Best Practices for Production Planning and Control

Production planning and control is where customer demand becomes factory action. If planning is weak, production becomes reactive. Machines wait for material. Urgent orders interrupt schedules. QC gets overloaded. Dispatch commitments slip. The owner hears about problems only after they have already become expensive.

For SME manufacturers, production planning and control should be practical, visible, and connected to inventory.

AICAN Optiwise helps manufacturers connect demand, BOM, material readiness, production, QC, and dispatch visibility.

What Is Production Planning and Control?

Production planning decides what to produce, how much to produce, when to produce, and what resources are needed.

Production control tracks whether the plan is being executed and corrects deviations such as delays, shortages, rejection, downtime, or priority changes.

Planning without control becomes a wish list. Control without planning becomes firefighting.

Best Practice 1: Start With Real Demand

Production plans should be based on confirmed orders, forecasts, safety stock needs, and customer priorities.

If demand data is unclear, the factory may produce the wrong items or miss urgent orders.

Best Practice 2: Check BOM Accuracy

BOM accuracy affects material planning and production cost. If BOMs are outdated or incomplete, production may face shortages or consume wrong material.

Review BOMs regularly, especially for high-volume and high-margin products.

Best Practice 3: Confirm Material Readiness

A production plan is realistic only if material is available. Before releasing a work order, check raw material, packing material, consumables, tools, and purchase status.

MRP and ERP reports can help identify shortages early.

Best Practice 4: Plan Capacity Honestly

Capacity is not only machine hours. It includes setup time, manpower, maintenance, tooling, quality checks, material handling, and changeovers.

Overloading the schedule creates delays that everyone can predict but nobody wants to admit.

Best Practice 5: Sequence Work Intelligently

Good sequencing reduces changeover time and improves flow. Similar products, colours, grades, sizes, or processes may be grouped when customer priority allows.

Sequencing should balance efficiency and delivery commitments.

Best Practice 6: Track WIP Clearly

WIP often becomes invisible in SMEs. Material is issued, but output is not recorded on time. This creates confusion in inventory and costing.

Track what is in process, what is completed, what is pending, and what is delayed.

Best Practice 7: Integrate QC

QC should be part of the production plan, not an afterthought. If goods are produced but stuck in QC, they are not ready for dispatch.

Plan inspection time and track accepted, rejected, and rework quantities.

Best Practice 8: Review Plan vs Actual

Every production plan should be compared with actual output. Track planned quantity, actual quantity, delay reasons, rejection, downtime, and material variance.

This helps teams improve rather than repeat the same issues.

Best Practice 9: Connect Dispatch Commitments

Production planning should know customer delivery dates. Dispatch commitments should influence priority, but urgent changes should be visible to everyone affected.

This reduces internal conflict between sales and production.

Best Practice 10: Use ERP for Visibility

ERP helps connect sales orders, BOM, inventory, purchase, production status, QC, and dispatch. This gives planners better information and gives owners clearer reporting.

Optiwise by AICAN supports this connected view for SME manufacturers.

Metrics to Track

Track schedule adherence, material shortage incidents, production delay reasons, machine utilization, rejection percentage, rework, WIP ageing, QC hold time, and on-time dispatch.

These metrics reveal where planning needs improvement.

Founder’s Note

At AICAN, we believe production planning should be grounded in what the factory can actually do. A good plan respects material, capacity, quality, and customer promise. Optiwise is built to help SMEs create plans that are visible, executable, and measurable.

FAQs

What is production planning and control?

It is the process of planning production and tracking execution against the plan.

Why is material readiness important?

Production cannot run reliably if required materials are missing or not approved.

How does ERP help production planning?

ERP connects demand, BOM, inventory, purchase, production, QC, and dispatch data.

What metrics should manufacturers track?

Schedule adherence, delays, shortages, rejection, WIP, QC hold time, and on-time dispatch are useful metrics.

Where can I learn more?

Visit AICAN Optiwise and About AICAN.