Industrial Planning in 2026: Definition, Tools and AI
What is industrial planning?
Definition of industrial planning
Industrial planning refers to all the processes involved in organizing a company’s production over the long, medium, and short term.
It consists of organizing production operations to satisfy customer orders, and therefore achieve its objectives, while managing and optimizing available resources: human, material, and financial.
The main objective of industrial planning is to achieve the optimal load/capacity balance: to produce the right quantity, at the right time, without overloading the teams or leaving the equipment idle.
Why is planning vital for manufacturers?
Poor planning, or a lack of planning, jeopardizes an industry’s entire supply chain. It can lead to stockouts of finished products, excessive production costs, or conversely, unnecessary and costly storage.
Anticipating and planning accurately allows us to control market fluctuations, supply chain oscillations, production chain malfunctions, or changes in demand, and therefore to ensure the competitiveness and sustainability of the industry.
In practical terms, effective industrial planning helps to guarantee:
- Meeting production and delivery deadlines
- Optimizing inventory and the supply chain, and therefore reducing working capital requirements.
- The optimal use of resources
- The fluidity of business flows and workflows in the industry
- Anticipating tasks and fluctuations, and therefore reducing emergencies
- Customer satisfaction
The 3 levels of industrial planning
Industrial planning is structured around three time horizons (long, medium, and short term), according to the principles of the Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) method.
The Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) or Industrial and Commercial Plan (PIC)
The Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process represents the strategic and long-term level of industrial planning. (Also known as the Industrial and Commercial Plan or PIC). It designates the process of steering the company towards defining commercial objectives and aligning the means and resources necessary to achieve them over the next 18 to 24 months.
A true collaborative platform for the sales, marketing, and production teams, it provides a clear and comprehensive overview of objectives to synchronize the various departments within the company. The S&OP team is responsible for major investments (new production lines, expansion of storage space, recruitment) to align production capacity with the company’s objectives.
The Master Production Schedule (MPS)
The Master Production Schedule (MPS) represents the tactical and medium-term level of industrial planning. It involves translating the strategic plan (S&OP/PIC) into a feasible production program over a period of a few weeks to a few months (generally 3 to 6 months).
Serving as a pivotal link between overall strategy and the operational reality of the workshop, it translates global forecasts into a concrete and achievable production schedule for the factory. For example, it is the Production Planning and Control (PPC) that drives the calculation of net requirements (NRC), triggers raw material procurement, and ensures workload smoothing to guarantee seamless and uninterrupted production.
Detailed Scheduling (PDC)
The Detailed Scheduling process (or Workload Plan – PDC) represents the operational and short-term level of industrial planning. It designates the execution process aimed at organizing the daily work of teams and equipment over a very short horizon (from a day to a week).
The workshop roadmap translates tactical objectives into concrete actions to synchronize activity in real time. The PDC determines the scheduling (sequencing of tasks), generates the Work Orders (WOs), and assigns each operation to a specific workstation to maximize immediate productivity.
Level of Planning
Type (What)
Responsibility (Who)
Vision (Horizon)
Ultimately, the real culprit behind the decline in your quality control system is the lack of continuity between your different activities. Data production is fragmented, creating information silos that prevent a holistic view of the process. Your teams are working against the system, not with it.
Industrial planning tools
Numerous industrial planning software tools are available on the market. Identifying, selecting, and using the right tools is a major challenge for manufacturers, as this decision directly impacts the company’s overall performance. Several families and types of tools stand out and are differentiated by their scope of action, the issues they address, and the profile of the business teams they are designed for.
Excel
Excel, and spreadsheets in general, are still widely used for industrial planning at all levels. This ubiquity stems from the tool’s long history, as well as its flexibility and low cost. However, this tool has numerous limitations and risks that threaten industrial competitiveness. These obstacles become apparent as soon as industrial activity increases and processes become more complex. Static and isolated, the spreadsheet does not allow for the scalability, adaptability, or collaboration necessary to support industrial growth. In the long run, it even transforms planning into a cumbersome, risky administrative task, disconnected from the operational realities of the industrialist.
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Management and execution software (ERP, MES)
Many industries are already equipped with structured software solutions that integrate planning functionalities by default. However, these functionalities often prove to be either too general or, conversely, limited to a scope that is too narrow to cover the overall needs of industrial planning.
In the generalist category, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are the go-to tool for managing administrative and financial processes. While they do include planning functionalities, these are often basic. Furthermore, ERP systems often operate theoretically with an “infinite capacity” approach and do not take into account, for example, the real constraints of the workshop: availability of equipment, skills and qualifications of staff, etc. Very often, this results in schedules that are disconnected from reality and unrealizable on the ground.
For its part, the MES (Manufacturing Execution System) is dedicated to shop floor management and real-time monitoring. It is essential for tracking production progress and managing immediate disruptions. However, while it allows for planning, this remains at the operational and scheduling level. The MES system itself has neither the scope nor the capacity to carry out industrial planning on other perimeters and in the longer term: PIC or PDP. More about MES software
Specialized APS software
In contrast to general-purpose tools like ERP, there are solutions specifically designed for industrial planning: Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) software. Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS). Unlike ERP, APS operates on a “finite capacity” basis, incorporating real-world constraints and capacities to generate realistic medium- and long-term plans. However, this expertise also represents its main limitation: it focuses exclusively on the production scope. Disconnected from other industrial functions and departments, such as quality or maintenance, it lacks the cross-functional perspective needed to plan beyond pure manufacturing.
Integrated software platforms
Industrial planning is not limited to production lines. And it is on this point that integrated software platforms, such as TEEXMA, and those dedicated to the industrial sector differ radically from previous tools. Where general-purpose tools are disconnected from reality, and where APS are “blind” to events outside of production (machine breakdown, batch of raw material blocked in quality control), the platform connects all business data and ensures the digital continuity of the industry.
This integrated approach goes beyond simple production scheduling. A platform provides planning tools specific to each department (scheduling for production, demand management for laboratories, or intervention management for maintenance) and connected to their own software and hardware ecosystems.This ensures their synchronization and the centralization of data in a single repository. As a result, the platform provides a comprehensive overview and enables long-, medium-, and short-term planning. Thanks to Business Process Management and Business Intelligence functionalities, it aligns all layers of an industry and enables comprehensive industrial planning.The entire software and hardware ecosystem of the industry is connected to the platform and allows the building and sharing of schedules, KPIs or graphs between the different departments: production, management, IT, sales, etc.
The 5 key features of scheduling software
1. The interactive, multi-view Gantt chart
More than just a calendar, the modern Gantt chart offers a clear view of task dependencies, taking into account the necessary resources—essential for effective planning. Its interactive feature (drag and drop) ensures responsiveness in case of unforeseen events: a schedule can be readjusted in just a few clicks. The Gantt chart can switch between calendar and Kanban views for easy visual management.
2. Finite capacity management
Specific to production, this feature is essential for ensuring realistic and achievable scheduling. It compares the requested workload to the actual available capacity. The system can also alert in case of overload, allowing the planner to smooth the workload and thus avoid bottlenecks.
3. Cross-functional management of constraints
To be effective, industrial planning must not be limited to production. Cross-functional management allows for the integration of all functions into the equation. For example, it verifies the availability of equipment (maintenance), the conformity of raw materials (quality, material data, environmental safety), and finished products (quality control laboratories). This makes it possible to detect and identify bottlenecks, regardless of the department involved, ultimately benefiting the overall performance of the industry.
4. Time entry
Planning is not a one-way process: it needs operational feedback from the field to be effective. The various departments thus record the time spent on each action and project. This allows, for example, measuring average times to better plan for the future, analyzing performance gaps with a view to continuous improvement, or justifying R&D tax credits (CIR) applications for R&D activities.
5. Reporting and BI
Planning, and all the industrial activities that stem from it, generates a massive amount of data. This data is crucial for industries and represents their assets and technical expertise. To fully leverage this data and gain a broader perspective to move from operational management to strategic decision-making, Business Intelligence (BI) functionalities are essential. They enable data consolidation and the definition and monitoring of key performance indicators (KPIs) over the long term, supporting decisions that drive performance.Industrial planning performance indicators
In an approach to operational and strategic excellence, it is essential to differentiate between business and global indicators used to assess industrial planning performance.
Key operational performance indicators
OTD (On-Time Delivery)
On-Time Delivery (OTD), also known as the service rate, is the barometer of customer satisfaction and is therefore crucial for an industrial company. It measures the percentage of orders delivered on the scheduled date. Realistic planning with finite capacity is the main lever for guaranteeing an OTD close to 100%.
Lead time
Lead time, or throughput time, measures the total time elapsed between the initiation of the production order and the delivery of the finished product. Effective planning reduces this time by eliminating downtime, such as waiting due to machine or raw material unavailability.
Inventory reduction
Inventory reduction, on the other hand, is a financial indicator used to monitor cash flow health. It involves optimizing control over finished products to avoid unnecessarily tying up capital. Effective just-in-time production management allows for production at the right time, thus reducing the industry’s working capital requirements.Overall performance indicators for strategic management
Forecast reliability
Forecast accuracy is a key strategic indicator for measuring the gap between anticipated demand and actual sales. Analyzing this gap using Business Intelligence tools allows for more precise forecasting, securing future supplies, and preventing overstocking.
Schedule adherence rate
Schedule adherence measures the stability of industrial processes by analyzing whether an initial plan has been followed. Low adherence often reveals cross-functional issues that execution speed cannot compensate for. This metric also applies to project management, such as when an IT department deploys new tools, to ensure that critical milestones are met on schedule.
Capacity utilization rate
Capacity utilization rates measure the return on investment of industrial assets. Specifically, this KPI verifies whether the equipment is correctly sized for its intended purpose. The challenge lies in finding the balance between underutilization and the capacity to absorb future activity peaks.
Intelligent planning: when AI disrupts schedules
Planning belongs to an era where artificial intelligence is being used to serve industry. The widespread use of tools such as chatbots can obscure the fact that other types of dedicated algorithms (planning, prediction, etc.) are now enhancing business performance.
Intelligent scheduling, or automated scheduling, optimizes planning by taking into account all necessary factors and resources. In case of unforeseen events, such as equipment unavailability or a change in priority, the system adapts to offer re-optimized schedules in just a few clicks.
Finally, planning becomes predictive thanks to a detailed analysis of forecasted workloads and the early identification of bottleneck risks.