Master Production Scheduling and Capacity Planning: The Link?

Concentrates on two key aspects of manufacturing resource planning(MRPII) theory and design, namely; how master production scheduling is carried out in differing business environments and how well the“closing of the loop” operates by checking the capacity requirements of the different levels of plans within an organization. The methodology involved detailed investigations into master scheduling and capacity planning in eight diverse manufacturing companies. This was followed by a nationwide survey of users, a survey of all the major suppliers of production management software in the UK and an analysis of the facilities offered by current software packages. The main conclusion which is drawn is that in the majority of companies, only just over 50 per cent are attempting resource and capacity planning and only 20 per cent are successfully feeding back capacity requirements planning (CRP)information to “close the loop”. Various causative factors are put forward and remedies are suggested.