Describe the nature & importance of production management?
Nature and Importance of Production Management
Production management has become an important now a day that it is treated to be a separate, independent functional area of management.Production management has assumed its importance because of the following reason:
1. It is the foundation for earning profits - by producing goods or services and selling them into the market.
2. It ensures that produced goods or services are of desired quality, in required quantity and according to time-schedules.
3. It facilitates optimum inventory level.
4. It ensures proper co-ordination and necessary control, which are required for adequate, time and cost-conscious production.
5. It ensures coping with the changes in demands in the market and maintains stability in the production department.
Production Planning and Control
Production Planning, Planning is deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, who is to do it. Then, production planning involves decision making in various production aspects, such as designing of production plans, programmes and goals, selection of production process, plant layout, provision of physical facilities (like material, tools, machines, equipments etc.) and preparation of time-schedules.
"Lawrence Bethel Observes" Production planning takes a given product or line of products and organizes in advance the manpower materials, machines and money required for a predetermined output in a given period of time. It starts with a product concept capable of being manufactured, a general idea of the process by which it can be made and a sales forecast for the descernible future.
Production Control
Control means ensuring that actual performance meets the predetermined standards. Then, "production control" refers to a set of steps for verifying whether production operations occur in conformity with the production plan adopted. It guides and directs the flow of production so that the goods of desired quality are manufactured at the right time and it maximum possible economic manner. It may be noted that "production control" is frequently used synonymously with "production planning and control" with planning being implied.
Spriegel and Lansburgh define production control as
the process of planning production in advance of operations, establishing the exact route of each individual item, part or assembly, setting, starting and finishing dates for each important item, assembly, and the finished products and releasing the necessary orders as well as initiating the required follow-up to effective the smooth functioning of the enterprise.
James Lundy says
Basically, the production control function involves the co-ordination and integration of the factors of production for optimum efficiency. The principal objective of production control is to facilitate the task of manufacturing and see that everything is being done strictly in accordance with the plan. It co-ordinates and integrates the factors of production for optimism and directs and checks the course and progress of work.