Plan production

Run planning to turn demand into proposed make and buy orders, then firm and release them.

Planning is where demand becomes a concrete list of what to make and what to buy. It reads your released sales orders against what you already have and have on order, then proposes the orders needed to cover the gap. You review those proposals and commit the ones you want.

Run planning

  1. Go to Production > Planning.
  2. Select Run MRP. Planning collects current demand, nets it against on-hand stock, work in progress, inbound supply, and safety stock, then creates a list of planned orders.
  3. Each planned order is either a Make (you produce it) or a Buy (you purchase it), with the item, quantity, and the date it is needed.

Read the proposals

The list shows every planned order with its supply position and any exception flags that need your attention:

  • Short - not enough supply to cover demand.
  • Late - supply arrives after the need date.
  • Expedite or Reschedule - an existing order should move sooner or later.

Filter by status (Planned, Firm, Released), by source (Make or Buy), or by exception to focus on what matters. You can adjust the quantity on a planned order before committing it.

Firm and release

A planned order moves through three states as you commit it:

  1. Firm locks a proposal so the next planning run will not move or remove it. Select one or more orders and choose Firm.
  2. Release turns a firmed order into a real record:
    • A Make order becomes a job, pegged to the demand that created it.
    • A Buy order becomes a purchase order for the chosen vendor.
  3. Implement does both at once: it firms and releases the selected orders in a single step.
Run MRP  ->  Planned  ->  (Firm)  ->  Firm  ->  (Release)  ->  Released
                                                                  |
                                              Make -> Job   /   Buy -> Purchase order

A released planned order cannot be un-released; from there you work the job or the purchase order directly.

Where to go next