How to Create a Simple Material Planning System (Even If You Don’t Have ERP)

1. The Most Common Sentence in Indian Factories

Walk into many factories around 2 PM and you’ll hear something like this:

The machine is ready.
The operator is ready.
The order is urgent.

But the raw material is not available .

So the job waits.

And this single issue silently creates:

• production delays

• overtime costs

• frustrated customers

• constant planning changes

The strange part?

Most factories assume this problem requires complex software .

In reality, what it requires first is a simple planning discipline .

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Why Material Planning Usually Breaks Down

Let’s understand why this happens.

In many factories, the workflow looks like this:

Sales confirms an order.
Planning schedules production.
Then someone checks material availability.

That sequence is backwards.

Material availability should be confirmed before production scheduling.

Otherwise the schedule becomes only a wish list .

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A Simple Material Planning System Any Factory Can Start

You don’t need ERP for the first level of control.

You only need a simple structure.

Here is a practical 4-step approach.

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Step 1: Create a Basic Bill of Material (BOM) List

Every product should have a clear list of materials required.

For example:

Product A may require:

• 2 kg steel plate

• 4 bolts

• 1 casting

• 1 packing box

Without this list, material planning becomes guesswork.

Many small factories keep this information in people’s memory .

That works until the experienced person is absent.

Documenting the BOM removes that dependency.

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Step 2: Maintain a Simple Weekly Material Requirement Sheet

At the start of every week, planning should prepare a simple table:

This immediately reveals which jobs cannot start.

Instead of discovering shortages on the shop floor, you discover them during planning .

That single shift in timing changes everything.

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Step 3: Introduce a “Material Ready” Rule

This rule is simple:

A job should not be released to production unless all required material is ready .

If one critical component is missing, the job should wait.

This avoids the common situation where a job starts, runs partially, and then stops midway.

Half-finished jobs create confusion across the factory.

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Step 4: Create a Daily Coordination Between Stores and Planning

Material planning fails when departments work in isolation.

Stores must communicate daily with planning about:

• incoming materials

• delayed deliveries

• low stock items

A 10-minute daily interaction can prevent hours of production delays.

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The Hidden Benefit of Good Material Planning

When material planning improves, something interesting happens.

Production becomes calmer.

Machines run longer without interruption.

Planning stops changing schedules every day.

And supervisors spend less time solving avoidable problems.

The factory starts running with flow instead of friction .

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One Simple Reflection

Think about the last production delay in your factory.

Was it caused by:

• lack of manpower?

• lack of machines?

• or missing material?

In many factories, the answer is the third one.

Which means the solution is not more capacity.

It is better material visibility .