Lesson Plan 3
Topics to be covered today.
Forecasting
The Nature of Planning and Control
Capacity Management
Inventory Management
Supply Chain Management
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
Forecasting (Slack, page 183)
http://practicalforecasting.com/index.html
“The basic structure of a forecast model is shown above. Certain inputs (data) and assumptions feed the model, and a forecast is created of some variable. In the example of the sales forecast, the input might be the number of salespeople, the assumptions might include productivity and work hours, and the forecast is the expected sales figure given these inputs and assumptions.”
http://practicalforecasting.com/forecast-structure.html
Experienced managers often note that forecasting should be viewed as more art than science.
Any forecasting should present two things:
https://www.nap.edu/read/9865/chapter/7
The usefulness of the model and
Its limitations
Note, that a forecast must depend on assumptions about the future values of variables that drive the model.
Furthermore, it has been said, “All models are wrong; however, some models are useful.”
General Forecasting Approaches / Avercast, LLC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp-1_9mLlbc
In-Depth Look at Forecasting.
Forecasting 1: An Overview / Dr. Harvey Millar, St. Mary’s University, Canada.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozZY6z483Yw&t=818s
“Basic Financial Forecasting for Startups,” by Selena Sol, 8/9/13.
https://www.slideshare.net/selenasol/ground-up-financialmodelv3/12-2014_2015_2016_2017_2018
The Nature of Planning and Controlling the Delivery (Slack, page 286 – 321)
“The market requires products and services delivered to the requested time, quantity, and quality. Operations supplies the delivered products and services.” Slack, Operations Management, © 2013, page 287.
“Central to an operations ability to deliver is the way it plans its activities and controls them so that customers’ demands are satisfied.”
“Planning and control involves scheduling, coordinating, and organizing operations activities.”
“Planning and control are separate but closely related activities.”
“Planning is the formalization of what is intended to happen at some time in the future.”
“Control activities make the adjustments which allow the operation to achieve the objectives that the plan has set, even when the assumptions on which the plan was based do not hold true.”
Capacity Management (Slack, pages 322 – 360)
Strategic Capacity Planning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUDn0-kCWM0
“Capacity planning and control is also sometimes referred to as aggregate planning and control.”
“With respect to capacity management, the market requires the availability of products and services, while company operations is the unit that supplies the capacity to deliver product and services.”
Operations Principle: Any measure of capacity should reflect the ability of an operation or process to supply demand.
Many organizations operate below their maximum processing capacity either because there is insufficient demand to “fill” their capacity or as a deliberate policy, so that operations can respond quickly to every new order.
Often, organizations find themselves with some parts of their operation operating below their capacity while other parts are at their full capacity.
It is the parts of the organization that are operating at their “capacity ceiling” which are the “capacity constraint” for the whole operation.
“Capacity planning and control is the task of setting the effective capacity of the operation so that it can respond to the demands placed upon it.”
Inventory Management (Slack, pages 368 – 403)
“With respect to inventory management in a company, the market requires a quantity of product and services at a particular time and operations supplies the delivery of a quantity of products and services when required.”
“Inventory management refers to the process of ordering, storing, using, and selling a company’s inventory. This includes the management of raw materials, components, and finished products, as well as warehousing and processing of such items.” Investopedia
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/inventory-management.asp
How to Analyze a Company’s Inventory.
How to Analyze a Company’s Inventory (investopedia.com)
Fishbowl Inventory Management Videos.
What is Inventory Management? (3.75 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl5zEPRkp0U&t=2s
Inventory Basics (2.5 minutes)
Inventory Basics – Whiteboard Wednesday – YouTube
What are Common Inventory Problems? (2.75 minutes)
What are Common Inventory Problems – Whiteboard Wednesday – YouTube
Inventory Metrics (4.75 minutes)
Inventory Metrics – Whiteboard Wednesday – YouTube
Manufacturing: Push or Pull? (4.0 minutes)
Manufacturing: Push or Pull? – Whiteboard Wednesday – YouTube
Pick, Pack, and Ship (5.25 minutes)
Pick, Pack, And Ship – Whiteboard Wednesday – YouTube
Supply Chain Management (Slack, pages 404 – 438)
“With respect to supply chain management issues in a company, the market requires specified time, quantity and quality of product and services, while the company operations unit supplies the coordinated delivery of products and services from the supply chain.”
Dr. Harvey Millar / Finance, Information Systems, and Management Science / Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary’s University / Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Introduction to Supply Chain Management (Part 1) / 20 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvSpuQJ2CDw
Introduction to Supply Chain Management (Part 2) / 21 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVzZYvS9nM4
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) (Slack, pages 439 – 455)
“One of the most important issues in planning and controlling operations is managing the sometimes vast amounts of information generated by the activity.”
What is “enterprise resource planning”?
“Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a process used by companies to manage and integrate the important parts of their businesses. Many ERP software applications are important to companies because they help them implement resource planning by integrating all the processes needed to run their companies with a single system. An ERP software system can also integrate planning, purchasing inventory, sales, marketing, finance, human resources, and more.”
Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/erp.asp
“Enterprise Resource Planning” / Gartner Glossary.
https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/glossary/enterprise-resource-planning-erp
Leading ERP Software Vendors.
Oracle
https://www.oracle.com/erp/
SAP
https://www.sap.com/products/enterprise-management-erp.html
Microsoft Dynamics 365
https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/erp/what-is-erp/
Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) (Slack, see page 456 – 463)
What is Materials Requirements Planning? / Reference Investopedia.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mrp.asp
“Material requirements planning (MRP) is a computer-based inventory management system designed to improve productivity for businesses.”
“In general, companies use MRP systems to estimate quantities of raw materials and schedule their delivery.”
Key Takeaways Regarding the Concept of MRP:
Material requirement planning systems were the earliest computer-based inventory management platforms introduced to the manufacturing environment.
Businesses use MRP to improve their productivity.
MRP works backward from a production plan for finished goods to develop inventory requirements for components and raw materials.
Advantages of the MRP process include the assurance that materials and components will be available when needed, minimized inventory levels, reduced customer lead times, optimized inventory management, and improved overall customer satisfaction.
About Production Planning.
https://searcherp.techtarget.com/definition/production-planning
An MRP system is intended to simultaneously meet three objectives:
Ensure the availability of raw materials for production and that products will be available for delivery to customers.
Maintain the lowest possible material and product levels in store.
Plan manufacturing activities, delivery schedules and purchasing activities.
Key Differences between ERP and MRP Systems.
https://www.qad.com/blog/2021/06/erp-vs-mrp-key-differences-and-features
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