Free Master Production Schedule (MPS) Excel Template
A working master production schedule in Excel: forecast and customer orders combined through a demand time fence, MPS quantities from your lot size, projected available balance, and available to promise for sales.
What you get
A free .xlsx MPS template with no email and no macros: an 8-week grid for an end item with demand time fence, lot sizing, safety stock, projected available balance and available to promise, filled with a worked example.
master-production-schedule-excel-template.xlsx · 2 sheets · No email required · No macros
Sheets: Instructions, MPS
Why manufacturers still use Excel for this
The master production schedule (MPS) is the bridge between what sales wants to sell and what production can actually build. It sits between the sales forecast on one side and detailed shop-floor scheduling on the other. A good MPS answers three questions for every end item, every week: what are we going to complete, how many, and how much of it is still available to promise to new orders?
Many small and mid-size manufacturers do not run a formal MPS. They turn sales orders straight into work orders and hope the numbers work out. That holds until demand becomes lumpy, lead times stretch beyond the customer ordering window, or finished-goods inventory starts to pile up. Then the missing MPS is behind every late delivery and every call from sales asking "when can we ship?"
This template gives you a real MPS in Excel, calculated the way the textbook describes it: gross requirements from forecast and orders, MPS lots from the lot size, projected available balance, and available to promise. The worked example below is the data that ships in the file.
What's inside the template
Planning parameters
On hand, lot size (0 means lot-for-lot), safety stock and the demand time fence in weeks, all in shaded input cells.
Forecast and customer orders
Separate rows, so you can see how much of each week is committed and how much is still a forecast.
Gross requirements with a demand time fence
Inside the fence only customer orders count; beyond it, the larger of forecast and orders counts.
MPS quantity and projected available balance
A lot is planned whenever the balance would drop below safety stock, rounded up to the lot size, and the balance is carried week to week.
Available to promise
What sales can still promise from on hand and each MPS lot after the customer orders already booked against it.
Worked example and instructions
An 8-week example for one pump, with every formula written out in words on the Instructions sheet.
How to use this template
A practical walkthrough, from the sample data to a plan built on your own numbers.
- 1
Follow the example
Read the PX-20 pump grid top to bottom: forecast, orders, gross requirements, MPS quantity, projected available balance and available to promise.
- 2
Enter your item parameters
Type the item name, on hand, lot size, safety stock and demand time fence. Use 0 for lot size if you build exactly what is needed.
- 3
Enter forecast and customer orders
Fill both rows for the next 8 weeks. Customer orders are what is booked; forecast is what you expect to sell.
- 4
Read the MPS quantity row
Each non-zero cell is a lot to plan to complete that week. Check it against capacity (see the capacity planning template) before you commit it.
- 5
Give sales the available to promise row
It tells sales how many more units they can promise from each lot without breaking existing orders. Copy the MPS sheet for each additional end item.
Worked example: pump PX-20, lot size 120, 2-week demand time fence
The pump starts with 60 on hand, is built in lots of 120, has no safety stock and uses a 2-week demand time fence. Inside the fence, weeks 1 and 2, only customer orders count; after it, the larger of forecast and orders counts.
| PX-20 pump | Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 | Wk 7 | Wk 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forecast | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 |
| Customer orders | 45 | 30 | 20 | 10 | 55 | 20 | 5 | 0 |
| Gross requirements | 45 | 30 | 40 | 40 | 55 | 50 | 50 | 50 |
| MPS quantity | 0 | 120 | 0 | 0 | 120 | 0 | 120 | 0 |
| Projected available balance (start 60) | 15 | 105 | 65 | 25 | 90 | 40 | 110 | 60 |
| Available to promise | 15 | 60 | - | - | 45 | - | 115 | - |
The balance would go negative in weeks 2, 5 and 7, so a lot of 120 is planned in each. In week 2 the fence matters: forecast says 40 but only 30 are ordered, so the plan uses 30.
Available to promise answers the sales question directly: 15 more units can ship in week 1 (60 on hand less 45 ordered), 60 from the week 2 lot (120 less the 60 ordered in weeks 2 to 4), 45 from the week 5 lot and 115 from the week 7 lot.
When you outgrow this template
Excel is the right answer for early-stage planning, until it isn't. These are the warning signs that you need a real production scheduling tool.
If three or more of these apply, you have outgrown spreadsheet planning. EDGEBIC, the current generation of RMDB, is User Solutions' finite capacity scheduling and production planning software. It imports the same orders, routings, work centers and stock from Excel, CSV or your ERP, schedules them against real machine, labor and material limits, and shows the result on a drag-and-drop Gantt chart. It is a one-time license: EDGEBIC APS is $25,000, and EDGEBIC Complete, which adds MRP, inventory and purchasing, is $35,000.
See EDGEBICFrequently asked questions
Is this MPS template free?+
Yes. Download the .xlsx directly from this page: no email, no sign-up and no macros. It works in Excel 2016 or later, including Microsoft 365.
What is a master production schedule?+
A master production schedule (MPS) is a time-phased plan of which end items a manufacturer will complete, in what quantities, in which periods (usually weeks). It sits between the sales forecast and MRP, and it is the demand input MRP uses to plan components.
How is an MPS different from a production schedule?+
The MPS plans what to complete at the end-item level, usually weekly, over several weeks or months. A production schedule sequences how to build it: which jobs run on which machines, in which order, usually by day or shift. The MPS feeds the production schedule.
What is available to promise (ATP)?+
Available to promise is the part of on hand and each planned MPS lot not yet committed to customer orders. In the template it is calculated in the first week and in each week with an MPS lot: the lot (plus on hand in week 1) minus customer orders until the next lot.
What is a demand time fence?+
A demand time fence is the number of weeks in which only customer orders count, because it is too late for the forecast to change what gets built. Beyond the fence, the template uses the larger of forecast and customer orders.
Which lot-sizing rules does the template support?+
Fixed lot size (round the shortfall up to a multiple of the lot size) and lot-for-lot (set lot size to 0 to build exactly the shortfall). Period order quantity is not built in.
Can this template handle multi-level BOMs?+
No. The MPS is end-item only by design; planning components through the bill of materials is what MRP does. Use the MRP Excel template for that, or RMDB, now EDGEBIC Complete, which runs MPS, MRP and finite capacity scheduling together.
Start with the spreadsheet. Move to EDGEBIC when it breaks.
The template handles the math for a small plan. EDGEBIC is what manufacturers move to when orders, routings and capacity change faster than a spreadsheet can follow: published one-time pricing, and implementation measured in days.