Planned orders: reviewing and protecting a production proposal

A planned order is a proposal to make a quantity by a date. It gives the planner a chance to review timing, version and supply before creating an execution commitment. Firming marks a proposal as a deliberate planning commitment. Later planning results still need review to establish how that commitment was treated.

DNA allows planned orders from planning results or manual entry. Planned orders can be firmed and converted into a prefilled production order. The converted production order still needs review and saving. Planned orders do not themselves move stock or reserve material.

The space between calculation and execution

Planning can propose a quantity before all operational decisions are final. A planned order gives the business a record to evaluate without confusing the proposal with released production.

The planner can consider timing, product version, supply, and capacity. The proposed quantity may be commercially sensible but operationally unrealistic in the suggested period. That is a planning decision to resolve before execution.

A reviewed proposal

Planning proposes 200 units for next month. The planner agrees 120 for the first week and checks the product version and capacity before conversion. A subsequent planning run should not casually remove a firmed commitment that purchasing and production have already planned around.

Firming identifies a proposal the business intends to protect from routine replanning changes; the saved firmed state and subsequent planning results are the evidence to review. It supports coordination when purchasing or production has begun arranging around the decision. It does not create physical materials or eliminate a real capacity constraint.

DNA's conversion relationship

DNA supports planned orders from planning results or manual entry and conversion into a prefilled production order. The conversion carries the proposal forward into the execution structure, but the production order still needs its own review and supported processing.

This distinction prevents a planning result from being mistaken for a released instruction. The execution record needs a coherent product, quantity, version, dates, and operational context.

When the plan changes

Customer demand, supply timing, or capacity can change after a proposal is firmed. Firming should not make the business ignore new evidence. It means the change deserves a deliberate decision because other teams may already depend on the commitment.

The revised plan should explain why the earlier decision changed and what downstream work is affected. An unexplained disappearance of a proposal can be as disruptive as an unnecessary new order.

A reliable handoff

A useful planned order tells production what is proposed and why. A useful production order turns the accepted proposal into a specific execution commitment.

Keeping those stages distinct helps the business coordinate planning without overstating stock, reservations, or work already in progress. DNA's relationship between the records preserves the path from planning judgement to operational execution.