Manufacturing Planning and Control system
How do we plan and execute our operations? Looking at:
- Processes
- Assets
- People
- Material flow
Four questions that we need to answer:
1. What are we going to make? - end product
2. What does it take to make it? - resources
3. What do we already have? - inventory
4. What do we need to get? - capacity (capability)
Business Plan (BUS)
Major goals and objectives
Frequency: 6-12 months (/budgets)
Level: Major markets to serve
Horizon: 2-10 years (or more)
Input: Overall strategic business plan of the company
Output: BUS
Production Plan (PPL)
Establish production rates - plans the quantity of each product family/group to be produced in each period
Frequency: 1-3 months
Level: product families
Horizon: 6-18 months
Input:
- BUS
- Financial plan
- Marketing plan
- Capacity = resource plan (facility, equipment and workers)
Output: Aggregate plan by product groups and inventory levels
Master Production Schedule (MPS)
Plans the quantity of each end item to be produced in each period
Frequency: Weekly or monthly
Level: End items (SKUs)
Horizon: 3-18 months
Input:
- PPL
- Forecast demand
- Customer orders
- Inventory levels
- Production capacity = rough-cut capacity plan (critical resources (bottleneck operations, labour and critical/scarce materials) against preliminary MPS)
Output:
- MPS
- Production plan
- Inventory requirement
- Capacity
- Order releases
Material Requirements Plan (MRP)
Plans for the production and purchasing of the components used in making the items in the MPS
Frequency: Daily or weekly
Level: Components
Horizon: 3-6 months (Lt dependent)
Input:
- MPS
- BOM (MPS items)
- Inventory records
- Capacity = Capacity Requirements Plan (individual orders at individual work centers, calculating load and labour requirements for each time period at each work center)
Output:
- MRP
- Purchase orders
- Work orders
- Inventory projections
Production Activity and Control (PAC) (+ purchasing)
The implementation and control phase of the system - issuing of purchase orders and production orders
Frequency: Daily or hourly
Level: Execution
Horizon: Daily
Input:
- MPS
- MRP
- Capacity requirements planning = capacity control (monitoring production, comparing with the capacity plan, and taking appropriate corrective actions)
- BOM
Output:
- Work orders
- Production schedule updates
- Resource allocation
- Status reports
- KPIs
The purpose of the PPL
The purpose is to establish production rates that will accomplish the objectives of the strategic business plan.
Families are established based on similarity, which makes long-term forecasting easier.
Basic Production Plan Strategies (Capacity)
Resource plan: Long-term capacity planning. Involves changes in staffing, capital equipment and other facility changes.
Each strategy affects our assets:
- Chase: need to have staff and machinery to meet changing demand.
- Level: need to have available space when inventory builds up in low-demand periods.
Others:
- Subcontracting: make use of Service Providers for peak capacity needs
- Hybrid/combination strategy: use a combination of some chase and some level
Demand patterns
Dynamic vs. Stable:
- Dynamic: fluctuations in demand and unpredictable
- Stable: More consistent with smaller changes and more predictable
Seasonality: Demand fluctuations based on the time of year
Cyclicality: Sort of a long-term seasonality (decades)
Trend: Demand increases in a steady pattern from year to year
Random Various: Unpredictable, so forecasts are made on averages - the best you can do is forecast of capacity and availability
Forecasting
Estimating/predicting future demand
MTS: availability of product
MTO: availability of capacity
Forecast can be constructed using quantitative methods, qualitative methods, or a combination of methods, and it can be based on extrinsic or intrinsic factors.
Various forecasting techniques attempt to predict one or more of the four components of demand: cyclical, random, seasonal, and trend.
Forecasting in relation to MPC
Independent demand (forecasted):
- BUS: Qualitative based on personal insight, market survey, historical analogy, and Delphi method.
- PPL: Extrinsic quantitative - external indicators and causal factors
- MPS: Intrinsic quantitative - internal indicators and historical data
Dependent demand (calculated): MRP
Purpose and steps of The Conflict Ladder
A conceptual tool used in the negotiation process to understand and manage the escalation of conflicts
- Disagreements: This is the first step of the ladder, where a conflict begins with a simple disagreement about an issue or topic. Disagreements happen often. It is important to solve the problem here so that it doesn’t continue further up the ladder.
- Personalization: Here, the people involved in the conflict start to blame each other and make personal attacks.
- The problem grows: At this stage, the disagreement remains unresolved and begins to grow into a bigger problem.
- Reduced communication: Communication between the people in the conflict starts to break down. They start talking about each other instead of with each other.
- Enemy images: Now people think that everything the other person does is wrong. Now they just don’t like the person, whereas before they just didn’t like what the person did.
- Open hostility: Open hostility and aggression are displayed by the people in the conflict.
- Polarization: This is the final step of the ladder, where complete separation occurs.
The use of the conflict ladder in a negotiation process
- Understanding the current state of the conflict -> strategies for de-escalation
- Recognising the signs of escalation early and take proactive steps to address issues
- Finding the root causes
- Develop mutually acceptable solutions
Causes of conflict and possible solutions
- Relations (personality types, reputation and values) -> avoid emotional outbursts, uniform communication and expressing negative attitudes
- Structural conditions (corporate culture, policy and organisation) -> accept conditions and ask clarifying questions
- Data (soft or hard) -> agree on relevant facts and an impartial expert
- Interests (conflicting and overlapping) -> position vs. need, focus on interests and not positions etc.
