 Today we will be discussing introductory concepts related to production planning and control. At the end of the session, you will be able to explain the various functions of PPC and apply the knowledge to prepare a production plan of a manufacturing unit. Let us see the contents. We will start with introduction, meaning and definition of production planning and control. What it means by production planning and what are its objectives, what is production control and its objectives, what are the various elements of PPC, limitations of PPC and finally the references. As all of you know, production planning and control is a major vital department in almost all the manufacturing setups. It is a link between marketing and the dispatch department, marketing and operations department, marketing and the manufacturing department. It is generally acting as a transition phase of receiving customer order and then preparing the entire production plan, right-swims from procurement, the material to the variety of conversions, then finally assembly, testing, packing and dispatch. After the dispatch, it has to ensure that the material is dispatched to the customer as per his requirements. So, what is the meaning of production planning and control? It is concerned with the directing production along the lines set by the planning department. Production planning and control is the coordination of series of functions according to a plan which will economically utilize the planned facilities and regulate the orderly movement of goods through the entire manufacturing cycle from the procurement of all material to shipping of the finished goods at a predetermined rate. If you look to the definition with a closer look, you will find that there are lot of terms which are appearing in the definition. First it calls for a plan, it calls for economic utilization of the plant and it calls for a regular orderly movement of the goods through the entire work cycle, manufacturing of the products and goods and then finally it is shipping of the goods at a predetermined rate, predetermined rate is as agreed by the customer in the PO. Production planning and control involves two stages. The first part is production planning and second is production control. Once marketing department finalizes the order, it sends the order copy to the PPC and then PPC will start working on it. It starts with the various plans of various departments, procurement of material, then manufacturing, then assembly, then inspection and quality control and then finally dispatching packing and dispatching. These are the various stages where PPC will come into the picture and finally PPC will coordinate continuously with all other departments and will be giving the feedback to the marketing department. Marketing department will also ask continuously to the PPC what is the status of the particular order. So what is the definition of production planning? As you know plan will consist of what should be done, how the work will be done, who will be doing it, what is the tentative time required for it, what are the various activities involved in the entire plan. All these planning definition as related to production becomes the definition of production planning, which mainly considers about how the production is to be done, by whom, how much, what is the quantity, what is the batch quantity, what is the cycle time required and who will be doing is, what work should, allotment should be done. All these things are called as the part of the production planning. The objective of production planning is to optimize all the resources, resources of man, material, machine, equipment, hardware, software, all other accessories and utilities. We have to see that utilization of optimal resources will ensure the profits and profitability. To achieve on-time delivery performance, a big concern nowadays that many companies are somehow able to achieve the delivery targets, not into 100 percent, nowadays the competitive advantage has somehow remained into the 100 percent on-time delivery performance because quality and the specifications rate are agreed of the customer and those are taken to be granted nowadays. The only variable that affects the business and which gives the customer satisfaction is on-time delivery performance. So, one of the objectives of the production planning becomes to have to deliver the products on-time to the customer 100 percent. To ensure availability of the material at right time, right quality and right quantity, the PPC starts with procurement of material, we have to ensure that material availability is a major crucial thing because without material we cannot start production at all. Customer gives some lead time, suppose X, out of that lead time given by the customer to manufacture, most of the lead time is consumed by the material department only because material purchasing will take its own time and as a result of that the time required for the manufacturing will be very less as compared to the total cycle time given by the customer. To coordinate amongst all the cross functional departments, as I said mainly the design department, material department or procure department, then manufacturing, outsourcing, quality, assembly, testing, packing and then advising up to all these stages the PPC department has to coordinate with all the departments and continuously get the feedback from the customer through marketing and also give the feedback to the customer through marketing. To identify the constraint and find possible solution for the same, in the manufacturing or operation cycle, there are some resources which are moving at a very slow speed as a result of that output of that constraint will decide the output of the entire project or entire manufacturing activity. So, we have to identify during planning phase what is the possible constraint and what can be the solution for it, there are variety of solutions which are possible on the constraint where to identify during planning stage and somehow link it to the customer delivery. To ensure the cost effectiveness, economics is a major vital role in the production planning especially the batch quantity, minimum order quantity on the material department, batch quantity for processing of manufacturing, assembly, testing, transportation cost everywhere it is a batch related issues and therefore it generally calls for cost effectiveness. As a result of all 1 to 6, the final it will be coming into one line to see that utilization of the entire plan capacity is up to the maximum level so that maximum utilization will only lead to better profits and profitability. Production we coming to the production control, production control refers to the ensuring that all which occurs in is in accordance with the rules established and instructions issued. In short in simple form whether plan is moving accordingly or actuals and the plan we have to compare what is actually happening and what is the plan we have to compare actual versus plan and then take the feedback apply proper corrective actions this is in short called as production control, whether things are moving or as per plan and then what corrective actions it calls for that is the simple definition of production control. The objective of production control is we have to give the comparison between plan versus actual and if necessary take corrective action. Corrective action will be expedite wherever necessary there will be some resources will be moving at a slower speed that needs to be expedited to judge the impact on the cost and profitability in case of delays to find out root cause of the delays and find a system solution. Now, I have to think for a while just find out the answer that what is the difference between production planning and control? Well, the answer is planning looks ahead anticipates possible difficulties and decide in advance how the production is carried out. Control involves whether the planned production has been achieved or not. Planning is a earlier stage control is a stage after production is over. The planning activity is before the production whereas control activities after the production. Control is trying to seek what is the gap between actual versus plant. Now, what are the various elements of the production planning and control? There are six stages six elements the first is planning. Planning involves start a sort of a pre-planning also then next involves routing, scheduling, dispatching, follow up and expediting and inspection. Let us have a quick look about each of these in a very simple manner. What is planning? What is the plan? What exactly we want to achieve converting the customer specifications of customer PO into our production plan is generally involving is a planning. After plan is over then we have to go for routing that is what is the route how the entire production plan is to be converted into the meaningful production and see that we are meeting the deadlines as given by the customer. The route is fixed then next is after the routing we will be going for the scheduling. What is the meaning of scheduling is it is the actual preparation of the detail or timetable of each and every minor activity what is the workstation what is the activity what is the resource required and so on. Dispatching is after the scheduling it is the release of the production for the actual production and once the dispatch of production has started we have to follow up and expedite whether things are moving or whether it needs any expediting so as to achieve the planned deliveries and finally all these things there you have to inspect whether we can be meeting the customer deadlines and see that PPC is achieving its targets. Some are some basic assumptions that it is the most rigid thing difficulty for small firms it is a costly affair and it have to depend on lost of external factors. These are the references which we can go for further detailing as such. Thank you.