What Is Schedule Adherence?
Also known as: schedule attainment, production schedule attainment, schedule compliance, plan attainment
Definition
Schedule adherence is the percentage of planned production, by item, quantity and time window, that is actually completed as scheduled. It shows how reliably the shop floor executes the plan produced by MRP and finite scheduling.
Schedule Adherence Explained
A common version compares the jobs or quantities scheduled to finish in a period with those completed in that period. Stricter versions require the right mix: producing 100 percent of planned volume but of the wrong items scores low, because overproducing one item cannot make up for another. Mix-based schedule attainment caps the credit per item at the planned quantity.
Time window matters. A daily or shift window is much more demanding than weekly and exposes sequence problems that weekly totals hide. Pick the window by how the plan is used: a repetitive line may track hourly, a job shop weekly by work order operation.
ERP data comes from the production schedule (planned start and finish dates by order and operation) compared with completion transactions. Infor SyteLine job schedules and operations, Infor LN production orders and planned operations, and NetSuite work orders and operation completions provide planned versus actual dates and quantities; in practice many teams build the adherence report in BI because few standard reports compute it by mix.
Misses usually trace to a short list of causes: material shortages, machine downtime, changeover overruns, quality holds, unrealistic routing times, and plans changed after release. Coding the reason for each miss is what makes the metric useful, because it turns a score into a ranked list of problems to fix.
Why It Matters
- It is the earliest warning for late shipments, well before OTIF falls.
- It tests whether routings, standards and finite capacity assumptions are realistic.
- Reason-coded misses point at recurring causes such as shortages or changeovers.
- Stable adherence lets planning shorten frozen windows and lead times with confidence.
In Practice
A line plans 5 jobs for Tuesday totalling 1,000 units: A 400, B 300, C 200, D 100, E 0 spare. It completes A 400, B 250, C 260 and D 0. Raw volume is 910 / 1,000 = 91 percent. With credit capped at the planned quantity per item, completed credit is 400 + 250 + 200 + 0 = 850, so adherence is 85 percent, and the real issue (job D skipped) is visible.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is schedule adherence calculated?
Completed quantity credited per item, capped at the planned quantity, divided by total planned quantity for the window. Simple versions use total planned versus total completed.
What is the difference between schedule adherence and OTIF?
Schedule adherence measures internal execution against the production plan. OTIF measures the customer outcome of delivery date and quantity. Poor adherence usually shows up later as poor OTIF.
What window should I use?
Match the window to how the plan is executed: hourly or shift for repetitive lines, daily or weekly for job shops. Wider windows hide sequence and timing problems.
Related Terms
MPS (Master Production Schedule)
An MPS (master production schedule) is the time-phased statement of which end items a plant will produce, in what quantities, and in which periods. It is the anchor demand input MRP explodes into component requirements.
Capacity Utilization
Capacity utilization is the share of available capacity, in hours or output, that is actually used over a period. It equals actual load divided by available capacity and shows how fully a work center, line or plant is being used.
OTIF (On-Time In-Full)
OTIF (On-Time In-Full) is the percentage of order lines or orders delivered on the agreed date and in the complete ordered quantity. A line that is late or short counts as a miss, so OTIF is stricter than on-time delivery alone.
Work Order
A work order is the ERP document that authorizes production of a defined quantity of an item by a due date. It snapshots the bill of materials and routing, drives material issues and labor reporting, and collects actual cost for the job.
APS (Advanced Planning and Scheduling)
APS (Advanced Planning and Scheduling) is SyteLine's memory-resident planning engine that schedules production against finite material and capacity constraints, producing realistic operation start and finish dates and enabling capable-to-promise responses during order entry.
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