Importance Of Production SchedulingProductivity is a measure of output generated per unit of input used. The higher the productivity the higher is the efficiency. For example labor productivity is the number of hours generated per worker. Production on the other hand is the act of producing things that will be sold commercially. Production decisions involve deciding the items to be produced based on expected demand and making a budget of the expected costs. Productivity and production management is the art of coordinating and synchronizing the steps involved in the creation and innovation of products. The main aim of production management is increasing the quantity and quality of goods produced at the minimum cost. To improve productivity it is very important to correctly predict the market demand for the product. In case the demand for the products turns out to be way lower than the prediction then the problem of unsold inventory arises. It gets all the more aggravated when the goods are perishable. In case the demand is underestimated then the company suffers a loss due to its inability to supply the goods demanded. Thus correct prediction is a must and it can be done with the help of excellent information technology. Production scheduling is an important tool for manufacturing and engineering. Scheduling helps in reducing the manufacturing time of a product by providing the production department with vital inputs of what to produce, when to produce and with what resources to produce. Thus it helps to ensure that a proper plan is followed and efficiency is increased. A proper plans leads to maximum efficiency and minimum wastage of resources. Production scheduling tools greatly aids scheduling. These tools give a visual graphical presentation to the planner and hence, facilitate his decision making. Presentation of data in a graphical form helps the production manager to compare data across the year and also to have all the information stored in a compressed form. For example an airline may wish to cut cost by reducing the number of exits. In such a case scheduling software helps the planner to decide by providing information about the flow of passengers, aircraft usage etc. This way production scheduling completely out performs older manual scheduling methods. There are two kinds of scheduling in an organization, forward and backward. In case of forward scheduling plans of allocation of resources is made from the date the raw materials are available to determine the date when the final product can be dispatched. In the case of backward scheduling the reverse order is followed. The date of manufacture is decided keeping in mind the shipment date. There are various advantages of production scheduling. Production scheduling leads to a proper planning of resources and helps to forecasts demands. The prediction of demand leads to appropriate production and reduces the quantity of unsold stock. A proper allocation of resources ensures that a project is neither understaffed nor unduly over staffed. Proper planning leads to planned production and reduces idle time which in turn ensures that the goods are delivered on time. Thus production scheduling greatly influences the profitability of the firm and is unquestionably one of the most important aspect of production management. |