One of the most difficult tasks in Production Planning is accurately estimating the ‘productive capacity of resources’*. In other words, balancing Resources vs. Capacities, which can make the manufacturing process flow highly efficient.
Some of the core deliverables of Production Planning are as follows:
- Finding the required Product Mix
- Assessing available Factory Load
- Matching Capacities and Resources
- Scheduling Production optimally
- Routing and Controls
The complexity arises when Operation and Planning teams don’t have visibility to observe the impact of resources, capacities & scheduling under various assumptions and scenarios. This impacts the efficiency & effectiveness of production flow.
While this is just one hurdle, many such challenges may arise in a manufacturing enterprise. To manage this, it is critical to monitor & optimize variance between Production Load and Capacity or Resource Count Available vs. Required. This is where products like ValQ can deliver great value.
With ValQ, Modern Visual Planning for Microsoft Power BI, you can easily create multiple what-if scenarios and compare them to identify a best-fit production planning process. You can also leverage mathematical, logical, and financial functions similar to spreadsheet formulae – all without having to write code. You can model your custom processes across MRP, Capacity Planning, Production Planning, Finance Planning, Sales Planning, P&L Management, and more.
In the next blog, we will take a quick look into OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) which is one of the most commonly used metrics for understanding Manufacturing Productivity and explore how it can be improved.
Stay tuned to know more about ValQ for Production Planning.
*Reference: Solberg, James J. “Capacity planning with a stochastic workflow model.” AIIE Transactions 13.2 (1981): 116-122
