Production planning is the organization and arrangement of customer demands in advance, considering the performance of production resources. There are several key reasons why the production planning process is important for manufacturers. Production planning is generally a planning method that producers strive to achieve the desired quality in production at a low cost.

In production planning, it can be said that demand forecasting is the most important step; attention is paid to accurately measuring demand forecasting to make the planning as precise as possible. Demand forecasting also helps coordinate other necessary stages accurately.

Typically, companies employ a production planning specialist who is responsible for applications related to production planning operations and production tracking processes. The production planning specialist coordinates production stages, makes demand forecasts, and addresses personnel, equipment, and raw material shortages in proportion to these forecasts. Individuals in production planning are generally expected to graduate from relevant engineering departments of universities, possess high organizational skills, be inclined towards teamwork, and manage time effectively by manufacturing firms.

There are certain issues that need to be considered in production planning. Adjusting the necessary amounts of raw materials and auxiliary materials, setting product quantities in accordance with the workflow, planning time accordingly, evaluating the quality of products according to market conditions and customer demands, utilizing the right amount of labor and capital based on demand forecasts, ensuring organization with production and other relevant departments of the firm, and scheduling the distribution of produced products in a cost-effective manner are essential aspects of production planning.

Production planning can be classified as long-term, mid-term, and short-term. Long-term plans are usually carefully created by upper-level company executives and can be sustainable for 5-10 years. Mid-term plans are generally organized by operations managers and show sustainability for 6 months to 1 year. Short-term plans, on the other hand, are prepared as weekly or daily production plans.

In companies that continuously produce with a wide variety of products and demands, the stock levels can vary, leading to changes in production planning as well. Such firms are required to create flawless demand forecasts, anticipate increases and decreases in product demand over time, prepare comprehensive analyses of their stocks, and maintain backup stock against surpluses.

What is the Purpose of Production Planning?

The purpose of production planning is to ensure that a business produces materials, products, and services efficiently and effectively to meet their requirements. This process involves the timely and adequate production of products in line with customer demand and expectations, reducing production costs, utilizing machinery and human resources correctly, organizing the production process, and improving these factors. Production planning also considers factors such as inventory management, material procurement, production processes, machinery, and human resources.

What Are the Production Planning Techniques?

Production planning techniques are methods used for planning, organizing, and managing the production process of a product or service. The following techniques may be included among those mentioned:
• MRP (Materials Requirements Planning): A method that helps to plan material procurement and production processes by identifying material requirements.
• Kanban: A method used to control and optimize the flow of materials or products in production processes.
• JIT (Just-In-Time): A method based on the understanding that the product should be made at the moment it is needed.
• Lean Production: A method aimed at minimizing waste and excess during the production process.
• Process-Based Planning and Control (PPAP): A method used to control and optimize the production process of products or services.

Why is Production Planning Important?

Production planning aims to optimize efficiency, quality, costs, and delivery dates during the production process of a product or service. Therefore, we can explain why production planning is important with the following points:
• Improving product quality: Production planning helps to detect and prevent potential errors during the production process.
• Increasing production efficiency: Production planning minimizes waste and unnecessary processes during the production process.
• Reducing costs: Production planning optimizes material and energy requirements, reducing costs.
• Optimizing delivery time: Production planning ensures that processes are carried out regularly and efficiently, which optimizes delivery time.
• Reducing product inventory: Production planning manages product inventories systematically and minimizes unnecessary stocks.
• More effective use of existing resources: Production planning helps to use existing resources more efficiently, thereby reducing production costs.

What are the Stages of the Production Process?

The production process is the sequence of stages and tasks through which producers transform the necessary products into desired products. This process involves organizing certain key resources such as nature, capital, and labor, and begins production activities. The stages of the production process may vary according to customer supply and demand at the necessary times. The proper alignment of the production process ensures that manufacturing firms operate in an orderly manner and allows for easier coordination of labor and capital. The stages of the production process are as follows:
● Design: This involves making the necessary designs for the product to be produced and resolving any deficiencies related to the design. It is the essential starting point for production.
● Planning: This is the step where planning is done to gather the necessary raw materials and capital after completing the design phase, and efforts are initiated to close any gaps. The planning phase simplifies the coordination of production.
● Operation: This is the step where necessary production tools are acquired, and production begins.
● Management: This ensures that the necessary actions and labor during the production stage are coordinated and executed correctly.
● Marketing: After production is completed, this stage involves determining the market situation and customer demand and performing actions like promotion and packaging using sales strategies.

Through these stages, the products created by manufacturing firms are presented to customers. Various production planning methods can be employed to ensure that the flow of production stages progresses correctly. Companies have developed various planning methods based on customer demands and their stock levels.

What Are the Production Planning Methods?

To ensure that production planning is done accurately and efficiently by company executives and relevant departments, certain methods are developed. These methods help the production planning process remain aligned with its goals. Three different methods can be mentioned in production planning:
● Demand Tracking Method
● Fixed Production Rate Method
● Hybrid Production Method
can be listed.

The demand tracking method is typically used in manufacturing firms where demand changes rapidly. Changes and adjustments in labor and raw material needs are made based on demand changes. Therefore, situations like hiring and firing may arise in firms.

The fixed production rate method, as its name suggests, keeps the production speed constant throughout the planning period. Although this method is preferred by many companies, they must cover the difference between production and demand by not holding stock.

The hybrid production method is typically chosen to avoid the negative effects of the demand tracking method and the fixed production rate method. The hybrid production method is often more challenging to implement than other methods due to its greater complexity. Companies adopting the hybrid production method usually manage their production planning processes with the help of computer programs.

As mentioned above, production planning involves planning labor, raw materials, and time for production in advance according to the level of demand. Through production planning, companies can prevent confusion and congestion caused by unplanned actions, increase production quantities and quality, and reduce costs. This way, firms, customers, and producers can make the most efficient use of production.

How is Production Planning Done?

Businesses are forced to maintain stock due to the continuous production of a variety of products and high demand. In other words, through production planning, businesses continuously produce, achieve diversity, and maintain sufficient stock against surplus demand based on the results obtained. The key considerations for advantageous production planning in terms of internal continuity and meeting demand are as follows:
1. Anticipating potential demand for the product,
2. Determining when the need for the product to be produced will arise,
3. Establishing the most suitable production period for the product,
4. Grouping the materials that will be used in the production of the relevant products,
5. Analyzing the limited stock amounts held by the businesses,
6. Keeping stock against the possibility of excess demand for the product,
7. Regularly checking product stocks at both the starting and ending stages,
8. Identifying losses and employees' leaves due to holidays.
Considering the above factors in production planning offers numerous advantages to businesses. So how is production planning done? Production planning carried out by companies consists of five stages. The phases of production planning are as follows:
1. In the first phase of production planning, the time period for production is determined. The order related to the relevant product and its delivery time are both identified.
2. Another phase of production planning is determining the necessary stock for the product. To be more precise, in the second phase of production planning, the stock levels at the beginning and end of the period are specified for the product.
3. Forecasting the demand for the product based on its past information and future scenarios is highlighted as the third phase of production planning.
4. In the fourth phase of production planning, the quantity of the product to be produced is determined. The production quantity identified by the business is produced within the planning period.
5. In the last phase of production planning, the most suitable intervals for the product quantity identified in the previous phase are determined in the relevant period. In other words, the most accurate range for the planned production quantity is identified in the last phase of production planning.
The specified stages of production planning are fundamental, but new stages may be included depending on the institution.

What Does Production Planning Achieve?

Production planning, which has been discussed in terms of its definition, stages, and considerations, provides many insights regarding production processes for businesses. It also helps prevent potential issues that could arise during the production period. So what advantages does production planning provide for businesses?
● It helps identify products and/or services expected to be in demand in the future.
● It facilitates tracking the currently available raw materials and finished products that can be used in immediate production. To be clearer, it assists businesses in identifying existing and usable materials when they want to produce instantly.
● Another advantage of production planning is that it aids in tracking both production orders and orders given to suppliers.
● It provides the opportunity to analyze the capacity level of the product.
● Controlling the capacities of the resources required for producing the product is also among the advantages of production planning. In other words, production planning aids in determining the levels of the required resources for product manufacturing.
● It helps monitor constraints related to the workforce that will carry out the production. Employees' shifts and overtime are among the relevant constraints.
● Production planning eases the analysis of the condition of production staff and the tracking of materials and related quantities used in production.
● Another advantage provided by production planning is that it clarifies the extent to which the goals set by businesses are achieved.
● Performance indicators concerning produced products can be easily reported thanks to production planning.

What Are the Production Planning Processes?

Production planning involves various processes that enable businesses to have information about the relevant production period prior to production. The production planning processes that businesses intending to conduct production planning should follow are listed as follows:
1. The first of the production planning processes is called job preparation. This process covers the preparatory works that need to be done before production. In the job preparation process, the steps to be followed in producing the products and the order of these steps are determined. Through the job preparation process, businesses ascertain what needs to be done to produce the relevant products, how it should be done, and which resources and materials are required for production.
2. The next production planning process following job preparation is job distribution. In this process, it is determined which machines or departments will undertake which jobs for the products to be produced. While distributing the jobs to machines or departments, factors such as the machines' conditions, capacities, numbers, and speeds are also taken into consideration. In the job distribution process, in addition to the planned production, it is also specified which machines will be used in case of a malfunction in the relevant machines.
3. Another of the production planning processes is programming. The programming process consists of main and detailed programs that determine the delivery dates for the orders received by businesses. To be clearer, the delivery dates promised to customers for the relevant orders are identified in the main programs; detailed programs that enable the transition of semi-finished products to the next stages of production are defined within the programming process.
4. In the forecasting process, estimated costs for the production to be conducted by businesses are determined. The forecasting process is carried out based on the information from accounting, production, and auditing departments. In other words, predicting the costs that will arise from product manufacturing is performed within the forecasting process of production planning.
5. One of the production planning processes is known as the work order. Unlike other processes, the work order or manufacturing instruction process is related to control. The work order or manufacturing instruction is defined as the issuance of instructions related to the execution of production activities based on what has been determined in the previous processes. The success of the work order process is linked to the previous processes where businesses take accurate and proper steps. After successfully completing the job preparation, job distribution, programming, and forecasting processes, only the distribution of authorities is executed in the work order process.
6. The final production planning process indicates the extent to which businesses have reached their specified goals. To be clearer, businesses see the degree to which they have met the objectives set for the relevant production activities during the auditing process.

Who Handles Production Planning?

The production planning, which closely affects the functionality of businesses' production activities, is carried out by professional personnel in the relevant businesses. The professional personnel responsible for all processes from the acquisition of orders determined by businesses in line with their goals to the delivery of the relevant products to customers is called the production planning officer. The planning of production, following the production activities, and allowing for early intervention in potential problems related to the relevant production is also facilitated. The production planning officer has various responsibilities. The responsibilities undertaken by the production planning officer are listed as follows: First, the production planning officer provides the necessary logistical support in the relevant field. It is also within the definition of the production planning officer’s duties to open production orders and ensure the quality of the production process. Another responsibility of the production planning officer is to use the resources owned by businesses efficiently and accurately. They also play a role in identifying problems arising during the production process and developing solutions to the relevant issues. Additionally, they are tasked with reducing costs resulting from production and increasing efficiency.

What Forms the Basis of Production Planning?

Production planning, a critical business process for enterprises with a manufacturing nature, closely affects both customers and businesses. It also plays a significant role in enabling businesses to project what needs to be produced. The essence of production planning lies in properly following all steps from receiving customer requests until the promised delivery time. Additionally, production planning helps businesses determine how to use their resources, raw materials, and labor most effectively. Through production planning, businesses fundamentally respond to customer needs and expectations while also taking steps toward meeting their specified business goals. Production planning directly influences both corporate goal achievement and continuity for businesses.
The fundamental approach that should be known in production planning is that businesses plan for short, medium, and long terms, and identify the materials and resources to be used in production, determine capacities, create alternatives for potential adverse conditions, and develop solutions for possible problems. While production planning may vary by institutions, there are various factors that cause differences in production planning across different organizations. The production strategy determined by the business, the characteristics of the products to be produced, the structure of the area where production will take place, the nature of demand from customers, and the relationships formed in resource procurement result in differences in production planning.