Manufacturing is a sophisticated function where people try to juggle between the tasks of increasing productivity, managing their inventory, and optimizing their resource utilization. All this has to be done without compromising on the quality of the product and this is why we are talking about - Production Planning and Control strategy. This strategy for manufacturing combines two essential components of manufacturing - #productionplanning and production control. Read our e-book to know, what the crucial stages in production planning are, some best practices, and how it is important to get a granular understanding of which section needs to do what, along with where, when, and how. Production Planning Manufacturing inventory E-book Link: https://www.polestarllp.com/ebook/production-planning-in-manufacturing-industry-e-book Follow Polestar Solutions for more such content.

1. www.polestarllp.com
A Guide to
Production Planning in
Manufacturing Industry
The pandemic outbreak has been a significant eye-opener,
especially as far as production planning goes. Production is
one of the most important processes within manufacturing
industry, and a dedicated planning process effort can help
prevent future production problems and improve margins
by increasing operations efficiency.

2. Introduction
Importance of Production Planning in manufacturing Industry
Crucial phases of Production Planning
Problems encountered due to dynamic and uncertain demands
Best Practices
Conclusion
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

3. A Guide to Production Planning in Manufacturing Industry
Throughout the years, manufacturers have been on a quest to improve
their operations by increasing productivity, managing their inventory,
and optimizing their resource utilization. These are some of the main
challenges faced by manufacturers. Many strategies have emerged as
solutions to allow manufacturing operations to improve their overall
production efficiency.
Introduction
One such strategy is Production Planning and Control (PPC), which is a
term used to describe two essential components of manufacturing:
production planning and production control. The production planning
portion handles the activities necessary before Production begins, such
as materials planning, capacity planning, and operations scheduling. The
production control portion oversees the actual production process by
ensuring that the production team can meet its production targets and
is operating according to schedule. In short, it is the path that helps
supply meet demands.
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4. Importance
If a manufacturing operation is planning to expand, that evolution
requires careful planning. Someone must take on the responsibility of
deciding and managing resources how they will be allocated. This
process is a crucial part of capacity planning—how much can be made
in a certain period of time, with the available resources? Without
production planning, it is easy to use too much resource for one
product and not leave enough for another. It's as easy to let resources
go to waste. Both problems indicate a lack of efficiency in your process.
No matter the service or product or the size of the operation,
production planning is the best way to ensure resources are utilized
appropriately, products and services are high-quality, and nothing goes
over budget. It serves as a guide or a reference and lists down the
sequence of activities starting from obtaining the raw materials leading
to the delivery of the final product. Having a production plan assists a lot of
ways, some of which are listed below-
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A Guide to Production Planning
in Manufacturing Industry

5. A Guide to Production Planning in
Manufacturing Industry
Providing a clear understanding of who needs to do what along with where,
when, and how. These aspects ensure the perfect execution of the
production plan to meet the business goals and the strategies and
plans already in place.
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It gives a granular understanding of who needs to do what,
along with where, when, and how.
It assists with the reduction in the production time and
proportionally the cost.
It helps in discovering new ways for making the
process flow more dynamically.
Understands the reduction of the waiting
time between operations.
Optimal usage of machine or
equipment as well as inventory.

6. A Guide to Production Planning in
Manufacturing Industry
Now, let's straightforwardly talk about the steps involved in the
Production Planning process. There are five stages or essential elements
in the process of production planning. These are as follows:
Crucial phases of Production Planning
Planning or scheduling is vital for maintaining the demand flow with
the optimum utilization of the company's resources. By taking time
to plan and schedule the entire process beforehand, you can
mitigate the risks, reduce the bottlenecks, and thus optimize the
production line.
1 Planning
 Dynamic planning -
Dynamic planning comes
into play when the
output needs to be
customized for every
order. Here raw materials
or the inventory is stocked
so that the order is ready
as soon as it is received.
 Static planning- Static
planning comes into play
when the output is constant
and there are no changes
anticipated. Therefore, it
ensure a smooth flow of all
production processes aligned
with the objectives.
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Planning
Routing
Execution
Dispatching Scheduling

7. A Guide to Production Planning in
Manufacturing Industry
Dispatching occurs when the company is manufacturing a product
that has slight variations between each model. Here the dispatching
will decide the next model to be built in the production line. It
ensures that the queue for the variations is set up correctly and the
required raw materials for the process have been acquired.
4 Dispatching
Routing plays a key role when the final output requires several
processes, even for the last input materials. These pre-processed raw
materials can either be produced in-house or need to be outsourced.
It is imperative to know the exact quantities necessary and when the
acquisition would occur in both cases. Ensure that you include both
the in-house and the subcontracted processes and materials here.
5 Execution
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Routing plays a key role when the final output requires several
processes, even for the last input materials. These pre-processed raw
materials can either be produced in-house or need to be outsourced.
It is imperative to know the exact quantities necessary and when the
acquisition would occur in both cases. Ensure that you include both
the in-house and the subcontracted processes and materials here.
2 Routing
As the name suggests, scheduling is the final established plan that
directs the final raw materials to the final product for dispatching. The
critical part of scheduling is that it needs to be time-based and satisfy the
demand.
3 Scheduling

8. A Guide to Production Planning in
Manufacturing Industry
In any manufacturing industry, production is the driving force to which
most other functions react. The changing business environment in
which manufacturers are acting creates the need for more effective
production processes planning and control methods, which are able to
deal with uncertainties in internal processes and external deliveries.
Undoubtedly, the system of production planning and control is a must
for efficient production management; but in, practice, sometimes, it
fails to achieve the expected results because of the following
limitations. Here's a highlight to the problems encountered by
manufacturers due to lack of Production Planning :
Problems encountered due to dynamic
and uncertain demands
 Improper planning or poor adoption of planning systems may disturb
entire cycle chain.
 It may affect development stages of product like raw material
inspection, shop floor production, in house inspection etc.
 The entire product outlook cannot be observed unless there is a
proper selection of process parameters.
 There is a higher variation in the process planning if the standard
procedures for a particular product with respect to the customer
requirements is not followed.
 The product at the end gets delayed, due to which they cannot reach the
customers on time. This may also cause dissatisfaction to the end
customers.
 At every stage/phase of product development due to improper plans the
process may not start in time. Thus, affecting the overall product chain.
The lack of Production Planning results in the collapse of the entire
cycle. In the end, customers won’t get the desired product as per their
expectations. Industry will fail to deliver the product to the customer in
the required time, within the budget and with the required
characteristics. There will not be any coordination amongst the
Departments in an Industry hence the Industry would ultimately fail in
manufacturing the product.
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9. A Guide to Production Planning in
Manufacturing Industry
The correct and the most robust production planning completely
changes and makes the business more efficient. In addition to the
elements mentioned above, when you are working on building the
production plan, remember to keep the following pointers in mind :
Technology Re-defining Production Planning
Production planning results in the effective use of materials, plant
capacity, equipment, and manpower. At large, it maximizes the
available resources resulting in high returns. For some organizations,
resource management can now be automated using the best
Material requirement planning (MRP) software solution for their
existing operations.
1 Effective Utilization of Resources
It is an essential tool for organizations to make business flow in
scheduling and supplies an easy and systematic process. In planning,
three questions are being answered:
With automation mechanisms in place, answering these questions-
the organization can get a clear picture of the demand for labor and
its supplies, thus, improving and enhancing overall business operations.
 What is needed?  When is it needed?
 How much is required?
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10. A Guide to Production Planning in
Manufacturing Industry
Any production plan should begin with a few questions: what products
will you need to produce to meet demand? What quantity will you need
to produce? And what materials will you need in order to achieve that
quantity? Because sourcing for many materials requires a longer lead time
than the typical customer order, most manufacturing businesses have to
rely on past demand to estimate their sourcing needs in advance. While
the past can be instructive, it’s also a necessarily limited guidepost when
it comes to predicting future market conditions, as it fundamentally can’t
account for new and emerging conditions.
2 Make Accurate Forecast
Since your forecasts determine how you spend your money, and the
accuracy of your forecasts in turn determine how effectively you spend
that money, it stands to reason that investing in improvements to your
forecasting methods should yield a positive ROI. If you already have digital
data streams coming in from your production workflows and broader
market conditions, it might be worthwhile to consider using advanced
analytics or machine learning solutions to derive your forecasts digitally.
This way, you’re not tethered to the logic of past data, and can begin to
better align expectations and reality by utilizing more dynamic demand
forecasting.
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11. A Guide to Production Planning in
Manufacturing Industry
One of the keys to production planning is to reduce your amount of
unused production capacity. If at all possible, you want to avoid situations
where machines or humans are sitting idle for long stretches of time.
Naturally, it’s not feasible (or even desirable) to have every resource in
constant operation, but for the most part protracted downtime is
inefficient and costly. How can planners prevent a loss of value of this kind
from happening? Well, for starters, it’s crucial to figure out what your
production capacity actually is. This might sound basic, but it can be
deceptively complex. Why? Because different products will take different
journeys from order creation to the factory floor to the warehouse.
3 Document Your Capacity
In a job shop environment, for instance, there’s no set order of
operations, which means that different production flows for different
products have to be balanced against one another in a fairly complex way
in order to determine maximum capacity levels. For this reason, it’s crucial
to find a way to map out your production processes so that you can
determine your actual maximum capacity. This can be as simple as
identifying and timing your bottleneck processes, or as sophisticated as
digitally mapping your factory floor to train advanced analytics algorithms
on your operations.
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12. A Guide to Production Planning in
Manufacturing Industry
Speaking of IoT devices: by implementing these sorts of smart, connected
sensors into your production chain, you can empower real-time
monitoring of production processes. In this way, you can track the
progress of each product through the production line and monitor
machine usage to make sure that everything is operating smoothly and
that there won’t be any slowdowns that will affect your final output. In an
Industry 4.0 environment, this type of tracking can even be automated
such that planners receive alerts whenever something on the factory floor
deviates from the plan. This can help you to keep plans on track even as
they’re being put into practice.
4 Utilize Real-time Monitoring
In a job shop environment, for instance, there’s no set order of
operations, which means that different production flows for different
products have to be balanced against one another in a fairly complex way
in order to determine maximum capacity levels. For this reason, it’s crucial
to find a way to map out your production processes so that you can
determine your actual maximum capacity. This can be as simple as
identifying and timing your bottleneck processes, or as sophisticated as
digitally mapping your factory floor to train advanced analytics algorithms
on your operations.
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13. A Guide to Production Planning in
Manufacturing Industry
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Conclusion
Currently, the business environment is typified by increasing market and
supply chain complexity, globalization and global competition, waves of
protectionism, and customer expectations of more sophisticated products.
So, a dedicated planning process can assist prevent future production
problems and improve margins by increasing operations efficiency. At
Polestar Solutions, we offer comprehensive services designed to simplify the
complex responsibilities organizations face in Production. We have a team of
leading experts capable of providing the best advice and solutions for your
business.
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