Production Planning for a Dynamic World

February 5, 2025 • 5 minute read
Author: Phyllis Jackson, Senior Manager, US Marketing, UPS

Key Points

• Manufacturers are pivoting to shorter batch cycles, shifting trade lanes, and prioritizing visibility to stabilize output and smooth production flows.
• Batch optimization can help manufacturers reduce costs by up to 20%.¹
• Real-time shipping visibility and route optimization can streamline upstream and downstream logistics.

Consumer Demand Reshapes Production Planning

Manufacturing demands can shift by the day. Consumer trends, geopolitical activity, regulatory policies and supply chain slowdowns impact production cycles — and manufacturers must be flexible and agile to keep up. There’s also trade uncertainty, with 78% of manufacturers feeling concerned, while 68% worry about the impact of rising raw material costs.²

As manufacturers strive to adapt to this new reality, proactive production planning has emerged as an important strategy to meet customer demand. This approach can have big payoffs, resulting in lower costs, greater profitability, reduced downtime and stronger relationships with retailers and end customers.

Updating your production planning requires a multichannel approach that addresses myriad factors up and down the supply chain.

“Manufacturers can improve the chances of tomorrow’s success by making smart production decisions today,” says Lorie Schlatterer, Strategic Lead, UPS. “That’s why it’s so important for manufacturers to review their operations: analyze batching and consider inventory optimization, inbound logistics, and other key aspects of their supply chains.”

The Benefits of Batch Optimization

Batch optimization is a strategy that can help accommodate dynamic production flows. This approach optimizes production scheduling, processes, resources and workforce, quality control and waste production to identify areas for efficiency and improvement, all of which can lead to shorter batch cycles.

For example, a technique called single-minute exchange of dies (tools used to cut, form, or shape material) can help companies reduce batch times by transforming the production line into a lean system that can smoothly switch between production cycles. Quick changeovers from one batch to another — ideally in less than 10 minutes — mean manufacturers spend less downtime between batches and can more easily switch between product runs if demand requires it.³

Companies that implement batch optimization often see a wide variety of improvements, such as:

• Better use of resources
• More uptime
• Less waste
• Higher product quality

Research has found that batch optimization can help manufacturers save as much as 20% on production costs.¹

Shifting Trade Lanes

The share of CEOs who plan to move part of their operations to their home soil in the next three years has increased by 15% from 2024 to 2025.⁴ Additionally, 59% of manufacturing shops have either brought part of their operations back home or are actively getting quotes to do so in 2025.⁵

The benefits of this strategy can include:

• Reduced shipping costs.
• Improved lead time on production cycles.
• Greater control over the manufacturing process and facility management.
• Shortened gap between time zones, leading to more overlap with the home office’s business hours.

This shift is partly because of vulnerabilities — international relations, travel conditions and global health crises, for example — that can lengthen lead time, bring shipping to a standstill and put production floors at risk of downtime.

Other Ways To Improve Your Production Playbook

Manufacturers can find opportunities to improve their operations and impact their efficiency in areas beyond the production floor:

• Inventory optimization: An inventory analysis can help to determine demand patterns and reduce stockouts or overstocks during critical times like peak season. This level of analysis can help you find ways to reduce carrying costs.
• Supplier management and inbound logistics: Optimizing the flow of materials with a streamlined transportation management solution can help boost operational efficiency.
• Freight and transportation: Route optimization and multimodal options can help improve the transportation of raw materials and finished goods. A logistics partner like UPS can provide options for shipping by land, air and sea.
• Supply chain resilience: Building flexibility into your supply chain by diversifying suppliers and reducing operating costs can help your business better withstand disruptions and adapt to changing market conditions. With this approach, you can better mitigate risk and scale services based on market demand.
• Shipping visibility and analysis: Tracking systems provide real-time information on all of your supply chain movements, helping you monitor your supply chains, better anticipate demand and make informed decisions.

Production Planning with the Right Partner

UPS can help identify and execute production improvements through logistics solutions that support more dynamic production flows, including supplier management, agile transportation networks, inventory management and warehouse optimization can help improve quality control, reduce production times and save costs.

“Each business requires its own production playbook, and finding those logistics improvement opportunities is what the UPS team does best,” Schlatterer says. “We know your business, your challenges and your customers. And we find better and smarter ways to connect and collaborate with the tools and technology to meet your business goals.

¹ “Mastering Production Batch,” Number Analytics, June 13, 2025.
² “2025 Third Quarter Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey,” National Association of Manufacturers, accessed September 26, 2025.
³ “Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED),” Vorne, accessed September 26, 2025.
⁴ “The great reality check: 2025 Reshoring Index,” Kearney, accessed September 23, 2025.
⁵ “2025 Reshoring Survey: 59% of Shops Reshored or Are Quoting,” The Association for Manufacturing Technology, August 14, 2025.

Individual results and options will vary. UPS makes no promises of any specific outcome in this document but instead provides only example outcomes based on certain UPS customer experiences.