Reading the MPS Grid: A Planning Cockpit in EDGEBIC

The master production schedule grid in EDGEBIC is a planning cockpit: one screen where a planner reads what demand is coming, what stock is projected, what the system recommends building, and what decision is still outstanding, then acts on it without leaving the view. EDGEBIC by User Solutions builds the grid one row per time bucket for a single finished good, tops it with a KPI strip that summarizes the whole horizon, and marks every bucket with a status badge that tells you whether it needs your attention. This post reads the cockpit instrument by instrument.

Treating the grid as a report is a missed opportunity. Every column is either an input you can trace or a decision you can make. For the platform-level overview of the MPS module, start with the master production schedule explained; for the generic concept, see the master production schedule guide. This post is about reading and acting on the live grid.

The KPI Strip: The Whole Horizon at a Glance

Before you read a single row, the KPI strip tells you whether this product is in trouble. It computes a handful of numbers across every loaded bucket:

The projected stockout date is the alarm. If it is blank, the product is covered across the horizon and you can move on. If it shows a date, that date is your deadline, and the min projected number tells you how deep the hole gets. The gap between total suggested and committed MPS tells you how much of the recommended action you have not yet taken. Read the strip first; it decides whether the rows below deserve a close look.

The Demand Columns: Where Requirements Come From

Three columns on the left describe demand. Forecast demand is your estimate for the bucket. Firm demand is committed customer orders, sourced from open lines on confirmed sales orders and bucketed by each line's due date. Gross requirements is the netted combination of the two under the product's consumption rule, and it is the number that actually drives the plan. Because gross requirements is netted rather than summed, it is normally not forecast plus firm, which surprises planners the first time they see it. The reason is forecast consumption, explained in greater-of versus minus-consumed.

For a bucket inside the demand time fence, the forecast column is present but the engine ignores it, so gross requirements comes only from firm orders. That is deliberate: inside a short horizon, real orders are the truth and a forecast would double the same demand. The two fences that shape this behavior are covered in demand fence versus planning fence.

The Supply Columns: Balance and Promise

Two columns on the right describe supply and its consequences. Scheduled receipts are open build-to-stock orders landing in the bucket where they are expected to complete. Projected available balance rolls forward: each bucket's balance is the prior balance plus scheduled receipts minus gross requirements. A negative balance is not an error, it is the signal that demand outruns supply in that bucket, and it is what colors a row red and sets the projected stockout date.

Available to promise sits alongside the balance and answers a different question: how many units in this bucket are not already committed to firm demand, so you could promise them to a new order. Available to promise is driven by firm demand only, not forecast, so a bucket can show healthy available to promise while a large forecast still looms. Promising against it is safe; promising against forecasted-but-uncommitted supply is not.

The Decision Columns: Suggested and Committed

The heart of the cockpit is two columns that turn reading into acting. The suggested order quantity is the system's recommendation, sized to lift the projected balance back above the reorder trigger, respecting lot-sizing and yield rules. The MPS quantity is your committed build decision, and it is editable. When you click a bucket, the field pre-fills with your existing committed quantity or, if none, with the system suggestion, so accepting the recommendation is one keystroke away.

The critical behavior: the committed MPS quantity does not roll into the projected balance. It is your intention, not supply. Showing it in the balance would display stock that no order is producing, and a later firming would then double-count. The committed quantity stays in its own column until you firm it, at which point the resulting order appears as a scheduled receipt on the next refresh and the balance finally moves. This distinction is important enough to have its own post, why a committed MPS quantity is not yet supply.

The Status Badge: Your To-Do List

Every bucket carries a status badge, and the three values turn the grid into a to-do list:

• Suggested: the system has a recommendation but you have committed nothing. The bucket needs a decision.
• Firm: you committed a build quantity but no order exists yet. The bucket needs one more action to become real.
• Released: an order exists and is a scheduled receipt. The bucket is handled.

Scan the badge column top to bottom against the projected stockout date. Every Suggested or Firm badge inside your stockout runway is an open item. Every Released badge is done. The badge tells you where you are in the lifecycle without reading any numbers, which is exactly what a cockpit indicator should do.

Reading the Cockpit End to End: Widget A

Put the instruments together on the documented example. Widget A is make-to-stock, opening at 80 units, weekly buckets, with two confirmed sales orders due next week and one the week after.

The KPI strip reads a min projected of negative 80 and a projected stockout date of week 2. The week 2 row is red. The system suggests 110 for week 2, enough to recover through week 4. You accept 110 in the MPS quantity field and save, which sets the row to Firm and lifts the committed MPS KPI to 110. You then firm it, which creates the order and sets the row to Released. On the next refresh the 110 lands as a scheduled receipt, week 2 recovers to 100, the balance stays positive through week 4, and the stockout date clears. The cockpit walked you from alarm to resolution in three moves.

Reading the Grid Across a Whole Catalog

The cockpit discipline scales from one product to a full order book without changing. When you plan many products, the KPI strip does the triage: the products whose projected stockout date falls inside the horizon are the ones that need you, and the rest can wait. You do not read every row of every product; you read the strip, sort by stockout date, and open the products that are actually short.

Within each product you then read the badge column, not the numbers, to find the open work. A product might have twelve buckets, but only two of them carry a Suggested or Firm badge inside its stockout runway. Those two are the work; the other ten are either handled or beyond the point where action is needed yet. This is the difference between drowning in a grid and working it: the strip tells you which products, the badges tell you which buckets, and only then do you read the demand and supply columns to size the fix.

A useful habit is to work the products in stockout-date order, nearest first. The nearest stockout is the least runway you have, so it is the least forgiving if capacity turns out to be tight when the firmed order reaches the scheduler. Clearing the near-term shortfalls first leaves the most room to absorb a capacity surprise on the ones further out.

Why the Cockpit Framing Helps

Naming the grid a cockpit is not decoration, it is a way to work. Read the KPI strip to triage, read the demand columns to understand the pressure, read the supply columns to see the balance, read the decision columns to size the fix, and read the badges to track what is done. The same discipline works on one product or across a catalog: the products with a projected stockout date inside the horizon are the ones that need you, and the buckets with Suggested or Firm badges are where the work is.

For the screen-by-screen mechanics of committing and firming quantities, see how to work the MPS grid. To follow demand all the way from a customer order into this grid and on to a schedule, read from sales order to MPS to schedule.