Your level of skill, efficiency, and design of goods and services often decides your survival. Your plan is what determines and controls your efficiency and design. Without careful planning, today's high-speed machinery can turn out bad product at an alarming rate.

You benefit greatly from a good plan by avoiding production of the wrong or unsalable product. It also prevents producing product or service at excessive and disastrously high cost, which simply can't be recovered be selling price. Our economy is market driven, as is increasingly true throughout the world. Customers will not pay more for a brand that is virtually identical to lower priced competitors. A moderate for a much superior product, yes, but otherwise customers are highly price sensitive.
The aim for us is to give our clients some useful production planning guidelines. We will discuss and explain them, demonstrate them and then provide a practical production planning form.

The two keys to successful production planning have already been mentioned: the right product or services and the right price. Or, indifferent words, the proper design produced efficiently at low cost so a market price can cover costs and show a profit.

Efficiency. Since our economy is market driven, we prosper and are rewarded when we satisfy the customer at a reasonable price. If a production planner and manager can produce a product so efficiently that it can be priced lower than the competition, customers will reward that product by buying the producer. Clearly the action word is efficiently (meaning more and better goods from a limited set of resources). costs per unit are less.

The point is that you must calculate volume savings, but you must also measure savings these other costs of large quantities. When you add it all up, they will reduce expected savings on volume production. Ignoring this is a mistake amateur planners often make.

Use just in time delivery and inventory control. If you plan your product by product or date with care and accuracy, you can enjoy added savings. Thoughtful plans replace cash and expense. You can and should schedule supplies to arrive "right on time" to be used in production This amazingly reduces the high cost of storage and productions well as tying up money in materials inventory. The key here is to work closely with a good supplier who can deliver proper amounts at precisely scheduled times. Suppliers too are watching their inventory.

Quality control is a vital part of production planning. First, have detailed and accurate knowledge of product specifications. Second, be sure that procedures produce to those specs exactly. Make small test runs if this is practical. Third, Review customer complaints and returned product to identify needed corrections. Fifth, make extra efforts to prevent flaws from the occurring. Sixth, arrange for inspection points and sampling. Seventh, give quality control a very high priority. Low performance in this area by many US companies has caused serious loss of market share, sales, profits and jobs.

Material handling is a source of high cost when done improperly, but of major saving when done correctly. An easy way to plan good, efficient methods at little or no cost is to talk to your material suppliers. Often, they will gladly tell you how your competitors do it? Also, material handling equipment sellers will gladly tell you how your competitors recommend various systems. But be careful: don't buy fancy equipment that performs beyond your needs. In a small firm, simple methods and equipment usually do the job best.

Storage, packing and shipping plans are also major sources of costs or savings. Good programs can be obtained from the sources of cost just motioned, often at no cost. Test several methods and consider suggestions by the plant people who perform the functions every day. Offer a small incentive on volume handling and you will amazed at peoples ingenuity.