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Production planning in Excel vs a live planning system: what changes, and what should not.
Excel is flexible and every planner knows it. The question is not whether Excel is bad, but at what point one file stops being enough for a plant.
| Planning workbook in Excel | Live planning system | |
|---|---|---|
| Where orders come from | Copied or exported in by hand | Read from the plant’s records |
| Who can run it | Usually one planner | Any planner with access; roles for others |
| Capacity check | If the formulas are maintained | Every plan checked against lines, machines and manpower |
| Materials and packaging | Separate sheets, updated later | Flow from the same plan, net of stock and in-transit |
| Change history | Overwritten | Overrides and edits logged |
| What-if | Copy the file | Change levers and see the effect |
| Familiarity | High | Kept if columns, colours and Excel download are preserved |
When Excel is enough
- One line, a handful of SKUs and stable demand.
- One planner who also does procurement.
- Orders that change weekly, not daily.
When a live system pays off
- Several lines and shared resources such as packing.
- Procurement acting on a plan someone else publishes.
- Orders that change daily, and rush buys that keep happening.
- A plant head who wants to see next week, not last month.
A bakery example
A bakery with one bread line can plan comfortably in a sheet. Add cake and cookie lines sharing one packing hall and one flour silo, and the sheet has to answer three questions at once: which line, which material, which packing slot. That is where a single plan feeding materials and capacity helps. See fixing the one-person workbook.
How Production & Procurement does it
Production & Procurement rebuilds the plant’s planning workbook as one live system. Firm orders, read from the plant’s own records, become a suggested plan: each working day, due SKUs take line capacity in priority order and pull-ahead fills the hours left. Planners can override any cell and freeze days already committed. The plan flows into a three-month projection, a raw-material plan net of stock and in-transit, a packaging plan from the packaging BOM, and a procurement list with what to order, how much and by when. Machine load and manpower are checked against the plan, red above 100% and amber above 85%. A digital twin of the site shows bins, lines and gates live, through the past month and seven days ahead, and says “not recorded” where data is missing. Every screen downloads to Excel, and plant systems are read, never written.
Questions
Is Excel good enough for production planning?
For one line, few SKUs and stable demand, often yes. With several lines sharing resources, daily order changes and separate procurement, a single workbook becomes hard to keep correct.
Will planners lose their spreadsheets with planning software?
They should not. A good system keeps the same columns and colour legend and offers an Excel download on every screen.
See it on your own data. Production & Procurement — Plan the line, buy on time. Book a 30-minute working session with an engineer.