Planning vs Scheduling: Part Two - Multi-Plant Capacity Planning

Making it easy to source material from alternate plants

How to simplify sourcing and scale planning across all your plants

Planning and scheduling are both essential for managing production—but they serve different purposes. Scheduling focuses on the day-to-day execution within a single plant: what’s being produced, in what order, and on which machines. Planning, on the other hand, takes a broader view. It allows you to look ahead, balance demand and capacity, and make strategic decisions—especially when managing multiple plants.

Multi-plant capacity planning helps manufacturers coordinate production across different facilities. With PlanetTogether, you can easily compare capacity, inventory levels, and material availability across plants. This makes it simple to source from the best location—whether that’s the one with the most available stock, the shortest lead time, or the closest proximity to your customer. Our Inventory Plan provides visibility into multiple warehouse locations, so you can make data-driven decisions and respond quickly to changes in demand or production conditions.

Plan ahead with greater visibility and flexibility

PlanetTogether’s multi-plant functionality enables long-term planning across your entire operation. You can identify capacity or material bottlenecks before they impact production and adjust accordingly. For more focused planning, our Single Plant Optimize feature lets planners fine-tune the schedule within one plant, while still operating within the larger, connected network. This flexibility supports both independent and interdependent plant strategies—whichever works best for your business.

Expand long term planning companywide for greater visibility

With PlanetTogether, you’re not just planning inside each plant—you’re planning across the company. Multi-plant functionality lets you identify and solve problems before they happen by spotting capacity constraints, material shortages, or equipment changes early on. You can optimize each plant individually using our Single Plant Optimize feature, or plan collectively, depending on how interconnected your operations need to be.

Discover the full benefits of Multi-Plant Scheduling with PlanetTogether