant clause is 8.1, operational planning and control, which expects an organisation to plan and control the processes needed to meet product requirements, including determining resources and criteria and keeping documented information sufficient to show the processes were carried out as planned. This chart can describe that planning, but you still need the underlying records, and an auditor will want evidence that the plant works the way the chart says.