Short answer
Production planning software turns orders into a realistic plan: material requirements planning (MRP), capacity checks, machine and shift schedules, work orders and live tracking of progress, downtime and scrap on the shop floor. Infikey builds custom planning and MES tools that sit alongside your ERP. Typical builds cost USD 35,000–80,000.
Updated · Written by the Infikey Technologies delivery team
Planning and execution features
| Area | Features |
|---|---|
| MRP | Net requirements from orders and forecasts, BOM explosion, purchase and production suggestions |
| Capacity | Machine, line and labour capacity by shift, bottleneck view, overtime what-ifs |
| Scheduling | Drag-and-drop Gantt board, finite scheduling, changeover rules, priority by due date |
| Work orders | Release with material check, job cards, routing steps, subcontract operations |
| Shop floor | Start and stop by scan, quantities good and rejected, downtime reasons |
| Machine data | PLC or sensor counts and status for automatic OEE |
| Analytics | Plan vs actual, OEE by machine, top downtime reasons, late order alerts |
Signs you have outgrown spreadsheets
- The schedule lives in one planner’s head or workbook, and nobody else can update it.
- Sales promises dates without seeing machine load or material.
- Production stops because a part or raw material was not ordered in time.
- You learn about breakdowns and rejections at the end of the shift.
The planner usually needs an inventory management system feeding accurate stock, or a full manufacturing ERP.
Cost
| Scope | Budget (USD) | Budget (INR) |
|---|---|---|
| Work orders and shop-floor tracking with tablets | 35,000–50,000 | 28–40 lakh |
| Add MRP, capacity planning and scheduling board | 50,000–80,000 | 40–65 lakh |
| Add machine connectivity and live OEE | +15,000–30,000 | +12–25 lakh |
These are planning ranges, not quotes. Estimate yours with the custom software cost calculator.
Project blueprint
Scheduling and shop-floor tracking for a packaging plant
Based on the requirements we hear most often from buyers like this.
A packaging manufacturer runs printing, lamination and cutting machines across shifts. One planner builds the schedule in a spreadsheet, changeovers are not optimised, and management learns about breakdowns at the end of the day.
What we would build
- Order-based planning with material availability checks
- Drag-and-drop machine schedule with changeover rules
- Tablet app for operators to start, stop and report output and rejections
- Downtime reasons and machine counts from PLC signals
- OEE and plan-versus-actual dashboards
How success is measured
- OEE by machine
- Schedule adherence
- Changeover time per job
- Orders delivered late