Posts Tagged: "Production Management Concepts"

Dispatch Function in Production Management

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Meaning of Dispatching

Dispatch function executes planning function. It is concerned with getting the work started. Dispatching ensures that the plans are properly implemented. Dispatching is the physical handing over of a manufacturing order to the operating facility (a worker) through the release of orders and instructions in accordance with a previously developed plan of activity (time and sequence) established by the scheduling section of the production planning and control department. Dispatcher transmits orders to  the various shops. Dispatch function determines, by whom the job shall be done and it co-ordinates production. It is the key point of a production communications system. It creates a direct link between production and sales.

A dispatcher is familiar with the productive capacity of each equipment. He always keeps an eye over the progress of orders which move at different speeds on different routes.

Dispatch Procedure

The product is broken into different components and components into operations.

  1. Store Issue Order: Authorize stores (department) to deliver required raw material.
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Tool Control in Production Management

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Meaning of Tool Control

Tool control implies (1) determining tool requirements (2) procuring necessary tools and (3) controlling/maintaining tools once they have been procured. A tool or process planner must calculate tool requirements prior to the time of production to ensure that proper tools will be available when needed. Lost time resulting from incomplete tools planning can be expensive as well as causing work to delay. In order to facilitate tool control and to limit the investment in tool inventory, it is important to standardize wherever possible all the tools within an organisation.

Need for Tool Control

It is very important to ensure:

  • Against loss through theft or negligence and production delays through misplacement or non-availability of tools.
  • That the investment in tool inventories is minimized consistent with proper tool availability.

Tool Control Procedure

Two methods are commonly used to control the issue and receipt of tools to and from the workers.

  1. The Brass Ring System. Brass rings with worker’s identification number marked on them are issued to every worker when he draws a tool from the crib, he gives one of his, rings to the attendant and the ring is hung on a peg at the tool bin.
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Routing in Production Management

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Meaning of Routing

Routing lays down the flow of work in the plant. It determines what work is to be done and where and how it will be done. Taking from raw material to the finished product, routing decides the path and sequence of operations to be performed on the job from one machine to another. The purpose of Routing is to establish the optimum sequence of operations. Routing is related to considerations of layout, temporary storage of in-process inventory and material handling.

Routing in continuous industries does not present any problem because of the product type of layout, where the equipment is laid as per the sequence of operations required to be performed on the components (from raw material to the finished products). In open job shops, since, every time the job is new, though operation sheets (sometimes) may serve the purpose, but the route sheets will have to be revise and this involves a greater amount of work and expertise.…

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Meaning of Reliability and Maintainability

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Reliability

Reliability may be defined as the probability, or degree of confidence that a product will perform a specified number of times under prescribed conditions. For example, the reliability of an electrical changeover switch may be defined as 0.9999. This may hold true only when it is operated with an input voltage of 440 volts AC, in an environmental temperature range of 0 to 80 degrees C, with humidity less than 90 percent, if its housing has never been opened, if it has been operated less than 1 million times, and if its is less than five years old. Even if any one of these conditions is violated, then the reliability concepts goes off. When parts are interdependent, and especially when there is a large number of them, achieving a high degree of reliability for a product presents and real challenge.

Maintainability

Maintainability refers to the ability of the user to keep the product or system in operating condition with a reasonable amount of effort.…

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Total Quality Management (TQM)

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Quality Control processes in business are aimed at ensuring a good or service is of the standard of quality that the manufacturer or supplier has determined. Under the concept of  Total Quality Management (TQM), quality control extends to every aspect of the way a business operates. In the case of a manufactured good it means that during design, production, and servicing the quality of work and materials must be up to the standard laid down.

The emphasis put on quality control in many countries in recent years was to a large extent a response to the competitive edge Japanese businesses had achieved by paying attention to quality. However, it was an American management consultant, W. Edwards Deming, who brought the message to the Japanese that “the consumer is the most important part of the production line”, and who taught them methods that would help them control quality. Another American, Joseph Juran, also played a key role in promoting the idea that quality is all-important and in developing quality-control methods.…

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Importance of Production Planning and Control

in Operations Management / 1 Comment

Recommended reading: Production planning and control

The system of production planning and control serves as the nervous system of a plant.  It is a co- ordinating agency which co-ordinate the activities of engineering, purchasing, production, selling and stock control departments.  An efficient system of production planning and control helps in providing better and more economic goods to customers at lower investment.  It is essential in all plants irrespective of their nature and size.  The principal advantages of production planning and control are summarized below:

  • Better Service to Customers: Production planning and control, through proper scheduling and expediting of work, helps in providing better services to customers is terms of better quality of goods at reasonable prices as per promised delivery dates. Delivery in time and proper quality, both help in winning the confidence of customers, improving relations with customers and promoting profitable repeat orders.
  • Fewer Rush Orders : In an organization, where there is effective system of production planning and control, production, operations move smoothly as per original planning and matching with the promised delivery dates.  Consequently, there will be fewer rush orders in the plant and less overtime than, in the same industry, without adequate production planning and control.
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