Production planning

Production planning determines what products to make, when to make them, and in what quantities, coordinating demand with available materials, labor, equipment, and capacity.

Master production schedule: A time-phased plan specifying which finished products will be produced and in what quantities. It turns the production plan into dated quantities for specific finished goods.
Demand forecasting: The estimation of future customer demand using historical data and other information. Forecasts provide a forward-looking basis for deciding planned output.
Job shop: A production system that processes varied jobs through shared work centers, often in changing sequences. Its varied routes make detailed order-level planning especially important.
Push–pull production system: A production system combining forecast-driven push processes with demand-triggered pull processes. It offers a hybrid between planning output in advance and responding to actual consumption.
Material requirements planning: A method that calculates the materials and components needed to meet a production schedule. It translates planned output into timed requirements for parts and raw materials.
Bill of materials: A structured list of the components and quantities required to make a product. Planners use it to calculate component needs for each production quantity.
Flow shop: A production system in which products move through workstations in a largely fixed sequence. Its repeatable routing supports plans based on product rates and line capacity.
Kanban: A visual signaling method that authorizes replenishment or production when downstream demand occurs. Kanban can control shop-floor flow without relying solely on centralized schedules.
Capacity planning: The process of determining whether resources can meet planned production workloads. A plan must fit the available labor, machinery, and operating time.
Lead time: The elapsed time between starting a process or request and its completion or receipt. Lead times determine how early materials and production orders must be planned.

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