Operations Management For Dummies

Chapter 9

Planning for Successful Operations

In This Chapter

Putting together an operations plan

Creating an aggregate plan and master schedule

Conducting material requirements planning

Performing operations planning in service-based companies

Implementing an enterprise resource planning system

Ben Franklin said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” This is particularly true of operations management because of the interdependencies of all the various components, including resources, materials, and processes. Trying to manage complex business operations with a seat-of-your-pants approach, hoping that the process will somehow evolve into something efficient without planning, is a losing proposition. To win at the game of operations, you need to plan.

In this chapter, we show you how to plan operations with a hierarchical approach. We describe tools you can use to plan operations at both the corporate and facility levels and point out how to apply your plans to process scheduling. ...