Production planning

Stop planning production from memory.

Most emerging brands decide what to make the morning of, from a spreadsheet and a good guess. Lottly builds the plan from real orders and real stock — the make-list, the shortfall, the purchase orders and the labor — and every run leaves a record behind it.

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An order lands. The plan updates itself.

One chain, left to right, with no re-entry between any two links. Change a quantity at the front and everything downstream moves.

Demand
wholesale, online, POS, EDI
Forecast
what to make, and when
Make-list
by run, by day, by site
Shortfall
what you are missing
Purchase orders
drafted per supplier
Batch
logged, lot assigned
01
Demand you did not have to type
Wholesale orders you raise, online and counter sales from Shopify, Square, Toast, Clover, WooCommerce, Squarespace, BigCommerce, Wix and Faire, and distributor purchase orders arriving as EDI 850 files. Add a manual forecast for a market or an event and it sits alongside the rest.
02
A make-list, not a spreadsheet
How much of each product, on which day, at which site — derived from open orders, committed stock and the lead times you actually work to. A manager opens the morning already knowing the answer.
03
Sub-recipes planned in the right order
A brine, a base mix, a bulk seasoning: a recipe that is also an ingredient. Lottly schedules the sub-recipe run before the runs that consume it, so the list reads in the order the kitchen works.
04
The shortfall, and the orders to fix it
The plan explodes to ingredient level and subtracts what is on hand at each site. What is missing becomes drafted purchase orders — grouped by supplier, at their pack sizes and minimums, email written. You review and send.
05
Runs that log themselves into the record
Start a run and the lot number is issued, materials draw down at their own lots, and packaging deducts at pack rather than at logging — so a short box never blocks production. The batch record writes itself as you go.
06
Yield told honestly
Booked at 900, came off at 860. Lottly re-spreads the run cost across the units that exist, records the variance against baseline, and corrects stock. Cost per unit reflects what happened, not what was hoped.
07
Labor measured at the bench
A timer runs on the floor. Lottly fits setup time against per-unit time across real runs and tells you whether the rate came from this product or the floor at large — then folds those hours into the cost of what they produced.
08
Bundles and kits, exploded
A gift box is three components from three suppliers. On-hand derives from the scarcest one, so it cannot be oversold, and a thousand boxes ordered becomes a thousand of each on the buy list.
09
Across sites, and across co-packers
Every location holds its own stock. Transfers move product without breaking the lot trace, and co-packer mode receives finished goods with no raw-material draw — so in-house and outsourced products plan side by side.
The arithmetic nobody does by hand
Planning is easy until the second product shares an ingredient.

One product against one supplier is a spreadsheet. Twelve products, shared base mixes, three sites, different lead times, partial stock and minimum order quantities is not — and that is the point at which most brands hire someone rather than fix the system.

Shared ingredients
Demand for one flour rolls up across every product that uses it, including through sub-recipes.
Stock already committed
On hand is not the same as available. Units promised to open orders are not offered to the plan twice.
Pack sizes and minimums
You need 14 kg; they sell 25 kg sacks with a two-sack minimum. The order reflects what you can actually buy.
Shelf life and lead time
Oldest stock goes first, and an order placed today is planned against the day it will actually arrive.
Prep sheets, printed by 6am
Purchase orders drafted, not typed
A lot code on every run
Real labor in real batch cost
On the floor

The plan has to survive contact with a Tuesday.

A plan nobody can execute is a document. These are the parts that decide whether it actually runs.

A prep sheet, not a conversation
What to make today, in what quantity, in what order, at which site. Printed or on a screen. The shift starts with work instead of a decision.
Your crew needs no logins
Schedule the week, and the team clocks in with a tap. Break rules follow the state you operate in, and the pay period exports as one clean journal.
Changes do not orphan the plan
A cancelled order, a late delivery, a run that came up short. Re-plan and the make-list, the shortfall and the drafted orders all move together.
Every run is already the record
The batch you just made is also the traceability record, the cost basis, the label data and the evidence a certifier will ask for. Nothing is written twice.
See how traceability follows

Production planning questions.

What is food production planning software?

It turns demand into a plan: how much of each product to make, when to make it, what ingredients that requires, and what you are short. Good planning software derives all of that from real orders and real stock rather than asking someone to estimate it every week.

Where does the demand come from?

Wholesale sales orders you raise in Lottly, plus online and point-of-sale orders flowing in from Shopify, Square, Toast, Clover, WooCommerce, Squarespace, BigCommerce, Wix and Faire. Distributor purchase orders arrive as EDI 850 files. You can also add a manual forecast for a market or an event.

Does it tell me what to buy?

Yes. Lottly explodes the plan down to ingredient level, subtracts what is already on hand at each site, and drafts the purchase orders for the shortfall — grouped by supplier, at their pack sizes and minimum order quantities, with the email written.

How does it handle sub-recipes and bulk?

A base mix, a brine or a bulk seasoning is a recipe that is also an ingredient. Lottly plans the sub-recipe run before the runs that consume it, so a make-list reads in the order a kitchen actually works.

What happens when a run does not hit its target?

You log the real yield. Lottly re-spreads the run cost across the units that actually exist, records the variance against baseline, and updates stock to the true figure — so cost per unit reflects what happened, not what was planned.

Does labor get included?

Yes. Assign the shift to the run and the hours land in the cost of the units produced. Lottly fits setup time against per-unit time across real runs, so the rate is measured rather than estimated — which is what makes an equipment-versus-outsource decision arithmetic.

Can I plan across more than one site or a co-packer?

Yes. Every site holds its own stock, transfers move it without breaking the lot trace, and co-packer mode receives finished goods without drawing down raw materials. You can run in-house and co-packed products side by side.

Which plan includes production planning?

Growth, at $199 a month. Recipes, batch logging and lot assignment are in every plan from $149; Growth adds the forecast, the make-list, sales and purchase orders, and shift scheduling.

Plan one week from real orders.

Add a recipe, connect your store, and watch the next order turn into a make-list and a draft purchase order. Production planning is part of Growth at $199 a month.

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Every lot. Every ingredient. Every proof point.
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