Two panels. Settings you set on the left, in the order you decide them. Rules the planner always applies on the right, read only. A setting sitting away from its default carries a dot. Change anything, then press Generate plan.

Your own notes — carried into the exported CSV

2 · Load the weekly master order export (ref: Master_Order_Export)

reads .xlsx / .xlsm / .csv in your browser · nothing is uploaded anywhere

Drop the master order file here, or click to choose

The file stays on your computer. All processing runs in this page.

ETD is fixed to vendor_pickup_date. The parser searches the sheet for that column by name, so it does not matter which position it sits in or how far down the header row moves. Ex-factory, the four-week horizon and every inspection window are derived from it. If the column is renamed or removed the file is rejected with a message rather than a wrong plan.

Settings store

hidden — every one of these is edited in the Planning rules box at the top

Ex-factory lead, days before ETD

Ex-factory = ETD minus this. Everything is planned backwards from ex-factory, not from ETD.

Plan week starts

The Saturday the visits are scheduled into. This is when people travel, not which orders are considered.

ETD range to plan for

Only orders whose vendor pickup date falls inside these two dates enter the plan. Defaults to 4 weeks from the plan week. Widen it to look further ahead, narrow it to work one week at a time.

Visit days and what each day is for

Click a day to switch it on or off. Default is Saturday to Wednesday on, Thursday off. Every working day takes any inspection: final, sewing inline or finishing inline. The production merchandiser does whichever check the goods are ready for when he arrives.

Order status to include

Only these statuses are planned. Everything else in the DD file is excluded: Delivered, In transport, In port, Planned to DC, Booked and Cancelled.

Orders to plan

Anything whose agent is not Dhaka Office counts as an agent supplier. Bangladesh origin only, in every case.

Factories to plan

Allocated means the factory appears in the loaded allocation file. Anything else is counted and listed on the “Factories with no PM” tab but kept out of the plan.

Priority rule

Weighted does not ignore a factory with one urgent PO and twelve behind it. Sequence is what the office does today.

Weight by quantity

Counting POs treats a 500 piece order like a 40,000 piece order.

Calendar: the working day runs

:00 to :00

Used only by Add to Office 365 calendar. One factory takes the whole day. Two factories split it evenly, so 9:00 to 13:00 and 13:00 to 17:00.

Rotate the factory visit day week to week

Reads the saved weeks. A factory seen on Saturday is offered Sunday next time, then Monday. A week without a visit does not advance the rotation. With nothing saved yet this has no effect.

Minimum styles running at a factory

Option 2 counts every style running at the factory anywhere in the ETD range. Option 1 counts only the styles whose ETD falls in the first week of the range, so a factory with one style shipping that week is dropped even if it is busy later. Option 1 is the stricter reading. Set the number to 1 to switch the rule off.

Chase overdue orders up to N days back

Zero is the working setting. Once ETD has passed the goods have left the factory, so there is nothing to inspect and the order is dropped. Raise this only if you want the planner to pull past-ETD orders back into the queue, up to this many days behind the plan week.

Two factories in one day

Work is spread one factory a day first. Only then, if a factory still has nobody, a PM is given a second factory on a day where both jobs are small. Same zone is preferred so he is not crossing the city twice.

Zone rule for a doubled day

Two factories in one day only works if they are close. Same zone is the default, so a doubled day is Gazipur and Gazipur, never Gazipur and Chattogram. A factory with no zone in the allocation file is treated as not matching.

Light means, and the weekly ceiling

A visit is light atPOs or fewer

The second box is the most factories one PM may visit in a week. Five days, so 6 or 7 means one or two doubled-up days. A PM still never visits the same factory twice in a day.

Same factory twice in a week

One visit per factory per week is still the rule. The planner only breaks it after every other option is exhausted and a day would still be blank: it then sends the PM back to a factory he has already visited, on different styles and POs, and never more than 2 days a week at one factory. The inspection type is not restricted. He does whichever check the goods are ready for on the day.

Days still spare after all rules

The last step. A PM with a free day is offered the biggest piece of work nobody has reached yet, including factories with no PM allocated. Team and zone are preferred, but a spare day is never wasted while work is going uninspected. All the factory rules still apply.

No blank day

Runs only after every other route has failed. Step 1 sends him to another of his own factories he has not seen this week. Step 2 sends him back to a factory he already saw this week, with the two-day cap lifted, still on fresh POs and styles. Step 3 sends him to another PM's factory that still has work. Step 4 repeats a check when nothing fresh is left anywhere. Every visit made this way is tagged in the plan and in the CSV.

Fill empty days

A factory with no orders inside the ETD range is never visited. An empty day is the signal that the allocation needs rebalancing, so filler visits are off by default.

Guidebook

Production Merchandiser (PM) Visit Planner

Demo version

Production Merchandiser (PM)
Visit Planner

Guidebook

Every step, every button, and every number on the board.
Ten steps from two Excel files to a finalised week.

Compiled and built by Md. Sohel Rana sohelprsnl.com

What you need before you start
The ten steps
1. Open the planner
2. Set the plan week and check the rules
3. Load the PM allocation
4. Load the master order export
5. Generate the plan
6. Read the board
7. Check the weekly plan
8. Adjust it by hand
9. Finalise and send it out
10. History, and editing a week you already saved
Every card on the board
The tabs under the board
Your two Excel files
If something goes wrong

Every picture in this book is the planner running on your real export, not a drawing.
Save as PDF opens the print dialog already set to A4 portrait. Choose Save as PDF as the destination, and under More settings untick Headers and footers so the file path does not print at the bottom.

What you need before you start

1 · The PM allocation file

One row per factory, saying who covers it. Columns: Team, Production Merchandiser (PM), Email, Supplier Name, Factory Name, Factory Zone. Zone holds the upazila, one word.

This is the source of truth for who visits what. A factory missing from it is counted but never planned.

2 · The master order export

The weekly DD export, DD_BD_by model. The planner reads 14 columns out of it and finds them by name, so the layout can move. ETD is always vendor_pickup_date.

Roughly 113,000 rows and 31 MB. It reads in about half a minute.

Nothing leaves your computer. Both files are read inside the browser. The page makes no network request of any kind, so it works with the internet disconnected.

The ten steps

Open the planner

Double-click the HTML file. Nothing to install. The top bar carries the four screens: Import files, Plan, History and this Guidebook. Plan stays locked until both files are in.

The planner as it opens, showing the top bar, the planning rules box and the two file loaders — The screen you land on.

Set the plan week and check the rules

Open Planning rules. The left panel holds the 23 settings you decide. The right panel holds the 11 rules the planner always applies, read only.

The only thing you normally change is A1, the plan week. Set it to the Saturday the visits start. Everything else follows: the ETD range opens seven days later and runs four weeks, because a factory ex-factories one week before ETD.

A setting sitting away from its default carries an amber dot, and the header counts them. Press Save these rules to lock them so nothing drifts between weeks.

Load the PM allocation

Press Load PM Allocation Excel File and choose your allocation workbook. The bar then reports what it read: factories, production merchandisers, teams and zones.

Review / edit allocation opens the full table. Fix a row, add a factory, remove one, or tick who is on leave which day. Download .xlsx saves the corrected sheet back over your file.

The allocation bar showing 64 factories, 6 production merchandisers, 3 teams and 16 zones — What the allocation file gave the planner.

Load the master order export

Drop the DD export on the box, or click to choose it. It is read in the background so the window stays alive, and it tells you where it is: unzipping the workbook, looking for the header row, then reading the order rows.

When it finishes it names the sheet and the row count, and the column map confirms every column it needed was found.

The drop box after loading, showing the file name and row count

The column map bar reporting 14 of 14 columns matched — Click it to see which column went to which field.

Check this line. If it says fewer than 14 of 14, open it and see what is missing. A renamed column in the export is the usual cause.

Generate the plan

Press Generate plan. The allocation check opens first. This is the last look before the week is built: who covers what, and who is away. Fix anything wrong here, then press Allocation is correct, generate the plan.

The allocation review popup listing factories, production merchandisers, teams, zones and leave — The allocation check. Editing here changes the plan straight away.

The plan itself builds in about a second.

Read the board

One sentence at the top tells you whether the week is workable. Then four bands: the verdict, the demand behind it, what needs a decision, and which fill rules were needed.

The plan board with the verdict sentence and the four bands of tiles — Every tile is explained in Every card on the board.

Tiles in Needs a decision are buttons. Click one and the tab holding those rows opens.

Check the weekly plan

One row per production merchandiser, one column per visit day. Every PM on the allocation keeps a row even when the week gave him nothing, so an empty row is a signal rather than a missing name.

Each card carries the factory, then Upazila: Department, then one line per ETD band, then the total and a few sample PO numbers. The card describes the whole factory over the ETD range, not only what is due on that one day.

The weekly plan grid with a row per production merchandiser and a column per day — Weekly plan (Auto). The planner's own answer, untouched.

Adjust it by hand

Open Weekly plan (Customized). This is a copy. The auto plan is never changed, so you can always compare.

Move a visit. Drag it, or click the card then click where it goes.
Remove one. The × on the card.
Add one. + Add visit on any day, then pick the factory.
Force a move the rules refuse. Hold Shift while you drop. It is marked as an override so everyone can see it was deliberate.
Undo steps back through the last forty changes.

The customized plan tab with its toolbar and editable cards — Every change is saved in this browser at once.

Add visit shows what is actually running at each factory, so you are not picking blind.

Finalise and send it out

The bar at the foot of the plan carries everything that leaves the planner. Choose the auto plan or the customized one first, then:

Preview what each PM receives shows the message before anyone gets it.
Save this week to history files it permanently as version 1.
Add to Office 365 calendar downloads one .ics holding every visit. Open it and Outlook creates the events. A visit books the working day; two factories on one day split it evenly.
Confirm and create the Outlook drafts writes one draft per PM into your Downloads folder. Open each and press Send.
Export plan CSV gives one row per order line at each factory visited.

The confirm bar with preview, save to history, calendar and Outlook draft buttons

History, and editing a week you already saved

The History screen keeps every finalised week for good, and the planner reads it to rotate factory visit days. Choose Saved weeks to see the table.

Each week carries its versions as chips. The newest is outlined green and is the one the plan and the rotation use. Each chip has its own ×, so you can delete one version without touching the others. Deleting the last version removes the week.

Clicking a version loads it into the customized grid. Add, remove and move as usual. Saving writes a new version and leaves the one you opened exactly as it was.

A version only opens when the plan on screen is that same week. The editor needs live order numbers for the picker and the rule checks. Set the plan week to that date, generate, then open the version.

Every card on the board

Verdict · the three that decide the week

Coverage, first ETD week: Of the work that is genuinely yours this week, how much a PM will actually see. Counted as order lines whose ETD falls in the first week of the range, and only at factories that have a PM on the allocation. Week one because the factory ex-factories seven days before ETD, so those goods are finishing now. The movement reads 4 pts (+) against the last saved week, or 4 pts (−) in red. Green from 70%, amber 40 to 69, red below 40.
PM-days booked: How much of the team's week is used. Six PMs times five visit days is 30 days available. The sub-line gives the visit count, so more visits than days means some day carries two factories. A number below capacity means a PM has an empty day, which is a sign his allocation had nothing due.
Demand with no PM: The share of all pieces in the ETD range sitting at factories nobody on the allocation covers. Read it as an allocation question, not a performance one. Either the export reaches beyond Dhaka office scope and needs a filter, or the factory names are not matching the allocation sheet.

Demand in scope · where the numbers came from

Every count here is order lines, one row of the export. A PO split across three models counts three times, because that is how the work arrives at the factory.

Order lines in range: Every live order line with an ETD anywhere in the range, at every factory, allocated or not. The whole pool the planner looked at.
Due first ETD week: The slice with an ETD in the first seven days of the range. This is the work this visit week exists for. The other three weeks only decide which factory is more urgent.
At an allocated factory: Of those, the ones at a factory that has a PM. Labelled the coverage base because it is the denominator of the coverage tile. The gap between this and the line above is work nobody was assigned.
Past ETD, dropped: Order lines whose ETD fell in the seven days before the plan week started, and the tile prints those dates. Those goods have left the factory, so there is nothing to inspect. Anything older is not counted at all: the export carries a tail going back years that says nothing about this week. The window follows the plan week on its own and never needs setting.
Excluded by status: Rows whose status sits outside your filter of New and Ordered. Delivered, In transport, In port, Planned to DC, Booked and Cancelled all land here. Counted across the whole file, not just the range, which is why it is large.
Factories skipped: Factories on the allocation with no orders at all inside the range, so nobody is sent. The same names appearing week after week means that allocation needs rebalancing.

Needs a decision · click a tile to open its tab

This band only appears when something in it is not zero. On a clean week it disappears.

Factories with orders, no PM: Factories with work in this range and no line on the allocation sheet. Opens the Factories with no PM tab, biggest first. The same fact as the Demand with no PM tile, as a count instead of a share.
Demands that would not fit: Visits that passed every rule but had no free PM-day left to sit on. Opens Could not be scheduled, which names each one and the reason. A high number with every day booked means the week is simply full.
PMs with no visit: Production merchandisers the week gave nothing. Opens the load tab. Appears only when it happens.
Lines in range, factory not on the allocation: Order lines, not factories, counted inside the ETD range so it lines up with the rest of the board. The figure under it counts the same thing across every ETD, past and future, so use the first number when you compare and the second only to see the full backlog.

How the days were filled

Work is placed one factory a day under the strict rules first. Only when a day would otherwise stay empty does the planner reach for these, in order. A green chip means the rule was needed. Show detail opens the counts. Many zeros is a good sign.

Spare days put to work: A PM had no priority factory left, so he was given the biggest job nobody had reached. His own team and a zone he is already working are preferred.
Overflow visits used: A PM took work from another team because his own factories had nothing due. Controlled by the overflow rule and its tick box.
Visits covering leave: Somebody was away and another PM picked up his factory, his own team offered first.
Return visits, last resort: Back to a factory already seen this week, on different styles and POs, never on days that touch, and only where the supplier still had a day left.
Second factory, light day: Two small factories on one day. The same zone is preferred so nobody crosses the city twice.
No blank day, rules relaxed: The last rung. It runs only when every other route failed and a day would still be blank.

The tabs under the board

Weekly plan (Auto): The planner's own answer. Never changed by hand, so it is always there to compare against.
Weekly plan (Customized): Your working copy. Add, remove, move, override, undo. The count on the tab is how many changes you have made.
Production Merchandiser load: How the week landed on each person: visits, pieces, days used, days empty.
Factories with no PM: Factories with orders in the range and nobody assigned, biggest first. This is the list to work through with the allocation sheet.
Could not be scheduled: Visits that qualified but had no day left, with the reason on each.
Allocation: The allocation as the planner read it, so you can check a factory without opening Excel.
History & performance: Saved weeks, versions, and the done and missed record per PM and per factory.

Your two Excel files

PM allocation

Column	Holds	Matters because
Team	Denim, Shirt/Light Woven, Sweater, Knit	The team belongs to the PM, not the factory. Anything else, blank included, becomes Knit.
Production Merchandiser (PM)	The person's name	One row per factory he covers.
Email	Office email	Used on the Outlook drafts and the calendar invitations.
Supplier Name	The supplier the factory belongs to	Drives the cap of two visit days a week per supplier across all its factories.
Factory Name	As it appears in the export	This is what the order rows are matched on. A mismatch here is why a factory ends up with no PM.
Factory Zone	The upazila, one word	Keeps a doubled day inside one area.

Master order export

Found by name anywhere in the sheet, so a reordered export still works. Two are required, the rest sharpen the plan.

Field	Looked for as
ETD	vendor_pickup_date	required
PO number	order_id	required
Factory	factory	required
Supplier	supplier
Agent / office	agent_id	decides Dhaka office against agent
Quantity	exact_qty	not total_of_elements
Status	status	and order_status
Model / style	style_id	drives the minimum styles rule
Brand, department, class, subclass, origin	brand, dept, class, subclass, origin	Bangladesh origin only

If something goes wrong

No vendor pickup date column found: The planner searched every sheet and the first 30 rows and could not find it. Check the export still carries that column. Without ETD nothing can be calculated.
Columns missing from the export: The header row was found but a required column is not there. The message names it. Usually a renamed column.
Fewer than 14 of 14 columns matched: The plan still builds, but a missing column weakens it. Open the column map and see which one.
The plan is not ready yet: One of the two files is not loaded. The message says which.
A factory you expected is on Factories with no PM: Its name in the export does not match the allocation sheet. Copy the name from the export into the allocation and reload.
A version will not open for editing: The plan on screen is a different week. Set the plan week to that date, generate, then open the version.
The rules are locked: They were saved on purpose so they cannot drift. Press Edit the rules to unlock them.

Everything runs on this computer. Nothing is uploaded.

1 · Allocation file PM Allocation 2025.xlsx

One row per factory. Six columns, exactly these headings.

Team	Production Merchandiser (PM)	Email	Supplier Name	Factory Name	Factory Zone
Denim	PM Denim One	pm.denim1@example.com	Alpha Denim Ltd (Demo)	Alpha Denim Unit 1 (Demo)	Ashulia
Denim	PM Denim One	pm.denim1@example.com	Alpha Denim Ltd (Demo)	Alpha Denim Unit 2 (Demo)	Savar
Denim	PM Denim One	pm.denim1@example.com	Bluewave Jeans Ltd (Demo)	Bluewave Jeans Ltd (Demo)	Gazipur Sadar
Denim	PM Denim One	pm.denim1@example.com	Riverside Denim Mills (Demo)	Riverside Denim Mills (Demo)	Gazipur Sadar

Column	Required	What it must contain
Team	optional	Denim, Shirt/Light Woven, Sweater or Knit. Anything else, blank included, is read as Knit.
Production Merchandiser (PM)	required	The person's name. Repeat it on every one of his rows. This is the key that groups the factories.
Email	optional	Office email. Shown on the roster and saved back unchanged.
Supplier Name	optional	The supplier or buying house the factory ships under. Read from the file and written back, but never used to match orders. Matching is on Factory Name only.
Factory Name	required	Must match the factory in the order export. Case, punctuation, Ltd/Limited, (Pvt) and the [BD] suffix are all ignored when matching.
Factory Zone	optional	Ashulia, Tongi, Konabari, Savar or any zone you use. Without it a factory can never be paired into a two-factory day.

Several sheets are fine. The planner lists every sheet it can read and lets you pick. Save as… writes the file back in exactly this shape.

2 · Master order export Master_Order_Export.xlsx

Straight from head office, unedited. The planner finds each column by name, wherever it sits, and the header row can be anywhere in the first 30 rows of any sheet.

Column	Required	Used for
vendor_pickup_date	required	ETD. Everything is planned backwards from it.
order_id	required	The PO number.
factory	required	Matched against Factory Name in the allocation.
supplier	optional	Fallback when the factory name does not match.
agent_id	optional	Dhaka Office or an agent. Drives the scope setting.
exact_qty	optional	Pieces, for the quantity weighting.
status	optional	Live orders only. Delivered, cancelled and in-transport drop out.
style_id	optional	Style, so the same style is not inspected twice in a week.
class, subclass, dept	optional	Used to guess a factory's team on the Factories with no PM tab.
origin_country	optional	Bangladesh rows only.

If a required column is missing the file is rejected with a message naming it, rather than a plan built on the wrong dates.

Compiled and built byMd. Sohel Ranasohelprsnl.com

Production Merchandiser (PM) Visit Planner

2 · Load the weekly master order export (ref: Master_Order_Export)

Settings store

3 · The plan

Final confirmation

History & performance

Guidebook

Production Merchandiser (PM)
Visit Planner