Production Planning & Scheduling

Managing Production Planning & Scheduling

Due to the wide array of factors that must be managed – team members, raw materials, workstations, processes and supplies - Production Planning & Scheduling in manufacturing is especially challenging. Without a solid and reliable plan to manage and schedule orders, even the simplest manufacturing business can lose money. In order to avoid the pitfalls of unreliable order management, manufacturers need a solid planning process supported by the right technology.

Technology solutions for Production Planning & Scheduling help ensure that the manufacturing process flows with maximum efficiency. They make sure your orders are fulfilled in the most efficient way, without interruptions, delay or resources wasted. They drive lean manufacturing, because they synchronize the optimum utilization of all your resources and equipment to ensure that each order is produced on time, within budget and meeting all quality standards.

The Right Production Plan for You

Different types of production methods, such as single item manufacturing, batch production, mass production, continuous production, etc., have their own type of production planning. A production plan can be made periodically for a specific time period, called the planning horizon (short-term, medium-term, long-term, etc.). In order to produce a complete and flexible production plan, a successful planning solution will:

Determine the required product mix and factory load to satisfy customer needs;
Match the required level of production to the existing resources;
Schedule and choose the actual work to be started in the manufacturing facility.

A critical factor in production planning is the accurate estimation of the productive capacity of available resources. Production planning should always take into account material availability, resource availability and knowledge of future demand. Production plans must also be flexible and react quickly to the changes and fluctuations of the markets and the needs of the business. Digital production planning solutions can be, but rarely are, standalone systems. Often, they are integrated with Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) to better control order execution and with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to ensure continuous alignment with customer demand and sales.

Functionalities of Production Planning & Scheduling Systems

Creation of a master production plan
Capacity planning, taking time, resource (human and machine) and process constraints into account
Inventory planning, taking demand forecast, service level, stock levels, inventory costs and existing orders into account
Production scheduling, taking order priorities, production lead times, set up times and plant-specific constraints into account