Journal
Insights from the floor
Production-planning notes for CPG operations teams — forecasting, scheduling, changeovers, and running the plan headless.
- 01
Shelf-Life-Constrained Production Scheduling: Sizing Runs So Perishable SKUs Don't Expire
Classic lot-sizing math quietly assumes product lives forever. In food and beverage it doesn't. Here's how to cap production runs at the shelf-life-feasible quantity so perishable SKUs sell before they expire — without stocking out.
Read post - 02
Rough-Cut Capacity Planning for CPG: Pressure-Test the Master Schedule Before It Hits the Floor
RCCP is the fast feasibility check that sits between master scheduling and MRP. Learn how to load your MPS against real filler, tank, and labor capacity before you promise dates you can't build.
Read post - 03
Time Fences for CPG Schedulers: Where to Freeze, Where to Flex
Schedule nervousness thrashes the floor when every late change rebuilds the week. Learn how to divide your planning horizon into frozen, slushy, and liquid zones, size the freeze to your cumulative lead time, and enforce the rules that keep the plan stable.
Read post - 04
Run Order Matters: Sequencing SKUs to Slash Total Changeover Time
You can't always make each changeover shorter, but you can make fewer of them expensive. Here's how to build a changeover matrix and sequence your SKUs to cut total cleandown time across the whole run.
Read post - 05
ABC-XYZ Segmentation for CPG: Which SKUs Deserve Tight Scheduling and Safety Stock
You can't manage 400 SKUs the same way. Learn how ABC-XYZ segmentation ranks SKUs by dollar impact and demand variability, so you spend scheduling attention and safety stock where they actually pay off.
Read post - 06
Drum-Buffer-Rope: How to Schedule a CPG Line Around Its One True Bottleneck
Most CPG schedules fight the wrong machine. Learn how Drum-Buffer-Rope builds the production schedule around your line's real constraint to protect throughput and ship dates.
Read post - 07
EPEI (Every Product Every Interval): How Often Should Your Line Make Each SKU?
EPEI is the one number that names your production rotation — how often each SKU comes around. Here's what it means, why smaller is usually better, and how to calculate and shrink it on a real CPG line.
Read post - 08
Heijunka for CPG Lines: Turning Lumpy Demand Into a Schedule the Floor Can Run
Forecasting tells you how much to make. Heijunka tells you in what rhythm and sequence. Here's how production leveling smooths lumpy CPG demand into a repeatable schedule that protects fill rate and your changeover budget.
Read post - 09
Why CPG Scheduler is headless and agentic
Production planning is decision-work that rarely needs a screen. Here's the full case for running it headless — and for handing the routine to an AI agent you control.
Read post - 10
Stop firefighting stockouts
A stockout is rarely a surprise — it's a slow signal nobody had time to read. Read the few signals that matter early, and the fixes stay cheap.
Read post - 11
The hidden cost of changeovers
Two plans can make the same units in the same week and cost very different amounts to run. The gap hides in the changeovers — and there's a discipline for closing it.
Read post - 12
Forecasting that survives contact with the floor
Tie par levels to how product actually moves — with the right window, the right buffer, and current data — and the Tuesday surprises mostly stop.
Read post