T7: Resource planning and control (Ch10)

Key elements (see Fig 10.2 p.327)

  1. The customer interface
  1. The core mechanics of planning and control #
  1. The supply/supplier interface
  1. The decision mechanisms of planning and control

Scheduling (when)

Sequencing (what order)

Loading (how much)

Monitoring and control (going to plan?)

Information systems

Planning and control staff

Other functions of the business

Should reflect the operations objectives

Acts as a trigger function

Defines the customer experience

Communication and negotiation

flexibility, adaptability and learning

Integration

Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) (p.354)

  1. Master Production Schedule (MPS)

Inputs

Outputs

Customer orders

Forecast demand

Materials requirement planning (MRP)

Additional inputs

Outputs

Bills of Materials (BOM)

Inventory records

Purchase orders

Materials plans

Works orders

Based on 'chase' or 'level' demand schedules

Available to Promise (ATP) information - i.e. what is available that can be sold

MRP netting process - calculating stock/demand/orders

Back-scheduling of component parts

Lead-times for ordering

Order quantities

When they are needed

Stock-on-hand

MRP capacity checks

All but the simplest MRP systems have closed-loop systems to ensure against over capacity issues

Methods

Resources requirements plans (RRPs) - long-term

Rough-cut capacity plans (RCCPs) - short- to medium-term

Capacity requirements plans (CRPs) - day-to-day

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) (p.331)

Developed and sold by companies such as SAP / Oracle / Baan

Integrates all functions of the organisation to align their resource requirements, i.e. finance / accounting / HR / Marketing / Sales / etc

Grew out of MRP and MRPII but a much broader system

Aimed at planning and control of all resources across the organisation, i.e. inventory, capacity , cash, personnel, facilities, capital

Benefits

Force process improvements

Improved control

Greater visibility across the whole business

More sophisticated, accurate and timely communication with customers and supply chain partners

Integration with supply chain partners

Web-integration

Supply network integration

Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) (p.334)

Goal is to have more cross-functional strategic cohesion, rather than little silos with their own agendas

Considers a 18-24 mth period to fit between short and long-term planning

Generally reviewed monthly by senior management level

Four concepts of short-term process capacity management

Sequencing

Scheduling

Loading

Monitoring and controlling

Finite (elevator)

Infinite (escalator)

CGC examples

Relevant where:

It is necessary to limit load

It is not cost prohibitive to limit load

It is possible to limit load

Tee bookings

7-Day memberships

Relevant where:

CGC examples

It is not necessary to limit load

It is cost prohibitive to limit load

It is not possible to limit load

Clubhouse services

Proshop services

Overall memberships

Some predefined rules

Customer priority

Due date (DD)

Last in, first out (LIFO)

First in, first out (FIFO) or First come, first served (FCFS)

Longest operation time first (LOT)

Shortest operation time first (SOT)

Due to complexity of the number of possible schedules in even simple organisations, scheduling aims for 'acceptable' not optimal

Gantt charts (p.339)

Push control

Pull control - triggered by the customer only

Comparing outputs to the plan to identify variations

Assess and adjust accordingly based on changes needed to the plan

Difficulties with control:

Is there consensus over what the operation's objectives should be?

Are the effects of interventions into the operation predictable?

Are the operations activities largely repetitive?

Types of control

Routine control

Expert control

Trial-and-error control

Intuitive control

Negotiated control

Ambiguous situations

Needs 'political' skills

Unambiguous / Process knowledge incomplete / Not repetitive

Needs decision skills

Needs knowledge-building skills

Unambiguous / Process knowledge incomplete / Repetitive

Needs networking skills

Unambiguous / Process knowledge complete / Not repetitive

Needs systematisation skills

Unambiguous / Process knowledge complete / Repetitive

Bottleneck concepts

Theory of Constraints (TOC) (p.341)

OPT principles outlined on p.341

Focus on bottlenecks as the only part of the process that can really make a difference

Based on Optimised Production Technology (OPT) principles

Drum, buffer, rope concept (p.343)

Buffer - Inventory around the bottleneck to mitigate delays

Rope - the line of communication to stay on top of buffers and drums (bottlenecks), anticipating and addressing problems

Drum - the bottleneck sets the drum beat for the process