There are two types of companies or organizations; one that manufactures products and the other that offers services. When we talk specifically only about manufacturing units, there are further types of these units; local, international, small, or huge multinational companies with more than one type of production line. The production needs and requirements are completely different for all these types of companies.
Some companies work internationally where they have to manufacture a huge amount of products to fulfill the needs of customers around the world whereas some companies only work on national levels which means they only need to fulfill the requirements of people living in their own country. Here we are going to discuss the same kind of manufacturing units because they can’t work with permanent or long-term plans and strategies because of variations in the production requirements every week or month.
Production planning is very important for such companies and a manufacturing unit can’t operate without properly defining the production and processes. Most of these companies work with weekly production plans which means a single production plan is only applicable for one week and there will be a new or changed plan for next week.
Importance of Weekly Production Planning:
The production needs of a company change all the time and it is not possible to keep a steady flow of production as the needs and requirements of people and the market change constantly. For example, a company produces food items and it is required to produce 5000 units for the first week of each month when most people shop for grocery items but for the other three weeks of the month, 3000, 2000 and 1000 units are enough respectively. This explains the importance of a weekly production plan as the company wants to fulfill the needs of customers but doesn’t want to produce more than enough units for stock-keeping.
Here is a preview of a Free Printable Weekly Production Plan Template created using MS Word,
Factors of a Good Weekly Production Plan:
Many factors are must to include in a weekly production plan but the most important factors or elements include; understanding of current and upcoming needs of the market, foreseeing the market trends in the future, and the capacity of the manufacturing unit to produce the required products. With all these elements, the company can ensure that there is no wastage of resources, costs, labor, and expenses.
Here are the principles for creating a Weekly Production Plan:
- Knowing the needs of the market:
This is important for the company to understand what the market needs and what the expectations of customers from the company are. - Defining the production capacity of the unit:
By defining this step, the company makes sure it has the resources to fulfill the market requirements or if there is a need to hire more labor or increase the production capacity. - Strategies to produce the required number of products:
This is the last stage of weekly production planning and it includes the strategies and plans to execute the required amount of production by the company. Keep in mind that these strategies are only valid for one week and after that, the company will need to go through this entire process once again.
Here is the download link for above shown Weekly Production Plan Template,
