Lecture 6 - Planning and Control

Question 1

Resource Planning and Control Definition

Answer 1

Resource planning and control is concerned with the activities that attempt to reconcile the demands of the market and the ability of the operation’s resources to deliver. Slack and Brandon-Jones (2018:276)

Question 2

Short, Medium and Long Term Planning and Control

Answer 2

Long term - uses AG demand determines resources in an aggregated form.

Medium Term Demand - Uses partially Dis AG, determines resources and contingencies and sets objectives in both financial and operational terms

Short term demand - Doesn’t use AG demand, makes interventions to resources to correct deviations from plans

Question 3

Forward and Backward scheduling

Answer 3

Forward scheduleing - Latest Start Time

• High capacity utilisation: plant and employees always start work to keep busy
• Unexpected work/overruns can be incorporated into the schedule
• Keeps any time buffer (float) in reserve
• Vulnerable to Parkinson’s Law (work expands to fill the time available)
• Work may be completed well in advance of requirement and payment

Backward Scheduling - Earliest Finish Time

Lower material costs – materials are only used at the last possible moment

• Hard to incorporate unexpected work/overruns into the schedule
• May lead to capacity idle time while future plans prevent other work being taken on
• Focus on customer due data
• Work completed only when needed and when it can be invoiced

Question 4

Gantt Chart

Answer 4

• Gantt (bar) charts can be used to present schedule information against a time-scale
• Activities are on the vertical axis; time on the horizontal axis
• They can be used for planning, resource scheduling and status reporting

Named after Henry L Gantt

• Can be used to show task dependencies
• Can be used to record progress
• Advantages – Easily understood – Easily plotted against calendar dates – Adaptable – Provide a picture of the current state of a project – Facilitate communication between scheduler and user
• Disadvantage – Can be difficult to follow if very complicated

Question 5

Workforce Scheduling in Professional Services

Answer 5

Question 6

Some Challenges in Consumer Goods Supply Chains

Answer 6

Influence of promotions and product launches/withdrawals on sales (and therefore on production and inventory)

• Influence of changing demand patterns on sales (and therefore on production and inventory)
• Holding high inventory levels to guarantee product availability on the shelves
• Lack of co-ordination between the store, the purchasing process and logistics planning for retailers
• Lack of general co-ordination between the manufacturer’s functional departments (sales, logistics and production)
• Multiple forecasts developed within the same company (marketing, financing, purchasing, and logistics). Some Challenges in Consumer Goods Supply Chains Based

Question 7

Enterprise Resource Planning

Answer 7

‘ERP systems are information systems designed to integrate on a real-time basis the planning and management of all organisational resources under one unique system’ (Leseure, 2010: 53)

Question 8

Dependant Demand

Answer 8

Demand for one good is dependant on the production of another (tyres/cars)

Question 9

Push Control System

Answer 9

• A push control system schedules release of work on the basis of information from outside the system (e.g. pre-arranged master production schedule)

Question 10

Pull Control System

Answer 10

A pull control system authorises release of work on the basis of information from inside the system (e.g. signal from next station such as a stock void)