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Planning Overview: Planning is an integral part of any organization. In manufacturing, planning is of particular importance.

Planning Personnel: Planning is a cross-functional activity in all organizations. In manufacturing organizations, planning for production involves the collaboration of the marketing, materials, and production departments. The demand planner, the master scheduler, and then production planner are the principal strategic and tactical planners for production in a manufacturing organization.

Forecasting Overview: The first element in the planning process is forecasting. Forecasting involves the analysis of data from the past in order to establish underlying patterns that can be projected into the future.

Forecasting Methods: There are a number of different forecasting methods that can be used to assist in the calculation of a forecast. The method used will depend on the nature of the business and the factors that need to be taken into account when calculating the forecast. The most common method of forecasting used today is time series forecasting

Forecasting Accuracy: The accuracy of a forecast is the extent to which the forecast correctly describes an outcome in the future, such as demand, price, costs, and inflation. As forecasting involves predicting future events, there is necessarily an amount of uncertainty and error associated with the forecast.

Forecast Generation: The standard approach to forecasting, whatever its purpose, should be methodical and include certain stages or steps.

MPS Overview: Once the forecast has been agreed, the process of planning for manufacturing can begin. A major starting point of planning is the master production schedule (MPS).

MPS Elements: There are common elements that make up the master production schedule (MPS).

MPS Agreements: A master production schedule (MPS) needs to be agreed on a regular basis between various departments in an organization.

MRP Overview: Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is a set of techniques or system that uses bill of material (BOM) data, the master production schedule (MPS), and inventory data to calculate requirements for materials and make recommendations regarding purchases.

Closed Loop MRP and MRP II: Over time, as the material requirements planning (MRP) technique became more widely used, various operational functions were added to extend the range of tasks that this software system supported.

MRP Inputs and Outputs: In order for material requirements planning (MRP) to work effectively, the system needs defined inputs and outputs.

Workings of MRP: Material Requirements Planning (MRP) calculates net requirements and planned orders after processing the input information. However, if the inputs change, the MRP system must be re-planned to reflect the changes.

Production Planning & Control Overview: Production planning involves the development of short and medium-term plans that coordinate the movement of materials through the manufacturing process. Production planning is responsible for ensuring that the master production schedule (MPS) is met from a material and resource viewpoint.

Production Planning & Control - Inputs: There are a number of factors to consider when developing a production plan, including the item master file, bill of material (BOM), manufacturing routing files, and work center information.

Capacity Planning: Capacity planning is about planning facilities, labor, equipment, and tools in order to meet the production plan.

Shop Floor Data Collection: There is no point in putting a production schedule together if there are no controls to ensure the fulfillment of this schedule. The close monitoring of the production process is known as shop floor data collection. This is another responsibility of the production planning/control function.

Inventory Management Overview: Inventory is a stock of materials used to facilitate production or to satisfy customer demand.

Reasons for Inventory: Why should a manufacturing organization store stock or have inventories?

Cost of Inventory: The holding and managing of inventory costs money. Conversely, a lack of material and subsequent non-availability of products or services can also cost money due to downtime or loss of customers.

Economic Order Quality: All inventory cost parameters must be taken into consideration when deciding how much inventory to hold and, consequently, how much to order over a period of time. The term 'order' refers to both work and purchase orders (POs). A compromise must be reached between conflicting cost advantages and disadvantages. The economic order quantity (EOQ) is the solution.

Inventory Control Systems: Inventory control systems can be manual or computerized, but both types of systems require proper procedures to operate successfully.

Planning Systems Overview: The rapid growth and development of IT system support for organizations mean that there are currently numerous software-planning systems and packages on the market.

Enterprise Resource Planning: Enterprise resource planning (ERP) enables organizations to integrate their key processes and procedures.

Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP): Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP) ensures that goods are delivered to the right customer on time.

Decision Support Systems (DSS): IT technology now offers tool packages that can help with strategic decision-making by means of modeling and simulation.