How to Work the MPS Grid in EDGEBIC, Bucket by Bucket

The master production schedule grid is where a build decision stops being a conversation and becomes a record. In EDGEBIC by User Solutions it is one screen: pick a product, pick a bucket size, read what demand does to your projected stock, type what you intend to build, and firm the buckets you are ready to release. This guide walks the whole loop, in the order you would actually do it.

If you have not met the module yet, start with the MPS explained. For the wider planning layer this grid draws on, see the inventory and planning pillar. Everything here describes documented behavior of EDGEBIC.

Step 1: Configure the Product First

A grid can only be as good as the product record behind it. Four settings do the work, and all of them live on the product's planning attributes.

Both the build method and the stocked flag matter. The projection's make-to-stock path activates on the build method, and a separate data check flags any make-to-stock product left unstocked, because that combination almost always means somebody set one field and forgot the other.

Lead time is the quiet one. It is used to back-calculate the release date when a bucket is firmed: due date minus lead time. Set it to zero and every firmed order starts on its due date, which is rarely what you want for anything with a real routing. See products and planning attributes for the full field list.

Step 2: Give the Grid Demand to Work With

The grid reads two demand sources and treats them differently.

Forecast entries are your expectation. Enter them at whatever granularity suits the item: daily for a fast mover, weekly for most, monthly for a slow one. They are stored as their own records and are never modified by the netting that happens later.

Confirmed sales order lines are your commitment. A line contributes its open balance, which is the ordered quantity minus the quantity already shipped, bucketed by the line's due date. The word confirmed is load-bearing: a line sitting on a draft order contributes nothing to the grid. If firm demand reads zero when you know orders exist, check the order status before you check anything else. Sales orders in EDGEBIC covers the entry side.

Step 3: Open the Grid and Set the View

Open the inventory area and select the MPS tab. Three controls decide what you see.

1. Product. Select the finished good. The grid loads automatically on change.
2. Bucket. Day, Week, or Period (28 days). One row equals one bucket.
3. Buckets. How many periods of horizon to show. Click refresh after changing it.

Pick the horizon deliberately. It should cover your longest lead time plus enough slack to act: a 30 day lead time with a 30 day horizon leaves you no room to decide anything.

Step 4: Read the Summary Strip Before the Rows

Above the grid sits a strip of numbers. Read it first, every time, and let it tell you whether the rows are worth studying.

If the projected stockout date is empty and the minimum projected balance is comfortably positive, there is nothing to decide for that product this cycle. Move on. That is a legitimate outcome and it takes ten seconds to reach.

Step 5: Read the Row That Matters

When there is a hole, go to the bucket where it starts and read across.

The Forecast and Firm columns show the two demand streams separately. The Demand column shows gross requirements after forecast consumption, which is where the two streams get combined under the product's consumption rule. Proj. on hand is the projected available balance at the end of the bucket, and it is the number that goes negative. ATP shows what is still genuinely promisable, which matters when sales calls mid-decision. See available to promise for the concept in general terms.

Suggested is the engine's recommendation, sized to prevent the projected stockout while respecting the product's lot-sizing rule. Treat it as a proposal with arithmetic behind it, not as an instruction.

Step 6: Commit a Build Quantity

Click the bucket row. The build quantity field pre-fills, using the existing committed quantity when there is one and the system suggestion when the committed quantity is zero. That pre-fill is a convenience, not a decision.

Adjust the number and save. Three things happen and three things do not.

What happens: the quantity is stored against the product, bucket type, and bucket date; the MPS build column shows it; the status changes to Firm.

What does not happen: no manufacturing order is created, nothing reaches the shop floor, and the projected balance does not move. A committed quantity stays in its own column until it becomes a real order, which is the design decision that keeps the projection honest.

Two limits to know. A negative quantity is rejected outright. Saving zero is allowed and clears the commitment without deleting the row, which is how you back out of a decision cleanly.

Step 7: Firm the Bucket Into an Order

When the decision is ready to release, select the bucket and firm it. One transaction does all of the following:

• Creates one build-to-stock manufacturing order.
• Sets its quantity to your committed quantity rounded up to a whole number, so 30.4 becomes 31.
• Sets its due date to the bucket start.
• Sets its start date to the due date minus the product's lead time.
• Flags it as a build to inventory and tags it as MPS-sourced.
• Flips the bucket to Released and stores the new order's identity on the row.

Because it is one transaction, a failure anywhere leaves neither an orphan order nor a row pointing at nothing. Firming the same bucket again while its order is still alive returns the existing order rather than creating a second one.

Step 8: Schedule It, Then Re-read the Projection

The firmed order is created, not scheduled. It joins the queue for the next scheduling run, where it competes for work center capacity against every other job. Run the schedule.

Now reload the grid. The order appears as a scheduled receipt in the bucket where it is expected to complete, and the projected balance lifts. Before the scheduler has run, the projection has to fall back to the order's target end or due date for that receipt, which is a placeholder rather than a real completion date. Firm, schedule, then read: that order matters if you are about to promise something to a customer.

Step 9: Handle Revisions and Repairs

Two situations come up often enough to be worth rehearsing.

Revising a released quantity. Once a bucket is Released, saving a new quantity will not revise it, because a real order now carries that number. The route is: cancel or delete the manufacturing order, reload the grid (the row demotes itself back to Firm because its order no longer resolves), revise the quantity, and firm again. Do not delete the master schedule entry first: that removes the row without touching the order, and you are left with a build nothing explains.

Re-firming after an order was deleted elsewhere. Somebody deletes the order from the manufacturing order list. The next time the grid loads, the row shows as Firm with its committed quantity intact and no order attached. Confirm the quantity and firm again. A new order is created and the stale link is overwritten. The system's anomaly report also flags this state so it does not go unnoticed. The troubleshooting guide covers how to run that report.

Choosing the Bucket and the Horizon

Two view settings decide what you can actually see, and both deserve a deliberate choice per product rather than a house standard.

Bucket size follows the item's demand rhythm. A week bucket hides a Tuesday stockout that a day bucket would expose. A day bucket across a 90 day horizon gives you 90 rows of noise for an item that moves monthly. Fast movers with daily order flow justify day buckets; most items sit comfortably at week; slow, high-value items with monthly ordering patterns suit the 28 day period.

Horizon covers lead time plus decision time. A product with a 30 day lead time viewed across a 30 day horizon leaves you nothing to act on, because everything you can see is already inside the window where a new build cannot arrive in time. Add at least one full planning cycle beyond the lead time.

One storage detail follows from this. A committed quantity is stored against the product, the bucket type, and the bucket date together. A commitment made in week buckets and a commitment made in day buckets for the same period are separate records, so switching bucket size mid-cycle changes which commitments you are looking at rather than reformatting the same ones. Pick the granularity per product and stay on it.

The Weekly Loop, Condensed

1. Load each planned product with the bucket size that matches its demand rhythm.
2. Read the summary strip. No stockout, no work.
3. Where there is a hole, compare Suggested against your own judgement.
4. Save build quantities for everything you have decided.
5. Firm only the buckets you intend to release this cycle.
6. Run the schedule.
7. Re-read the projection and confirm the holes closed.

Steps 4 and 5 being separate is what makes the loop work. Decisions accumulate as Firm rows, and release happens on your cadence rather than the moment somebody types a number.

For the mechanism behind the demand columns and the fence flags, read firm demand, forecast, and time fences. For the setups that quietly produce wrong numbers, read MPS mistakes. The EDGEBIC complete guide maps how this screen connects to everything else.