How much should you produce each month?
Every small manufacturer hits the same wall in Q4: December wants 1,500 units and the line can only make 1,000. This template plans five months of production and inventory in one shot, and prices a second decision most operators eyeball: should you spend money to stimulate extra demand, and in which months?
Operations Advanced Optimization free
After you install, this is the model to open.
Production & Demand Planner
- In your spreadsheet, click the Sortia icon in the strip of icons down the right-hand edge. No strip? Click the arrow at the bottom-right to open it. You can also use Extensions, then Sortia, then Open Sortia.
- Click Start from a template and put that name in the search box.
- Pick the card with that name and click Load this template. It arrives on a new tab with real numbers already in it.
The answer
One click on Run returns the whole plan: what to make each month, what to carry, and where promo dollars earn their keep.
- Optimal 5-month profit
- $86,750 vs $60,700 for a flat no-promo plan
- Extra demand worth buying
- 550 units August through October only; none during the peak
- Peak build-ahead inventory
- 600 units end of October, feeding the December rush
- Return on promo spend
- +$4,600 profit added on $3,850 of demand-generation spend
The optimizer runs the line flat out at 1,000 units every month starting in August, stockpiling 600 units by the end of October to cover a 1,500-unit December. It also buys 550 units of extra demand, but only in August through October; a promoted unit sold in December would have to be built four months early, and the $4 monthly holding cost erases its margin. The optimized plan earns $86,750, beating the flat no-promo starting plan by $26,050.
The model
A small workshop sells a $38 product that costs $19 to make, on a 1,000-unit monthly line, with demand climbing from 500 units in August to 1,500 in December. Promotions can generate up to 200 extra units of demand per month at $7 per unit.
| Selling price | $38 per unit |
| Unit production cost | $19 per unit |
| Monthly line capacity | 1,000 units |
| Beginning inventory | 100 units |
| Holding cost | $4 per unit per month |
| Paid demand generation | $7 per extra unit, up to 200 per month |
| Base demand, Aug to Dec | 500 / 650 / 800 / 1,100 / 1,500 units |
Once it is in your sheet
- The model arrives with real numbers in it and runs as it stands, so you can press the button first and understand it second.
- Change the numbers to yours. The sheet marks which cells are inputs and which hold formulas, and most labels carry a note explaining the row.
- Press the run button at the bottom of the panel. It is labeled for the tool you are in, and the result lands on its own tab, with a written reading of it beside the figures.
Never used Google Sheets? Start here goes the whole way, in seven steps, and assumes nothing.
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Every model like this one, and the method behind them: Optimization in Google Sheets.