Functions/Scope of Production Planning & Control

Functions/scope of production planning & control

1.     Materials: Materials should be made available at the right quality, right quantity, right price & right price. Inventory control & regular supply of materials should be guaranteed.

2.     Manpower: It is important to carry out manpower planning to maintain operational & managerial staff possessing requisite skills & expertise.

3.     Methods: It is always desirable to consider all the available alternatives & select the best method of processing. Simultaneously, to plan for tooling, jigs & fixtures & to determine the best sequence of operations.

4.     Machines & equipments: The choices of manufacturing methods depend on available production facilities & utilization of plant, machines equipments.

5.     Routing: The routing function specifies what work is to be done where & when it is to be performed.

6.     Estimating: it involves establishing performance standard of each work after duly analyzing operation sheets. These sheets indicate feeds, speeds, depth of cuts, use of special attachments & methods.

7.     Loading & scheduling: Loading & scheduling machines have to be made as per the production requirements. Machine loading generates accurate information on work standard, scrap allowances, machine-time requirements & machine capacities. Scheduling is a time-table for performing the job on the available machines so that delivery dates are maintained.

8.     Dispatching: Dispatching is the release of orders & instructions to start production as per the route sheets & schedule charts.

9.     Expediting: It refers to follow-up which is done after the dispatching function.

10.                 Inspection: It is related to maintenance of quality in production & processes, methods labour so that improvements can be made to achieve the quality standards.

11.                 Evaluating: It provides a feedback mechanism on a long term basis so that past experience can be used to improve upon use of methods, facilities & resources in future period.

12.                 Cost control: In manufacturing products, costs can be kept within control through wastage reduction, value analysis, inventory control & efficient use of resources.