Functional Documentation/Production Management

This document is still a work in progress. It may contain inaccuracies or errors.

Introduction

Production Management is the ability to provide process manufacturers with the means to plan and schedule, track and analyze, and direct and operate their procedures.

It is concerned with the making the quantities of each product group that need to be produced in each period. It can be broken down into three areas: The desired inventory levels. The resource of equipment, labor, and material needed in each period. The availability of the resources needed.

Production planners have to create a plan to satisfy market demand within the resources available to the company. This will involve determining the resources needed to meet the market demand, comparing the results to the resources available, and devising a plan to balance the requirements and availability. The process of determining the resources required and comparing them to the available resources is a capacity management problem. For effective planning, there is a balance between priority and capacity. Along with the market and financial plans, the production plan is concerned with implementing the strategic business plan.

Process Plan

A sequence of events which organizes the manufacturing of one or many products. The same product can be produced using a variety of process plans. However, normally each product has one process plan.

The process plan sets the general levels of production and inventories over the planning horizon. Its prime purpose is to establish production rates that will accomplish the objectives of a strategic business plan. These include inventory levels, backlogs, customer orders, market demand etc. The plan must extend far enough into the future to plan for the labor, equipment, facilities, and material needs needed to accomplish it.

The process plan consists of: ∑ Products Manufactured ∑ Activities Involved ∑ Toolsets Used ∑ Product Use

Setup

The setup for a process plan consists of:

Section: A list of different areas of manufacturing that exist in a company

Work Center: A coordinated group of machines processes and toolset processes setup in order to organize the completion of a task. The work center is often composed of a number of machines and workers capable of doing the same work. The machines will normally be similar so there are no differences in the kind of work the machines can do or the capacity of each.

Activity: Required actions using toolsets toward the puose of completing a task.

Toolset: A group of objects (tools) for use in activities. Examples of toolsets are a saw and a mold. Each toolset is categorized by toolset type and for safety reasons includes a maximum times of use limit.

Machine: Devices used in the company manufacturing process. The machines can be grouped by category. The categories are used for the maintenance module. The definition of each machine can include the purchase date and the lifespan. It is also possible to define the desired maintenance for each machine.

Cost Center: Part of the organization that does not produce direct profits and adds to the cost of running a company. Examples include R&D departments, marketing departments, help desks and customer service centers. Although not always demonstrably profitable, a cost center typically adds to revenue indirectly or fulfils some other corporate mandate. Money spent on R&D, for example, may yield innovations that will be profitable in the future.

Periodic Quality Control: Control tests that ensure the quality of the product.

Indirect Cost: Activities that production is dependant on but are not directly involved in the manufacturing process I.E. Marketing, Maintenance.

Quality Control Point: Taken for measures taken during the production and a Maintenance module

Work Incidence: Listing of issues and accidents that occur during the work day.

Work Requirement

Work Requirement determines the amount of work that needs to be done in a specified period of time. Planning for the work requirement involves examining the resources required to meet the process plan and finding ways of making the capacity (labor and equipment and material) available. The process plan will not be implemented unless the company has sufficient capacity to fill the demand. Consequently, Work Requirement planning links the various production priority schedules to manufacturing resources.

Work Effort

This relates to the speed or pace at which the work is done. If the workforce changes pace, perhaps producing more in a given time then the capacity will be altered.

Quality Control

Assists the planner in locating and editing errors within the project. The reports catalog operator comments. They should check for completeness, consistency and provide constructive quality management input. Quality control reports need to be run periodically through the lifecycle of the process plan.

Periodic Quality Control Data

Typically a business creates a General Specification for each product. A Quality Level needs to be specified in the General Specification. Subsequently product designers are able to build that quality level into the products produced. Quality can be measured by the following dimensions: Performance (Reliability, Durability, Maintainability), Features, Conformance, Warranty, Service, Aesthetics, Perceived Quality and Price.

Internal Consumption

Material consumption for a specific project or for an internal use which has no sale associated with it.

Maintenance Plan

A good maintenance plan provides an organized and disciplined approach to ensuring a high level of manufacturing system availability. It also ensures that the system operates as efficiently and safely as intended. The scope of a maintenance plan includes the overall manufacturing system and it’s interaction with other ongoing activities, particularly production scheduling.

Maintenance Order

An instruction indicating specific tools, machines, or devices that need maintenance before performing any production activities.

Maintenance, repair and operational supplies (MROs) Items used in production that do not become part of the product. These include hand tools, spare parts, lubricants and cleaning supplies.

Insert Maintenances

Insert maintenance tasks or routines are required to ensure the correct maintenance of individual equipment in terms of maintenance intervals.

Standard Cost

The method uses cost determined before production begins. The cost includes direct material, direct labor, and overhead. Any difference between the standard cost and actual cost is stated as a variance. Standard costing is used for budgeting and planning, product pricing and inventory valuation.

Production Costs

The production cost of a product is determined by the sum of the cost of the resources that went into making it (labour, material, equipment). Calculating cost price enable a selling price to be set.

Pending Production Reports

Pending Production Reports list all the orders due to be executed. They have a variety of uses. They can be used to estimate cost for a pending production or to clarify whether the Production (Process) Plan will achieve the overall business goals of the company. On a more specific level the user will be able to determine at a glance the number of products ordered or on-hand.

Production Run Status Report

For a given product in production, the report shows the status of each work requirement and each phase of a work requirement, in terms of: quantity required, done and left to be done. Each phase of a work requirement is displayed as a work effort. Other information included in the report details the speed at which the work is being done, a refund quantity and whether the phase is closed I.E. the required quantity has been built.