Production planning is the preparation of production and manufacturing modules in a company or industry.

It utilizes the resource distribution of activities of employees, materials and production capacity, in order to serve diverse customers.

A production plan aids as a guide for your company’s production activities. It creates and categorizations activities which must be carried out to achieve a production target so that all staff involved are aware of who needs to do what, when, where and how.

A production plan will help a business meet product demand while minimizing production time and cost by improving process flow, minimizing the waiting time between operations, and optimizing the use of the plant, equipment, and inventory. In order to do this, a business must align their production plan to the business strategy and business plan, and support production planning by coordinating with other departments, such as procurement, finance, and marketing.

Different types of production methods, such as single item manufacturing, batch production, mass production, continuous production etc. have their own type of production planning. Production planning can be combined with production control into production planning and control.

Here are the following steps, in which ways you can ensure production planning error-free,

1- Forecast the demand of your product

Estimate your business’s demand, so that you know how many products are needed to be produced during a specific time period. You may already have some confirmed orders for the next couple of month, but on top of that, you need to predict how many more may come. Different methods exist to forecast your product demand. A traditional technique for estimation of product demand is based on historical information.

2- Determine potential options for production

Determine the different production options available to meet the forecasted demand for your product. Start by mapping all the steps of your production development& take into accounts if the tasks are sequenced or dependent on another task. Also, determine the resource needed to complete each assignment.

3- Choose the option for production that uses the combination of resources more effectively

Compare the cost and time of each possible production option and choose the option that uses the most efficient blend of resources and that allows you to meet product demand. The chosen option should maximize the operational capacity of your firm.

4- Monitor & control your Inventory

Inventory management is a method of balancing capital investment objectives and service-level goals over a large collection of stock-keeping units while taking demand and supply into account. Having a control system in place helps you detect problems as soon as they occur, allowing you more time to correct before it is too late.

5- Adjust

Always be prepared to adjust the plan if the need arises. The production plan needs to be flexible to accommodate changes in customers’ demand. Also, you need to take into account possible risks that may arise during the production process & plan further for that.

Key benefits of using software for the management of Production Planning.

  • From the very beginning, one can manage all the sales order status in the single dashboard, sort by date, by shippable amount, or by a customer.
  • One can save the customer address information on the sales receipts or invoices of shipping labels, complete with tracking numbers and barcodes for further usage.
  • One can send out invoices via e-mail easily. The faster invoices get out, the faster you are likely to get paid. The process of making invoices and recording them can be seamless, fast and automatic.
  • It is made easy to know exactly what still needs to be shipped and what items are still expected from vendors.
  • Vendor list & customer list are created & the information’s saves only once so that it can save time while further dealing with them.
  • Track inventory between the locations and transfer items from one place to another like from the godown to the factory hassle free.
  • Managing inventory is made easy with the help of barcode scanning & tracking.

Managing Production Planning with SlickAccount

There are many things to manage for production such as distribution management, order management, inventory management & logistics. Three things that one must keep in mind while taking production planning into accounts is the cost of production, raw materials & progress for finish goods.

SlickAccount helps you customize a solution for your manufacturing business. It has useful features that make your production planning easy for your business. Regulate order management; generate bills of material reports & invoices. You can manage your data effectively in a cloud-based interface for purchase, planning & production.

1- Purchase

Select your manufacturing business, then go to invoices & create purchase invoices for goods. The page is then directed to the purchase details where you can fill the invoice details, vendor information, item summary & payment details.

For vendor or customer information, you need to define the details only once
& the items sold or purchased by them are stored for further use. You can track inventory and check whether you are sort of any of your goods or you have surplus supplies.

2. Planning

Once you have purchased your goods, you have to make an executable plan.

Go to items and then create a new process. Here you can add all the new raw materials bought later & add additional expenses that you faced during production.

3- Production

Finally, you have reached a stage where you complete your production planning with success & have the automated finish goods unit price. Go for create process & then select the plan you need to execute. You can manage multiple projects at the same time as well.

Then you are directed to a page where you can create & edit your plan. Here, also you can also add the extra charges or expenses that you have spent during the progression of your project. To avoid any confusion, the new raw materials & expenses are added at the different stage of planning & production.

A manufacturing business needs to keep track of its expenses & all the changes at a different time, so it is smart to use a software that understands your business needs, reduce human error & complexity, and also help you in executing your production planning effectively.