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MRP Planner Workload Calculator

Teams often argue about how many items a planner can handle. The honest answer depends on exceptions, not item count. This calculator estimates workload from the part of the item base that actually needs a decision each week.

Your numbers

Active planned items

items

Items with exceptions per week

12 %

Actions per exception item

actions

Minutes per action

min

Other planner hours per week (meetings, expediting)

hours

Planners today

people

Productive hours per planner per week

32 hours

Your results

Team load

85.4%

Over 100 percent means work is not being done or is done late.

Planners needed

Exception items per week

360

Exception handling hours per week

Total planning hours needed per week

Items per planner today

1,000

A staffing estimate based on your own inputs. Time per action varies by item class; use sampled data from your team.

Save results:

Weekly hours needed vs exception rate

Sweeps Items with exceptions per week from 2 to 40, holding your other inputs fixed.

Reduce exception volume

Optional: ask for a review of how to triage MRP exceptions automatically.

Optional. The tool and every export work without this. No spam.

How to use it

Enter the number of active items under MRP and the share that produce an exception in a typical week. Set the average actions per exception item and minutes per action, then add hours for meetings and expediting. Enter your current planners and productive hours each. The result shows team load and the headcount needed, and the chart shows how hours rise as the exception rate climbs.

Measure exception rate from several weeks of MRP output
Time a sample of actions rather than guessing
Use productive hours, not paid hours
Try the chart to test the effect of cleaning data

The model

Hours equal items times exception rate times actions times minutes, divided by 60, plus other hours. Load is that total divided by the team's productive hours. The point of the model is the lever it shows: cutting the exception rate through better parameters, lead times and fewer firm planned orders can free more capacity than hiring. A planner reviewing exception lists with no filter spends time on messages that need no action.

Mistakes and ERP notes

Do not use item count alone as a ratio. Do not treat all exceptions as equal: expedite messages cost far more time than a cancel on an obsolete part. Use your ERP's exception grouping to separate them, such as MD06 and MD07 lists in SAP, planning messages in Epicor, or exception messages in Oracle. Include time for data cleanup if the exception rate is high due to bad master data.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a normal items per planner ratio?

It varies widely with the item mix, from a few hundred for complex made-in-house items to several thousand for stable purchased items. Use your own exception data rather than a benchmark.

How do I get my exception rate?

Export a week of exception messages from your ERP, count distinct items with at least one message, and divide by active items. Repeat for several weeks and average.

Does the model include system run time?

No. It estimates people time. MRP processing time is a separate system performance measure.

Can this justify headcount?

It supports the conversation, but the inputs must come from real data. Present the assumptions beside the result so managers can challenge them.

Netray can help cut planner workload by triaging exception messages read-only, so planners see only the ones that need a decision.

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