PRODUCTION PLANNINING

Production activity control is responsible for the execution of the master production schedule and the
material requirements plan. It also makes good use of labour and machines, minimize work – in- process
inventory and maintain customer service
The material requirement s plan authorizes PAC:
 To release work orders to the shop for manufacturing
 To take control of work orders and make sure they are complete on time
 To be responsible for the immediate detailed planning of the flow of orders through
manufacturing, carrying out the plan, and controlling the work as it progresses to completion
Activities of PAC can be classified into Planning, Implementation, and control functions
Planning
Work flow through each work centre must be planned to meet delivery dates, which means production
activity control must achieve the following:
o Ensure that the required materials, tooling, personnel, and information are available to
manufacture the required components.
o Schedule start and completion dates for each shop order at each work centre so that the
completion date of the order can be met.
Implementation
Once the plans are made, production activity control must put them into action by advising the shop
floor what must be done. This is done by issuing a shop order.
Production activity control will:
 Gather the information needed by the shop floor to make the product.
 Release orders to the shop floor as authorized by the material requirements plan. This is called
dispatching
Control
Once plans are completed and shop orders released, the process is monitored to establish the progress
against the plans so that corrective action is carried if there is a deviation from the plans
Production activity control will:
 Rank the shop orders in desired priority sequence by work centre and establish a dispatch list
based on this information.
 Track the actual performance of the work orders and compare it to the planned schedules.
Where necessary, PAC initiates corrective action by replanning, rescheduling, or adjusting
capacity to meet final delivery requirements
 Monitor and control work – in – process. Lead times, and work queues.
 Report work centre efficiency, operation times, order quantities, and scrap.

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 Planning files.
Four planning files are required for production control namely:
o Item master file
o Product structure file.
o Routing file.
o Work centre file
(a) Item master file: This file contains, in one place all the data related to a part, which includes the
following;
 Part number assigned to a component
 Part description
 Manufacturing lead time
 Quantity at hand
 Quantity available
 Allocated quantity or quantity assigned to a specific work order
 On-order quantities (the balance due on all outstanding orders
 Lot-size quantity (The quantity normally ordered at one time)
(b) Product structure file: (Bill Of Material [BOM] file)
This file contains a list of single – level components and the quantities needed to assemble a parent. It is
used by stores personnel to collect the parts required to make the assembly.
(c) Routing file:
This file contains a record of each part to be manufactured. The routing consists of a series of
operations, step by step required to make the item. It gives the following details:
 The operations required to make the product and the sequence in which those operations are
performed.
 A brief description of each operation
 Equipment - tools and accessories needed for each operation
 Setup times -- the standard time required to set up the equipment for each operation.
 Run times – the standard time to process one unit through each operation.
 Lead times for each operation.
(d) Work centre master file:
The file contains the following details:
 Work centre number
 Capacity

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  Number of shifts worked per week
 Number of machine hours per shift
 Efficiency
 Utilization.
 Queue time i.e. the average time that a job waits at a work centre before work begun.
 Alternate work centres
Control files
(a) Shop order master files.
This file provides following summarized data on each order:
 Shop order number identifying the shop order
 Order quantity
 Quantity completed
 Quantity scraped
 Quantity of material issued to the order
 Due date the order is expected to be completed.
 Priority, value used to rank the order in the relationship to other components
 Balance due i.e. the quantity not yet completed.
 Cost information.
(b) Shop order details files.
 Operations number.
 Set up hours, planned and actual.
 Run hours, planned and actual.
 Quantity reported complete at that operation.
 Quantity reported scrapped at that operation.
 Due date or lead time remaining.
ORDER PREPARATION
Once authorization to process an order has been received, production activity control is responsible for
the planning and preparing its release to the shop floor. The order is then revived to be sure that the
necessary tooling, material and capacity are available. This is done so that the order is scheduled to see
when the capacity is needed and secondly the time to load the work centres
SCHEDULING
The objective of scheduling is to meet delivery dates and to make the best use of manufacturing
resources. It involves establishing start and finish dates. To do this the planner must have information
on routing, required and available capacity, competing jobs, and manufacturing lead times (MLT)

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Manufacturing Lead Time
This the time normally required to make the best use of manufacturing an item in a typical lot.
MLT consists of five elements:
o Queue time – the amount of time the job is waiting at a work station before operation begins.
o Set up time – time required to prepare the work centre for operation.
o Run time – time needed to run the order through the operation.
o Wait time – amount of time the is at the work centre before being moved to the next work
centre.
o Move time – transit time between work centres.
The total manufacturing lead time will be the sum of the order preparation and release plus the MLTs
for each operation.
Production control must manage both the input of orders to the production process and available
capacity to control queue and work in process

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