Lesson #2 - Planning Tools

Question 1

What are short and long range plans?

Answer 1

• Short-range plans cover one year or less.
• Intermediate-range plans cover one to two years.
• Long-range plans look three or more years into the future.

Question 2

What are strategic and operational plans?

Answer 2

• Strategic plans address long-term needs and set comprehensive action directions for an organization (broad and long term)
• Operational plans define what needs to be done in specific areas to implement strategic plans and achieve strategic objectives (defines specific functions to work towards implemented strategic plan)

Question 3

What are the 5 types of operational plans? What do they entail?

Answer 3

1. Production plans - methods and tech needed
2. Financial plans - money required to support operations
3. Facilities plans - facilities and layouts required
4. Marketing plans - selling and distributing G&S
5. Human resource plans - personnel recruiting, selection, and placement of people into various jobs.

Question 4

What are the three types of policies/ procedures

Answer 4

1. standing plans
2. Policy
3. rules/ procedures

Question 5

What is a standing plan?

Answer 5

organizational policies and procedures are designed for repeated use (used often)

Question 6

What is a policy?

Answer 6

a standing plan that communicates broad guidelines for making decisions and taking action in specific circumstances.

Question 7

What is a rule/procedure

Answer 7

plans that describe exactly what actions are to be taken in specific situations. Rules or procedures are often found in employee handbooks or manuals as standard operating procedures (SOPs)

Question 8

What are the 2 types of single-use plans and what do they entail?

Answer 8

1. Budgets:single-use plans that commit resources to activities, projects or programs.
2. Project schedules: Single-use plans that identify the activities required to accomplish a specific major project.
   - should define task objectives, activities to be accomplished, due dates and timetables for the activities, and resource requirements.

Question 9

What is forecasting?

Answer 9

• Vision of the future (making assumptions about what may happen)
• Qualitative forecasting uses expert opinions to predict the future. Either a single expert or a panel of experts may be consulted. (i.e. opinion polls)
• Quantitative forecasting techniques use mathematical and statistical analyses of data banks to predict future events.
• All forecasts rely ultimately on human judgment; even highly sophisticated quantitative analyses require interpretation by humans.
• Forecasting should not be confused with planning; planning involves deciding what to do in response to the forecasts.

Question 10

What is contingency planning?

Answer 10

• contingency planning involves identifying alternative courses of action that can be implemented if and when an original plan proves inadequate because of changing circumstances (back up plan)
• The key is early identification of possible shifts in future events that could affect current plans. (i.e. using the “devil’s advocate” method or by developing “worst case” scenarios of future events.)

Question 11

What is scenario planning?

Answer 11

• Scenario planning is a long-term version of contingency planning which involves identifying several alternative future “scenarios” or states of affairs that may occur, and then making plans to deal with each should it actually occur.
• While scenario planning can never be inclusive of all future possibilities, it does condition an organization to think about the future remain better prepared for future shocks.

Question 12

What is benchmarking?

Answer 12

• Benchmarking is a technique that makes use of external comparisons to better evaluate current performance and identify possible actions for the future.
• Benchmarking is a method of finding out what other people and organizations are doing well and then incorporating those ideas into one’s own operations.