How LP-Based Production Planning Transforms Meat Processing
The daily decision
Every morning, a beef fabrication plant faces the same question: given what's hanging in the cooler, what orders are due, and what today's market prices look like — what should we cut? What should we freeze? What should we downgrade to grind?
Most plants answer this with experience and gut feel. A floor supervisor who's been doing it for 20 years can get close. But "close" leaves margin on the table every single shift.
What linear programming does
Linear programming (LP) is a mathematical optimization technique that finds the best outcome given a set of constraints. For a beef plant, the LP takes your yield matrices, open orders, market prices, capacity limits, and freshness windows — and finds the production mix that maximizes contribution margin.
A typical LP for a single-facility operation has 6,000+ decision variables and 500+ constraints. HiGHS solves it in under 100 milliseconds.
Real-time ATP
The same LP engine powers Available-to-Promise checks. When a sales rep enters a new line item, MakeSheet fires a query into the solver: "Can we promise 2,400 lb of 112A Ribeye by Thursday?" The answer comes back in under 200ms — feasible, partial, or infeasible — with the marginal cost.
No more overcommitting. No more calling the floor to ask if something's possible. The math answers before the quote goes out.
The integration with accounting
Every sales order confirmed through MakeSheet posts a proper journal entry in CashSheet. Revenue recognition, COGS, inventory movements — all balanced, all automatic. Production and accounting share one database, one source of truth.
