Production Planning

 Product Design and Development

 Supply Chain Management

Production planning is “the administrative process that takes place within a manufacturing
business and that involves making sure that sufficient raw materials, staff and other necessary
items are procured and ready to create finished products according to the schedule specified”,

Production planning is the act of developing a guide for the design and production of a given
product or service. Production planning helps organizations make the production process as
efficient as possible. Production planning originated to optimize the manufacturing process, and
today its general logic is applied in various forms to design, production and delivery of the
product/service as well.

The activities typically involved in the production planning process.

(1) Involve everyone,
(2) Identify process activities,
(3) Establish quality performance standards,
(4) Select measurement tools,
(5) Monitor performance continuously, and
(6) Improve process quality.

Why is production planning important?

Production planning is important because it creates an efficient process for production according
to customer and organizational needs.

It optimizes both customer-dependent processes -- such as on-time delivery -- and customer-

independent processes, such as production cycle time.

A good production plan minimizes lead time, which is the amount of time that passes between the
placing of an order and the completion and delivery of that order.

Production planning process

The production planning process involves the following steps:

 Estimate product demand -- This will a give a rough outline of how many products should be
produced in a given time period. This estimate is generated by combining analysis of historical
production trends with new potentially relevant trends in the market.
  Weigh production options -- This involves accounting for the resources on hand and exploring
ways to most effectively use them based on projected demand estimates.
 Choose the most efficient option -- The use of resources that is the least costly and most time-
efficient should be chosen.
 Monitoring and evaluation -- As the plan is carried out, companies monitor what is happening
compared to what should be happening according to the plan, and evaluate how well those two
match up.
 Adjust plan -- This involves altering the plan so that future production plans meet customer
goals more efficiently and are more successful in their execution.

Types of production planning

There are many types of production planning that focus on various particulars of the production
process. Some of these include:

 Master production schedule (MPS) -- These are schedules for individual, specific commodities to
be produced in a given time period. They are often generated by software, and then adjusted by
users.
 Material requirements planning -- MRP is a system used for production planning, scheduling and
inventory control. MRP ensures the availability of raw materials, maintains the lowest possible
material and product levels in-house, and plans manufacturing and purchasing activities. It is
often automated to some extent by software, but can be performed completely manually as
well.
 Capacity planning -- This is the process of determining what capacity an organization has to
meet changing demands.
 Workflow planning -- This is the planning of a sequence of operations performed by an
employee or group of employees.

There are also various planning types that apply the logic of production planning to areas other
than manufacturing, or complementary areas. For example, human resources planning involves
optimizing processes that allow a company to meet their hiring and talent demands. Other
examples include:

 Enterprise resource planning (ERP) -- This is the integration of main business processes into one
unified system, often through the use of software.
 Sales and operations planning (S&OP) -- This is the process for more accurately matching a
manufacturer's supply with existing demand.

Production scheduling

Production scheduling is like production control. Production scheduling is the allocation of

available resources to production processes and events. It is essentially the mapping of actual
resources to the production plan built for them. Scheduling is used to plan use of factory
equipment and resources, human resources, and to plan processes and material purchasing.
Scheduling is necessary to create a production plan. Production plans aim to ultimately deliver
on customer demand. The goal of a production schedule is to create the most efficient production
plan possible.
History of production planning

Modern production planning has its roots in the first half of the 19th century. It developed out of
a need for information around internal planning in control. Entities like railroads, textile mills
and other factories needed internal administrative frameworks to guide the multiple processes
involved in providing their basic product or service at a large scale.

The first production plans were simple. Factories were relatively small and produced a limited
number of products in large batch sizes. Factory foremen were technical experts in their field,
and handled all planning and scheduling, which sometimes would include no more than a list of
production orders and the date at which they were to be completed.

As the production line and manufacturing efforts as a whole became bigger and more complex,
more involved production planning was necessary. By the beginning of the 20th century, plans
began focusing on not just delivering orders, but optimizing the processes required to do so, so
that production process flow could be as even as possible at the minimum possible production
cost.

 Product Design and Development

Design refers to those activities involved in creating the styling, look and feel of the product, deciding on
the product's mechanical architecture, selecting materials and processes, and engineering the various
components necessary to make the product work.

In business and engineering, new product development covers the complete process of bringing a
new product to market, renewing an existing product or introducing a product in a new market. A
central aspect of a company’s is product design, along with various business considerations.

1.Concept/ideation

This is the concept and ideation stage during which a product’s functional and performance
requirements can be defined along with buyer personas or ‘the voice of the customer’. Customer
requirements and innovative functionality design ideas are floated and explored freely to find
compelling potential solutions that answer an identified market need.
2. Feasibility study and design planning

The feasibility phase gives management an opportunity to evaluate a project’s potential success,
reviewing and refining the business case from various angles. During this phase, the project team
reviews product design concepts. They then select the design that best fulfils the previously
defined user requirements. Now, the detailed, exhaustive project requirements are assembled that
will guide the design and development phase.

3. Design and development

In this phase, formal engineering specifications are created. Verification and validation plans are
developed for the future. These are the final quality checks that will systematically determine
that all agreed deliverables are present and working in the end product. The product is then
developed against the designs, with regular checks made throughout the process to assess and
mitigate the risk of its failure for the end-user and the project itself

4. Testing & verification

Comprehensive testing of the final product takes place to evaluate the robustness of the design
and its ability to meet customer and performance requirements. Verification takes place against
the design requirements identified in stage 2.

5. Validation & collateral production

Validation takes place against the customer needs that have been identified at the ideation stage.
Collateral is finalised and prepared to support the manufacture and launch phase.

6. Manufacture/launch

Plans, specs and other relevant documentation are transferred to manufacture for production, or
software products and updates are released to customers. Marketing and launch plans are
finalised and activated. Software products are released to customers electronically as updates or
downloads.

7. Improvement

The new product becomes part of the company’s portfolio. Ongoing product management
ensures the product is subject to continuous upgrades and improvement. CAPA processes are in
place to feed into these actions

Factors affecting product design

There are several factors that affect the design of a product. A product designer must consider
these factors before designing the product in order to create winning designs. These factors are as
follows:
1. Customer requirements
The end users or customers are the ones that would leverage the product. So, due respect should
be given to their requirements before designing a product. The designers should make sure that
the product is ergonomically designed so that the customers can use it conveniently in all
conditions.

2. Facilities for the operators

It is the task of product designers to ensure that the operators can effortlessly perform the
intended operations using the product. The product should be integrated with all the essential
features and facilities that make its operation simple and comfortable. If the product design is
complicated, then the operator may become tired and be less productive. So, the product should
be designed in such a way that it is easy to handle and operate.

3. Functionality
A product should be designed in such a way that it yields 100% customer satisfaction. For this,
the designer must ensure that the product is functioning optimally and is meeting the purpose for
which it is designed. There should be sync between the appearance of the product and its
functionality to the customers.

4. Cost Ratio
A product designer must design high-quality product in a way that it is cost effective. The
product should be of top-notch quality, functional and appealing in design, such that it attracts
the customers. The designer must also ensure that he is creating a design which is even cost
effective as that will attract the customers most.

5. Quality of product
The design of a product and its quality should go hand in hand. The quality of a product depends
on its design as well as conformity. So, the designer must ensure that he/she is producing a good
quality product that embellishes an impressive design.

6. Capability of process
A product designer must have the requisite knowledge of the machinery in order to take care of
the quality of conformance. The quality of conformance depends on the capacity of equipment
and machines (how much they can process). A designer should thus establish a tolerance limit of
each machine and equipment.
7. Material requirements
The type, quality, and nature of a material used in the production of a product impact its design
to a great extent. So, the designer must have adequate knowledge of the materials. He/she should
have up to date information about the availability of new and better materials in order to create
the desired product.

8. Work methods
The work methods adopted and the equipment used to impact the viability of the design. Little
changes in the work methods can considerably affect the production cost. So, a designer must be
inventive in order to find out the most efficient work methods. He/she should be accustomed to
the innovations in the market so that he/she can improvise the work methods and equipment
accordingly. A product should be designed in such a way that it should have the scope for
improvisation in the type of equipment required and the work methods adopted.

9. Effect on existing designs

In case a new product is being designed to replace an existing product, then a designer should
ensure that he/she uses the standards materials, parts, components, design strategies, techniques
and manufacturing processes. It is the task of a product designer to blend the existing product
with new manufacturing technology. In this way, the designer can keep the production cost
minimum.

10. Packaging
Packaging is one of the core components associated with a product. The design of the package of
a product is equally important as the product itself. This is because packaging ensures that the
product is delivered safely to the end users. Thus, the designer should ensure that the package is
protective and even serves the promotional purpose. The package should be attractive as that will
appeal to the customers.

These are the major factors that a product designer should consider. In our product designing
course, we make sure that the students are familiarized with all these factors so that they can
create effective product designs when they enter the job field. Our design college is among the
top design colleges of India as we offer world-class education and best in class faculty members

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Supply chain management, is the management of the flow of goods and services, involves the
movement and storage of raw materials, of work-in-process inventory, and of finished goods as
well as end to end order fulfilment from point of origin to point of consumption.
Supply chain management is the handling of the entire production flow of a good or service to
maximize quality, delivery, customer experience and profitability. SCM managing the entire
production flow of a good or service — starting from the raw components all the way to delivering the
final product to the consumer. A company creates a network of suppliers (“links” in the chain) that move
the product along from the suppliers of raw materials to those organizations that deal directly with
users.

The process of SCM(How does supply chain management work?)

Planning

Plan and manage all resources required to meet customer demand for a company’s product or
service. When the supply chain is established, determine metrics to measure whether the supply
chain is efficient, effective, delivers value to customers and meets company goals.

Sourcing

Choose suppliers to provide the goods and services needed to create the product. Then, establish
processes to monitor and manage supplier relationships. Key processes include: ordering,
receiving, managing inventory and authorizing supplier payments.

Manufacturing

Organize the activities required to accept raw materials, manufacture the product, test for quality,
package for shipping and schedule for delivery.

Delivery and Logistics

Coordinate customer orders, schedule deliveries, dispatch loads, invoice customers and receive
payments.

Returning

Create a network or process to take back defective, excess or unwanted products

Why is supply chain management important?

 Identifying potential problems. When a customer orders more product than the
manufacturer can deliver, the buyer can complain of poor service. Through data analysis,
manufacturers may be able to anticipate the shortage before the buyer is disappointed.
 Optimizing price dynamically. Seasonal products have a limited shelf life. At the end of the
season, these products are typically scrapped or sold at deep discounts. Airlines, hotels and
others with perishable “products” typically adjust prices dynamically to meet demand. By using
analytic software, similar forecasting techniques can improve margins, even for hard goods.

 Improving the allocation of “available to promise” inventory. Analytical software tools

help to dynamically allocate resources and schedule work based on the sales forecast, actual
orders and promised delivery of raw materials. Manufacturers can confirm a product delivery
date when the order is placed — significantly reducing incorrectly-filled orders

Effective supply chain management systems minimize cost, waste and time in the production
cycle. The industry standard has become a just-in-time supply chain where retail sales
automatically signal replenishment orders to manufacturers. Retail shelves can then be restocked
almost as quickly as product is sold. One way to further improve on this process is to analyze the
data from supply chain partners to see where further improvements can be made.

the five “Cs” of the effective supply chain management (Key features of effective supply
chain management )

 Connected: Being able to access unstructured data from social media, structured data
from the Internet of Things (IoT) and more traditional data sets available through
traditional ERP and B2B integration tools.
 Collaborative: Improving collaboration with suppliers increasingly means the use of
cloud-based commerce networks to enable multi-enterprise collaboration and
engagement.
 Cyber-aware: The supply chain must harden its systems and protect them from cyber-
intrusions and hacks, which should be an enterprise-wide concern.
 Cognitively enabled: The AI platform becomes the modern supply chain's control tower
by collating, coordinating and conducting decisions and actions across the chain. Most of
the supply chain is automated and self-learning.
 Comprehensive: Analytics capabilities must be scaled with data in real time. Insights
will be comprehensive and fast. Latency is unacceptable in the supply chain of the future.

Many supply chains have begun this process, with participation in cloud-based commerce
networks at an all-time high and major efforts underway to bolster analytics capabilities