production planning and control

Production Planning and Control

• Production planning and control is the process of allocating all supplies that the business takes in and ensuring they are taken to the proper places and used at the proper times to make enough products to satisfy demand. PP serves as a vast organizational system that tracks the creation of products from beginning to end. Some forms of planning include examining existing systems and seeking to improve them, while other types plan for products that have not yet been created.
  

  Basic Purpose

• Production planning and control is designed, like most business strategies, to generate higher profits. Most production planning methods, like lean manufacturing, are used to increase efficiency and reduce error. Production planning manages company time, machines and workers, finding ways for them to all work together as seamlessly as possible. A good PP system will make the company more flexible and allow spending only on what is completely necessary to make the product.
  

  Planning Departments

• If production planning and control is used to prepare for the manufacture of future products, then it is usually separated into a planning department. The engineering department supplies the planning department with blueprints for a new product, and the planning department assesses what labor and materials are needed to make it, and how it can best be assembled, given the company's resources.
  

  Software

• Production planning and control uses advanced software programs to delegate phases of the product creation process as needed. These programs assess the resources and time available to the company and allow the planning department to apportion out blocks of time and machines for certain tasks, until they have created a model that allows for efficient production.
  

  Tactics and Operations

• Once the strategy is complete, the planning and control department usually moves on to tactics, or how the company will obtain the necessary resources in the first place. Operational control, meanwhile, is used to help train laborers and make sure the business has the necessary machines and tasks in place to create the products.