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Production planning and control

1. Meaning

According to Ray Wild,

“Production planning is concerned with the determination, acquisition and

arrangement of all facilities necessary for future operations.”

Fixing goals of production and estimating resources required to achieve this

goal is called production planning. It forecasts individual step in the production
process. It helps to achieve production goals effectively, promptly and
economically.

According to James Lundy,

“The production control function involves the co-ordination and integration of

the factors of production for optimum efficiency.”

Production control is done after production planning. It implements the

production plan. It directs, co-ordinates and controls the production. It helps
to achieve the production goals. It helps to have maximum production at
minimum cost. It also helps to have timely delivery of goods.

2. Goals

1. Production planning fixes the goals for production.

2. Production control achieves these goals.

3. Course of action

1. Production-planning fixes the plans, strategies, etc.

2. Production control puts these plans, strategies, so on; into action, i.e. it
implements the plans, strategies, etc.

4. Work performed

1. Production planning decides who should do the work and when.

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2. Production control ensures that each department complete its work on

schedule.

3. 5. Operations

1. Production planning decides the operations which are required for

production.

2. Production control regulates and supervises the operations required for

production.

6. Resources

1. Production planning estimates the resources that are required for

production.

2. Production control makes available resources that are required for

production.

7. Directions

1. Production planning shows the directions.

2. Production control follows these directions

3. 8. Weaknesses

1. Production-planning makes modifications (changes) in the production

plans to remove the weakness in the production process.

2. Production control collects information about the production process. It

finds out the weaknesses in the production process and informs the
production planners about it.

Conclusion-The process of production planning and control is a continuous

one. Since, control starts where planning ends and planning starts where
control ends.
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Process planning---
Planning processes can lead to higher productivity, higher accuracy, and
faster turnaround for essential business tasks. This lesson will dig into
process planning: what it is, why we should do it, and the steps to follow
to plan or improve a process.

What Is a Process?

The development of goals, strategies, task lists and schedules required

to achieve the objectives of a business. The planning process is a
fundamental function of management and should result in the best
possible degree of need satisfaction given the resources available.

planning

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/planning-process.html

A process is a set of steps that result in a specific outcome. For

example, a customer service request might have the following steps:

1. Customer requests service

2. Service department enters request into a tracking system
3. The request is routed to the repair department
4. A repair technician is assigned to evaluate the request and to
respond to the customer
5. A technician is dispatched, if appropriate
6. Once the response is made, a survey is sent to the customer to
confirm their issue was resolved

In this case, the process is response to customer service request, and

the outcome is resolution of the customer's problem.

Goal of Process Planning

The goal of process planning is to improve and streamline the
business methods of a company. This would have results like:

 Lower costs, due to fewer staff needed to complete the same

process
 Higher efficiency, by eliminating problematic process steps like
loops and bottlenecks
 Higher accuracy, by including checkpoints and success measures
to make sure process steps are completed accurately
 Greater understanding by all staff of what they need to do to meet
their department objectives
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Principles of Process Planning

Here are some general principles to keep in mind when evaluating or
improving processes:

 First, define the outputs, and then look toward the inputs needed to
achieve those outputs.
 Define the goals of the process and evaluate them regularly to
make sure they are still appropriate. This would include specific
measures like quality scores and turnaround times.
 When mapped, the process should appear as a logical flow,
without loops back to earlier steps or departments.
 Any step performed needs to be included in the documentation. If
not, it should be eliminated or documented, depending on whether
or not it's necessary to the process.
 People involved in the process should be consulted, because they
often have the most current information on what works and what
does not.

Steps to Plan a Process

Process planning involves the definition, documentation, review and
improvement of steps in business processes used at a company. Each
of these steps will be described below.
The first step is to define what the process should accomplish. Make
sure you can answer the following questions about the process:

 What is the output of this process?

 Who receives the output, and how do they define success?
 What are the inputs for the process?
 Are there defined success measures in place - such as a
turnaround time or quality scores?
 Are there specific checkpoints in the process that need to be
addressed?

For example, let's look at an order fulfillment process:

 The output of the process is a complete and accurate order

shipped to the buyer
 The recipient of the order is the buyer, and they define success as
receipt of their purchase within a reasonable timeframe (generally
as specified at the point of purchase)
 The inputs are order information from the sales department
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 Defined success measures would be specific to the company;

examples might be a 2-day turnaround time from payment receipt
to shipping, a 99% accuracy rate in terms of items shipped, and a
backorder rate of less than 5%
 One example of specific checkpoints might be ensuring payment
has been received prior to fulfilling the order or alternatively that
the customer has a credit account with the company with sufficient
credit available to cover the purchase

Process planing
In companies, planning processes can result in increased output, higher precision, and faster
turnaround for vital business tasks. A process is described as a set of steps that result in a
specific outcome. It converts input into output. Process planning is also called manufacturing
planning, material processing, process engineering, and machine routing. It is the act of
preparing detailed work instructions to produce a part. It is a complete description of specific
stages in the production process. Process planning determines how the product will be
produced or service will be provided. Process planning converts design information into the
process steps and instructions to powerfully and effectively manufacture products. As the
design process is supported by many computer-aided tools, computer-aided process planning
(CAPP) has evolved to make simpler and improve process planning and realize more
effectual use of manufacturing resources.

Buy These Notes in PDF Format

Process Planning
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It has been documented that process planning is required for new product and services. It is
the base for designing factory buildings, facility layout and selecting production equipment. It
also affects the job design and quality control.
Objective of Process Planning: The chief of process planning is to augment and modernize
the business methods of a company. Process planning is planned to renovate design
specification into manufacturing instructions and to make products within the function and
quality specification at the least possible costs. This will result in reduced costs, due to fewer
staff required to complete the same process, higher competence, by eradicating process steps
such as loops and bottlenecks, greater precision, by including checkpoints and success
measures to make sure process steps are completed precisely, better understanding by all
employees to fulfil their department objectives. Process planning deals with the selection of
the processes and the determination of conditions of the processes. The particular operations
and conditions have to be realised in order to change raw material into a specified shape. All
the specifications and conditions of operations are included in the process plan. The process
plan is a certificate such as engineering drawing. Both the engineering drawing and the
process plan present the fundamental document for the manufacturing of products. Process
planning influences time to market and productions cost. Consequently the planning activities
have immense importance for competitive advantage.
Effect of process planning on competitive advantage:

Principles of Process Planning

General principles for evaluating or enhancing processes are as follows:

1. First define the outputs, and then look toward the inputs needed to achieve those
outputs.
2. Describe the goals of the process, and assess them frequently to make sure they are still
appropriate. This would include specific measures like quality scores and turnaround
times.
3. When mapped, the process should appear as a logical flow, without loops back to earlier
steps or departments.
4. Any step executed needs to be included in the documentation. If not, it should be
eliminated or documented, depending on whether or not it's necessary to the process.
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5. People involved in the process should be consulted, as they often have the most current
information.

Process planning includes the activities and functions to develop a comprehensive plans and
instructions to produce a part. The planning starts with engineering drawings, specifications,
parts or material lists and a forecast of demand. The results of the planning are routings
which specify operations, operation sequences, work centres, standards, tooling and fixtures.
This routing becomes a major input to the manufacturing resource planning system to define
operations for production activity control purposes and define required resources for capacity
requirements planning purposes.
Process plans which characteristically offer more detailed, step-by-step work instructions
including dimensions linked to individual operations, machining parameters, set-up
instructions, and quality assurance checkpoints. Process plans results in fabrication and
assembly drawings to support manufacture and annual process planning is based on a
manufacturing engineer's experience and knowledge of production facilities, equipment, their
capabilities, processes, and tooling. But process planning is very lengthy and the results differ
based on the person doing the planning.
Major steps in process planning: Process planning has numerous steps to complete the
project that include the definition, documentation, review and improvement of steps in
business processes used in a company.
Definition: The first step is to describe what the process should accomplish. It includes
queries like, what is the output of this process? Who receives the output, and how do they
define success?, What are the inputs for the process?, Are there defined success measures in
place - such as turnaround time or quality scores? And Are there specific checkpoints in the
process that need to be addressed?
Documentation: During the documentation stage, interviews are conducted with company
personnel to determine the steps and actions they take as part of a specific business process.
The results of these interviews is written down, generally in the form of a flow chart, with
copies of any forms used or attached. These flow charts are given to the involved departments
to review, to make sure information has been correctly captured in the chart.
Review: Next, the flow charts are reviewed for potential problem areas.
Process planning in manufacturing may include the following activities:

1. Selection of raw-stock,
2. Determination of machining methods,
3. Selection of machine tools,
4. Selection of cutting tools,
5. Selection or design of fixtures and jigs,
6. Determination of set-up,
7. Determination of machining sequences,
8. Calculations or determination of cutting conditions,
9. Calculation and planning of tool paths,
10. Processing the process plan

Computer Aided Process Planning

Manufacturers have been following an evolutionary step to improve and computerize process
planning in the following five stages:
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Stage I - Manual classification; standardized process plans

Stage II - Computer maintained process plans
Stage III - Variant CAPP
Stage IV - Generative CAPP
Stage V - Dynamic, generative CAPP
Earlier to CAPP, producers attempted to triumph over the issues of manual process planning
by basic categorization of parts into families and developing standardized process plans for
parts families that is called
Stage I. When a new part is initiated, the process plan for that family would be manually
recovered, marked-up and retyped. While this improved output but it did not enhance the
quality of the planning of processes.
Computer-aided process planning originally developed as a device to electronically store a
process plan once it was shaped, recover it, amend it for a new part and print the plan. It is
called
Stage II. Other ability of this stage is table-driven cost and standard estimating systems.
Stage III: Computer-aided approach of variant CAPP is based on a Group Technology
coding and classification approach to recognize huge number of part attributes or parameters.
These attributes permit the system to choose a baseline process plan for the part family and
achieve about ninety percent of the planning work. The schemer will add the remaining ten
percent of the effort modifying or fine-tuning the process plan. The baseline process plans
stored in the computer are manually entered using a super planner concept that is, developing
standardized plans based on the accumulated experience and knowledge of multiple planners
and manufacturing engineers.
Stage IV: It is generative CAPP. In this stage, process planning decision rules are developed
into the system. These decision rules will work based on a part's group technology or features
technology coding to produce a process plan that will require minimal manual interaction and
modification.
While CAPP systems move towards being generative, a pure generative system that can
create a complete process plan from part classification and other design data is a goal of the
future. These types of generative system will utilize artificial intelligence type capabilities to
produce process plans as well as be fully integrated in a CIM environment. An additional step
in this stage is dynamic, generative CAPP which would consider plant and machine
capacities, tooling availability, work center and equipment loads, and equipment status in
developing process plans.
The process plan developed with a CAPP system at Stage V would differ in due course
depending on the resources and workload in the factory. Dynamic, generative CAPP also
entails the need for online display of the process plan on a work order oriented basis to cover
that the appropriate process plan was provided to the floor.
There are numerous advantages of this type of process planning. It can decrease the skill
required of a planner. It can reduce the process planning time. It can reduce both process
planning and manufacturing cost. It can create more consistent plans. It can produce more
accurate plans. It can increase productivity. Automated process planning is done for
shortening the lead-time, manufacturability feedback, lowering the production cost and
consistent process plans. Advantages of Computer-aided Process Planning include reduced
demand on the skilled planner, reduced process planning time, reduced process planning and
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manufacturing cost, created more consistent plans, produced accurate plans, increased
productivity, increased high flexibility, attained high efficiency, attained adequate high
product quality and possibility of integration with the other automated functions and systems.
Manufacturing Process Planning delivers essential process planning potential for all
manufacturing industries. Using Manufacturing Process Planning, process planners can
powerfully create and authenticate the original process plan using the product structure from
product engineering, modify the plan to specific requirements, and link products and
resources to the steps of the plan.
To summarize, Process Planning is important action in a production enterprise that verifies
which processes, materials, and instructions will be used to produce a product. Process
planning describes a manufacturing facility, processes and parameters which are to be used to
change materials from a primary form to a predetermined final stage

ISSUE OF PROCESS PLANNIMG

A company operates through the use of business plans. When you develop
bad habits in the process of business planning, you will experience a drop in
productivity and a loss of profitability. To engage in efficient planning, you
need to know the largest problems that you can encounter in the planning
process and how to eliminate those issues.

2.Lack of Focus

A business plan should focus on one goal to be effective. The process of

achieving that goal is made up of reaching a series of milestones. However,
the resources and processes put into a business plan should be focused on
achieving only one goal at a time. If you have several objectives you would
like to tackle simultaneously, then you need to create a plan for each
business goal.

3.Unrealistic Expectations

When you create business plans, you use historical data and current trends
to arrive at projections. One of the biggest problems in planning is using
unrealistic expectations as the basis for your business program. For example,
if your company has had a history of 12 percent growth per year for the past
several years, and economic factors do not indicate any kind of boost to that
rate, then trying to reach 20 percent growth is unrealistic.

4.Inadequate Input
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A business plan is best created by a committee of people that is made up of a

representative from each group that will be affected by the plan. For
example, if you are trying to develop a plan that will lower shipping costs by
five percent, you will need someone from the shipping, accounting and
marketing departments involved. The accounting people can let the shipping
department know the actual amount that shipping would have to drop to
reach that number, and develop ways to track the savings. The marketing
group is the one that develops shipping projections for marketing plans and
can work with shipping to find cost-effective shipping solutions.

5.No Buffers

A business plan of any kind should always have buffers to allow room for
accidents and procedural mistakes. For example, if an advertising budget is
$100,000, you should include a buffer of 10 percent in case advertising costs
go up when you put the plan into place. This applies to scheduling as well as
finances. If you determine that a project should take 10 days to complete,
you should give it 14 days in case there are any time-lost accidents or a
supplier takes an extra day to deliver materials needed for completion of the
project.

Lack of Systems

Having the right systems in place to support a new strategy is important for success. Systems
could include hardware or software systems or could be something as simple as the fulfillment
process chain of events. Leaders need to look at the resources in place before implementing a
new strategy. For example, a new customer-retention management program might help the team
become more efficient from the sale through the delivery of goods. However, if the computer
systems haven't been upgraded, the new program could overload the computers and cause
crashes and freezes. Team members can't be productive while using a system that isn't working
correctly.

Limited Manpower

Some strategies require a bigger labor force. Without it, seeing a new strategy implemented
effectively has potential problems. For example, a new lead-generation plan could do a great job
of flooding your sales team with leads. However, if the sales team doesn't have the capacity to
follow up with all the leads, the strategy wastes money and burns prospects. Additionally, the
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new influx of orders needs a fulfillment team capable of handling the new orders. Make sure you
have the right people in place to execute new strategies effectively.

Inadequate Funding

You may have a great plan but don't have the resources to execute it properly. A lack of
resources can impact marketing, talent acquisition and new distribution programs. Bootstrapping
new changes can strain the team as it implements something that isn't ready to go. When you
don't have the funding, segment the strategy and roll it out in phases that meet budget
limitations.

Impractical Planning

Some ideas are just not practical. Don't be stubborn about the execution of a new strategy. A
strategy is a concept that is fleshed out during implementation. Business leaders must be flexible
to see what is working and what isn't working in the strategy and make adjustments accordingly.
Just because something seems like a good idea on paper doesn't mean it will translate into
practice without any glitches.

SHOP FLOOR OPERATION

There are millions of manufacturing and processing businesses around
the world. The shop floor is an integral part of those businesses where
the real action takes place. A shop floor is responsible to bring out
the tangible, usable and superior quality products as per the
specifications.

What is a Shop Floor?

The Business dictionary defines shop floor as – “The area in a
manufacturing facility where assembly or production is carried out, either
by an automated system or by workers or a combination of both. The
shop floor may include equipment, inventory and storage areas.”

Shop floor is the place where design specifications are referred,

machinery and manufacturing equipment are employed for production,
parts are assembled or some raw material is processed. The shop floor is
responsible to produce an intermediate or a final product.

Components of a Shop Floor

Here are some important components of a shop floor −
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 Material − This is either a man-made material or a natural

resource. Material is a vital part which is used to make or develop
some product.

 Machinery, Equipment and Tools − Depending on the sector of

production, there are various mechanical, electrical, electronic and
thermal equipment along with various tools used on the shop floor.
This factor speeds up the production and improves productivity of
the business.

 Information Technology − Today’s shop floors are equipped with

Shop Floor Control Systems (SFC), Manufacturing Execution
Systems (MES), Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM)
Software, Quality Management Software (QMS), Real Time Data
Retrieval from shop floor operations, and other such simulators.

 Quality Control − When the product is ready, it is required to

undergo certain quality tests and criteria to meet customer
satisfaction. The Quality Control Section of a shop floor ensures
that the product is flawless and up to the customer’s satisfaction.

 Store Room − It stores spare parts and other such inventories. If

there is an appropriate store room layout, its management is
shrewd and there are proper SOPs in place, it will certainly reduce
operational costs to quite an extent. An up-to-date store helps to
predict the budget accurately.
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 Staff − Skilled and experienced staff is a great contributor to

successful production on the shop floor. Such staff can work with
minimal errors and maximum perfection.

What is Shop Floor Management?

Shop floor management is developing and managing the shop floor
operations, inventory, equipment and workers. The following diagram
displays the general phases of a manufacturing/processing/assembly
business.

A shop floor being the participant of a production phase, its management

requires dealing and handling all those factors which are directly involved
in production.

As per Mr. Kiyoshi Suzaki (author of The New Shop Floor Management),
shop floor management is practicing the three reals −

 Genba (Real Place) − It refers to the location where the value is

created. It can be either the factory floor or a business process.

 Genbutsu (Real Thing) − The realistic information of all the

problems rather than the documented information.

 Genjitsu (Fact) − Mapping of current problems and their root

causes with the help of valid and consistent data.

Thus, Suzaki claims that shop floor management is a closed loop process
to monitor the problems onsite as well as to find out and remove their
underlying root causes.
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Objectives of Shop Floor Management

Here are some important objectives of shop floor management −

 Routing movement of material on shop floor appropriately.

 Sequencing the procedures and processes taking place on shop

floor.

 Scheduling of workforce, resources and operations.

 Finding deviation from standard procedures and processes.

 Identifying loopholes in shop floor communication.

Benefits of Shop Floor Management

Some vital benefits of shop floor management are given below −

 Increased operational efficiency through standardization of

operations.

 Reduction in occurrence of errors in work.

 Revealing of loopholes in production or processes.

 Increases productivity of the staff.

 Positive impact on the revenue of a manufacturing business.

Terms Used in Shop Floor Management

Here are some of the most commonly used terms in Aviation
Management −

Sr.No. Term & Meaning

1 Batch

The quantity of goods produced at one time.

2 Computer Numeric Control (CNC)

It is automation of machine tools, which operate by precise

programmed commands in contrast to manual control by hand
wheels or levers.

3 Glass Wall
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Being on a clear path but choosing a wrong entrance to be on

that path.

4 Just in Time (JIT)

It is same as lean manufacturing.

5 Kanban

A Japanese inventory control system to control supply chain.

6 Lean

It is a business philosophy that means executing things as

simply and cheaply as possible while providing best quality
and fast service.

7 Lean Manufacturing

Manufacturing by increased efficiency and productivity, and

decreasing waste.

8 Red Tag system

It is a communication tool in the form of red colored paper

tags. It is used to identify items that a shop floor person has
tagged for removal from the work area.

9 Shop Floor Inventory

It is the list of goods and material a shop floor holds for repair,
resale, manufacturing, assembling, or processing for a length
of time.

10 Waste

It is something that adds no value. The manufacturing waste

due to overproduction, over processing, defects, unengaged
employees, waiting time, transportation, inventory, and
motion.
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