Production schedule adherence is a measure of how closely actual production follows the planned production schedule. It compares what was scheduled to be produced, in a defined time period and sequence, with what was actually completed or released.
In manufacturing operations, production schedule adherence is commonly used by planning, operations, and supply chain teams to assess execution reliability. It may be tracked at the line, work center, cell, order, or site level. The schedule may come from an ERP, APS, MES, or master production scheduling process, while actual performance is often captured through production reporting, MES transactions, or shop floor data collection.
The metric can be expressed in different ways, such as the percentage of planned orders completed on the planned date, the percentage of planned quantity completed within the scheduled window, or the degree to which the planned production sequence was followed. The exact calculation should be defined consistently because different plants may include or exclude partial completions, early completions, rework, schedule changes, or released-but-not-started orders.
Production schedule adherence should not be confused with on-time delivery. Schedule adherence focuses on whether internal production followed the plan. On-time delivery focuses on whether customer or downstream delivery commitments were met. A plant can meet customer deliveries while disrupting the production schedule, or follow the schedule while still missing delivery dates if the plan itself was not aligned with demand or material availability.