Canuto, Paul Edward S.

Engineering Management
V-ME

Assignment: Planning Process

1. What is the difference between plans, planning, policies, goals, Rules and Regulations,
Procedures ?
Plans are what comes out of the planning process. Plans or Programs are what you
intend to do in the future. Before you can develop plans, however, you must set targets. These
targets are called Goals, Standards, or Objectives. After you have set these goals, you
establish general guidelines for reaching them. These guidelines are called Policies. Only after
policies have been set should plans be formulated. As a final step, you choose to lay down
some Rules and Regulations. The detailed way of doing a certain job in exact sequence or
step-by-step is called Procedures. These will establish the limits within which employees are
free to do the job their own way.

2. In what ways are plans or programs usually classified?

● Long-Range Plans are typically set by higher management and are expected to be in
operation from two to five years.
● Short-Range Plans are those that supervisors are most concerned with. These are
usually based on operations of one year or less. At the department level, short-range
plans may be in effect for a day, a week, a month, or a quarter.
● Standing Plans include just about any activity that goes on without much change from
year to year. Standing plans cover general employment practices, health and safety
matters, purchasing procedures, routine discipline, and the like.
● Single-use Plans are used only once before they must be revised. Departmental
budgets and operating schedules are examples. They will be good only for a week or a
month until new ones are issued.

3. What is the best way to begin the planning process?

By deciding where it is you want to go and what it is you want your department to
accomplish. These are, of course, your goals or objectives. This can be done by following the
seven steps:
1. Consider the goals of the entire organization, not just those of your department. Think
about the needs and wishes of customers that the company serves as well as those
“customers” your department serves internally.
2. Estimate the strengths and weaknesses of your department. Ask how they will help or
hinder you in trying to meet company goals and in trying to serve external and internal
customers.
3. Don’t jump to conclusions at this early stage. Instead, keep your mind alert to new
opportunities such as ways to improve quality or reduce costs. Don’t restrict your
thinking to what your goals were last year or how you met them. If you can forecast what
may happen to change conditions next year, this will help focus your attention on goals
that will be more meaningful in the months to come.
 4. Consult with those who will have to help you carry out your plans and with those who
can offer you their support along the way. employees who are involved in setting goals
are more likely to be committed to success in reaching the goals. Staff departments that
are consulted in advance may direct your attention to potential pitfalls or to goals that will
get the full measure of their support.
5. Pick a reasonable set of goals. These should meet two standards. They should (a)
contribute to the organization’s goals and (b) be attainable by your department, given its
strengths and its weaknesses.
6. Arrange your department’s goals in a hierarchy of objectives. That is, place the most
important ones at the top of your list and the least important at the bottom.
7. Watch out for limitations. Think about restrictions that may be imposed on you by your
company, or by the need to coordinate with or serve other departments. Your
department can not operate in a vacuum. It must base its plans on such realistic
planning premises.

4. How can you succeed in planning after setting goals?

1. Develop a Master Plan
This should focus on your main objective. If for example, the company’s goal is for higher-
quality
products or services , the master plan for your department should give this top priority.
2. Draw up supporting plans
This requires that you think about how each activity in your department can contribute to your
master plan. Machinists may need more explicit blueprints. Assemblers may need brighter
workplace lighting. Clerks may need a different order- entry procedure.
3. Put numbers and Dates on every plan you made
Plans work best when employees know how much or how many are required of them. since
plans are for the future tomorrow, next week, or next month times and dates are essential.
4. Pin down assignments
Plans are for people. Responsibility for carrying out each part of a plan or procedure should be
assigned to a particular individual.
5. Explain the plan for all concerned
Plans should be shared. Their rationales should be explained and their goals justified.
Employees who know “why” are more likely to cooperate.
6. Review your plans regularly
Circumstances and restrictions change. Your plans should be examined periodically to see
whether they should be changed, too.

5. When should supervisor plan and how often?

Before starting anything new or different. Planning should take place before a new
day, a new week, a new product or service, or introduction of different materials or machinery.as
a matter of routine, a supervisor should make up new plans each night for the next day, each
Friday for the next week, and the last week in the month for the next month.

6. What kind of goals are supervisors usually concerned with?

 the goals you set for yourself or that are set for you, at least partially, as part of the
company's overall objectives are targets to be aimed at the near future. They pin down your
department’s output, quality of workmanship, and allowable expenditures. Often, they also
include goals in such employee-related areas as departmental attendance, labor turnover, and
safety. These goals may be stated in terms of tomorrow, next week, or next month, or as far
ahead as a year. More often than not, the goals are quantitative rather than merely qualitative.

7. Which areas should be targets for a supervisor’s planning process?

● Use of facilities and equipment.
Departmental layout and working conditions, equipment utilization and maintenance

● Use and care of materials and supplies.

Purchases, inventory levels, and storage spaces.

● Conservation of energy and power.

Electricity, steam, water, fuels and compressed air usage ; waste disposals ; fire protection

● Cash and credit management.

Petty cash, billing, collections

● Workforce management.
Forecasting requirements, safety and health care, sanitation, communications,
absences/tardiness, turnover, employee training and development, employee motivation.

● Information collection and processing.

Tallies, logbooks, recordkeeping, order processing.

● Time conservation.
Start-ups, shutdowns, personal time, work overtime

● Schedules.
Routing, delivery performance, shortages

● Quality management
Inspection and control techniques, rework methods, scrap reduction, rejects reduction

● Cost reduction and control

Cost estimates, work simplification and methods improvements, correction of variances.

● Productivity
Meeting quotas, employee involvement, employee empowerment

8. How do controls relate to plans?

 When a plan is moving directly towards its goal, the track is kept clear. The supervisor
needs to apply no control. But when a plan strays from its targets, the supervisor must take
corrective action to bring it back in line. When planning a department goal , a supervisor
must also plan its control limits.