Case study · India
An AI-enabled production planning and control system
One system that plans what to make, checks materials and capacity, schedules the floor and flags orders that are slipping, with AI doing the forecasting and the watching.
- Orders, stock and ERP data
- Demand forecast
- Material and capacity check
- OR-Tools schedule
- Tracking and delay alerts
The problem
At most mid-size manufacturers, production planning is split across the ERP, several spreadsheets and the experience of one or two planners. Sales commits to dates without seeing capacity, purchasing hears about material shortages late, and the floor hears about changes last. When an order slips, nobody sees it until the customer calls.
What we built
A production planning and control (PPC) system that covers the whole loop, from what to make to whether it is on track:
- Plan. A demand forecast per product, built from order history, alongside confirmed orders.
- Check. Material requirements and machine capacity worked out for that plan, so shortages show up before they turn into late orders.
- Schedule. A production schedule built with constraint optimisation, respecting machine capacity and due dates.
- Control. Progress from the floor recorded against the plan, with an alert when an order starts to slip.
How it works
AI is used where prediction helps, and nowhere else.
- Forecasting. A model trained on the client's own order history predicts demand per product, so planning starts from expected orders as well as confirmed ones.
- The arithmetic stays in code. Material requirements and capacity are calculated deterministically from bills of materials and machine rates, so every figure can be checked by hand.
- Scheduling. Google OR-Tools CP-SAT turns the plan into a schedule that satisfies every machine and date constraint, and solves again when something changes.
- Watching for delays. Progress is compared with the plan, and orders at risk of missing their date are flagged early, while there is still time to act.
- Planners stay in charge. The system proposes; the planner reviews and approves.
Outcome
Planning moves out of spreadsheets and into one system that sales, purchasing and the floor all work from. Shortages and slipping orders show up while there is still time to act, and every number in the plan can be traced back to how it was calculated.
Stack
| Part | Tools |
|---|---|
| Forecasting | Model trained on the client's own order history |
| Materials and capacity | Deterministic code from bills of materials and machine rates |
| Scheduling | Google OR-Tools CP-SAT |
Have a problem like this one?
We reply within one business day. If AI isn't the right fix, we'll say so.