Production Planning and Control

Introduction
Production Planning and Control (PPC) is the organisation and planning of the manufacturing process. It coordinates supply and movement of materials and labour, ensures economic and balanced utilisation of machines and equipment as well as other activities related with production to achieve the desired manufacturing results in terms of quantity, quality, time and place.

PPC
Coordinates supply and movement of materials and labour, Ensures economic and balanced utilisation of machines and equipment as well as other activities related with production

PPC aims
To achieve the desired manufacturing results in terms of
quantity, quality, time and place.

PPC
In other words, PPC aims to provide
The right quality In the right quantity At the right time At the right place.

Production Planning implies

Formulation, coordination and determination of activities in a manufacturing system necessary for the accomplishment of desired objectives.

Production Control is
The process of maintaining a balance between various activities evolved during production planning providing most effective and efficient utilisation of resources.

PPC: Objectives
Determining the nature and magnitude of various input factors to manufacture the desired output. To coordniate labour, machines and equipment in the most effective and economic manner. Establishing targets and checking these against performance. Ensuring smooth flow of material by eliminating bottlenecks, if any, in production. Utilisation of under employed resources. To manufacture the desired output of right quality and quantity at right time.

PPC
Factors determining the nature of PPC operations in a manufacturing system:
The interdependence of various activities/operations involved in the transformation process. The number of operations, parts and sub-assemblies required to get the final product. The nature and magnitude of variation in the capacity of different kinds of machines and equipment. The size of orders and the production run. The nature of the manufacturing system.

Importance of PPC
Reduces cost of production by minimising wastage of material and economic utilisation of resources. Leads to lower investment by means of efficient and balanced utilisation of resources. Promotes employee morale by avoiding all sorts of bottlenecks. Enhances customer satisfaction and confidence.

Scope of PPC
Liaison with purchase department for efficient and effective procurement of inputs. Liaison with marketing department to determine the nature and magnitude of the output. To plan the layout of the operations indicating in detail the places/points in the system where various production activities/operations are to be performed

Scope of PPC
Establishment of time schedules for various stages/levels of production by setting up necessary standards. Ensuring continuous inspection over the quality of goods manufactured. Instituting necessary controls to complete the work according to schedule.

Production Planning

Production Planning: Objectives

Systematic coordination and regulation of various activities, keeping in view the capacity of the resources and the objective of the organisation. To maintain proper balance of the activities for efficient production. Determination of raw material, machines, equipment, etc., and other input requirements for the desired output

Production Planning: Objectives

Anticipation of business changes and reacting to them in proper manner. To have optimum use of the resources with optimum cost and time by having most economical combination. To provide alternative production strategies in the case of emergencies.

Production Planning Components

Routing Scheduling Loading

Production Planning Components

Routing. Prescribes the sequence of operations required to transform inputs into desired ouptut. Scheduling. When and where each operation of the production process is to be performed. Loading. Studies relationship between load and capacity of work centres in the system.

Routing
Means determination of the path or route over which each piece is to travel in being transformed from raw material into finished product. Simple in continuous manufacturing systems; complex in intermittent systems.

Routing
Prescribes the amount of material, types of equipment and machines and the number of skilled and unskilled workers required to perform a particular job or operation. Routing is the basis of scheduling and loading.

Routing
Consists of the following decisions:
Whether to make or buy. The form and shape of the material. The division of work to be done into operations. The choice of mahcines/work centres on which each operation should be done. The sequence in which operations are to be performed. The division of operations into work elements. The choice of special tooling.

Routing: Advantages
Efficient use of available resources. Reduction in manufacturing costs. Improvement in quantity and quality of the output. Provides a basis for scheduling and loading.

Scheduling
The process of prescribing when each operation in a production process is to be executed. Involves designing the time table of manufacturing activities indicating the time required for the production of units at each stage.

Scheduling
Involves establishing the amount of work to be done and the time when each work element will start. The determination of time that is required to perform each operation and also the time required to perform the entire series as routed.

Scheduling
A description of when and where each operation in a production process is to be executed. Establishment of timetable at which to begin and/or complete each event or operation comprising any procedure. If routing deals with where, scheduling deals with when.

Scheduling: Objectives
To arrange the work of the production unit in such a way that:
1. The items are delivered on the due date and 2. The production cost is minimum.

Scheduling: Objectives
To plan the sequence of work such that the delivery date is met. To have minimum throughput time for having better utilisation of resources. To minimise idle time of machines, labour, etc. for having maximum utilisation of plant and reducing the cost of wages. To prevent unbalanced allocation of time among various departments and work centres.

Schedules: Classification
Operation Schedule. Master Schedule. Sequential Schedule.

Operation Schedule
Determines the total time required to do a piece of work with a given machine or process. Indicates the time required to perform as well as other details of type of materials, machines, labour, etc. required for each and every operation.

Master Schedule
A list showing how many of each item to make in each period of time in future. Dynamic in nature; usually changes in response to changes in conditions. First step towards planning for production. On the basis of sales forecast and levelling of production, the quantities to be produced are determined.

Master Schedule
A finalised master schedule can be used to estimate the projected delivery dates for customer orders. The nature of master schedule depends on whether the manufacture is to order or to stock.

Sequential Schedule
Defines a sequence for a multi-product plant where the products pass through a number of departments.

Scheduling Devices
Gantt Charts. CPM and PERT techniques. The Run out approach.

Gantt Charts
Portray planned production and actual performance over a period of time for any or all of the factors that require planning and control.

CPM and PERT

Powerful scheduling devices. The job broken into basic elements ana a network is constructed. The network analysed to prepare the schedule.

Run Out Approach

Applicable to production that is geared upto inventroy level. Demand oriented approach. Tries to minimise stock outs by assigning highest priority to items most in danger of running out. The run out time for each product is calculated and a monthly forecast for future monthly usage is developed. Easy, quick and inexpensive method. Minimises stockouts, helps improve consumer service.

Loading
Provides the information when a particular equipment/machine will be available for work on each item or order. Defined as the study of the relationship between load and capacity at the places where work is done. Loading and scheduling are designed to assist in the efficient and systematic planning of work.

Loading
Provides complete and correct information about the number of machines available and their operating characteristics such as speed, capacity, capability, etc. This information can be used to calculate the difference between work load and actual capacity and then to determine whether customer orders can be completed on due date or not. Also aims at equally distributing the load.

Loading: Objectives
To plan new work orders on the basis of spare capacity available. To balance the work load in a plant. To maintain the delivery promises. To check the feasibility of production programmes.

Production Control
One of the most important and fundamental functions of an enterprise. Ensures the desired output of specified quality at the prescribed time in the most economical way to meet the demand. Production planning provides guidelines; control directs and regulates all the activities of the production process.

Production Control
Verifies if the activities are going on as per the production plan or not. Ensurses that facilities and personnel are economically utilised. Controls the output so that it is in conformity with the target set by the marketing department.

Production Control: Objectives

Provision of raw materials, equipment, machines and labour. To organise production schedule in conformity with the demand forecasts. The resources are used in the best possible manner. Determination of economic production runs with a view to reduce setup costs

Production Control: Objectives

Proper coordination of the operations of various sections and departments responsible for production. To ensure regular and timely supply of raw material at the desired place and of prescribed quality and quantity to avoid delays in production

Production Control: Objectives

Perform inspection of semi-finished and finished goods and use quality control techniques to ascertain that the produced items are of required specifications. Also helps in product design and development.