Planning and control

Chapter 7
WHAT IS PLANNING AND CONTROL?

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. It provides the systems, procedures and
decisions which bring different aspects of supply
and demand together.
What is the difference between planning
and control?
- A plan is a formalization of what is intended to happen at
some time in the future. Control is the process of coping
with changes to the plan and the operation to which it
relates. Although planning and control are theoretically
separable, they are usually treated together.
- The balance between planning and control changes over
time. Planning dominates in the long term and is usually
done on an aggregated basis. At the other extreme, in the
short term, control usually operates within the resource
constraints of the operation but makes interventions into the
operation in order to cope with short-term changes in
circumstances.
Long-, medium- and short-term planning
and control
 In the very long term, operations managers make plans concerning
what they intend to do, what resources they need, and what
objectives they hope to achieve. The emphasis is on planning rather
than control, because there is little to control as such. They will use
forecasts of likely demand described in aggregated terms.
 Medium-term planning and control is more detailed. It looks ahead to
assess the overall demand which the operation must meet in a
partially disaggregated manner.
 In short-term planning and control, many of the resources will have
been set and it will be difficult to make large changes. However, short-
term interventions are possible if things are not going to plan.
How do supply and demand affects
planning and control
 Uncertainty in supply and demand
Uncertainty is important in planning and control because it
makes it more difficult. Sometimes the supply of inputs to an
operation may be uncertain.

 Dependent and independent demand

Some operations can predict demand with relative certainty
because demand for their ser-vices or products is dependent
upon some other factor which is known. This is known as
dependent demand.
 Responding to demand
It is clear then that the nature of planning and control in any operation
will depend on how it responds to demand, which is in turn related to the
type of services or products it produces.
 P:D ratios 4
Another way of characterizing the graduation between ‘Design, resource,
create and deliver to order’ and ‘Choose/collect from stock’ planning and
control is by using a P : D ratio. This contrasts the total length of time
customers have to wait between asking for the service or product and
receiving it, called the demand time, D , and the total throughput time
from start to finish, P . Throughput time is how long the operation takes
to design the service or product (if it is customized), obtain the
resources, create and deliver it.
WHAT ARE THE ACTIVITIES OF PLANNING
AND CONTROL?
LOADING
Loading is the amount of work that is allocated to a work
centre.

- Finite and infinite loading

Finite loading is an approach which only allocates work to a
work centre (a person, a machine, or perhaps a group of
people or machines) up to a set limit.
SEQUENCING
Whether the approach to loading is finite or infinite, when work arrives,
decisions must be taken on the order in which the work will be tackled.
This activity is termed ‘sequencing’.

- Physical constraints
The physical nature of the inputs being processed may determine the
priority of work.
- Customer priority
Operations will sometimes use customer priority sequencing, which
allows an important or aggrieved customer, or item, to be ‘processed’
prior to others, irrespective of the order of arrival of the customer or
item
- Due date (DD)
Prioritizing by due date means that work is sequenced according
to when it is ‘due’ for delivery, irrespective of the size of each
job or the importance of each customer.

- Last in, first out (LIFO)

Last in, first out (LIFO) is a method of sequencing usually
selected for practical reasons.

- First in, first out (FIFO)

Some operations serve customers in exactly the sequence they
arrive in. This is called first in, first out (FIFO) sequencing, or
sometimes ‘first come, first served’ (FCFS). F
- Longest operation time (LOT)
Operations may feel obliged to sequence their longest jobs first,
called longest operation time sequencing.

- Shortest operation time (SOT) first

Most operations at some stage become cash constrained. In these
situations, the sequencing rules may be adjusted to tackle short jobs
first; this is called shortest operation time sequencing.

- Judging sequencing rules

All five performance objectives, or some variant of them, could be
used to judge the effectiveness of sequencing rules. However, the
objectives of dependability, speed and cost are particularly important.
SCHEDULING
Having determined the sequence that work is to be tackled in, some
operations require a detailed timetable showing at what time or date
jobs should start and when they should end – this is scheduling.
Schedules are familiar statements of volume and timing in many
consumer environments.

- The complexity of scheduling

The scheduling activity is one of the most complex tasks in operations
management.

- Forward and backward scheduling

Forward scheduling involves starting work as soon as it arrives. Backward
scheduling involves starting jobs at the last possible moment to prevent
them from being late.
- Gantt charts
One crude but simple method of scheduling is by use of the
Gantt chart. This is a simple device which represents time as
a bar, or channel, on a chart.

- Scheduling work patterns

Where the dominant resource in an operation is its staff,
then the schedule of work times effectively determines the
capacity of the operation itself.
MONITORING AND CONTROLLING THE OPERATION
Having created a plan for the operation through loading,
sequencing and scheduling, each part of the operation has to be
monitored to ensure that planned activities are indeed happening.

- Push and pull control

- Drum, buffer, rope
CONTROLLING OPERATIONS IS NOT ALWAYS ROUTINE
- Expert control
- Trial-and-error control
- Intuitive control
- Negotiated control
Thank You!