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Contents
Planning and control System Analysis 3
Long-Term Planning and Control 3
Medium-Term Planning and Control 3
Short-Term Planning and Control 4
Recommendations 4
Conclusion 5
Planning and Control
Planning and control is a set of activities aimed at harmonizing the demands in the market and the ability of an operation’s resources to deliver. It is an element of importance to organizations because it provides the procedures, as well as decisions that bring the factors of demand and supply together (Gunasekaran & Ngai, 2012, p.678). The two words (planning and control) are different but closely related, and this explains why they are taken as one.
Planning and control System Analysis
Long-Term Planning and Control
Due to the changing nature of business operations and customer demands, the quality and nature of planning activities also have to change. In the long term, managers are usually forced to make plans on what they intend to do in the future. These plans often include the objectives they plan to accomplishand the resources they plan to use that will be made flexible through the process strategy decisions(Krajewski, Ritzman, & Malhotra, 2013, p.58). At the initial phase, the emphasis is mostly placed on planning because there is usually little to control. The managers forecast and define in aggregate terms customers’ demands, for example, making plans for 100 patients without going into detail about the personal needs of every patient. At the initial stages of any operation, the managers are usually mainly concerned about meeting the set financial targets.
Medium-Term Planning and Control
Medium planning and control, on the other hand, is more detailed to the long-term. It goes a step further to analyze the total demand the operation is expected to satisfy. This assessment is done in a disintegrated manner (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017, p.410). These distinctions can take various forms; for example, clients coming in for first class luxury toursand need special attention are considered as one distinction are separated from those who require ordinary service. The management will also have to make significant staffing levels for each distinction. The administration will also have to make contingencies, which will accommodate deviations from the plan in case they occur.
Short-Term Planning and Control
Short-term planning and control are different from the other two because they require the setting of many resources. This type of planning and control is mainly used in the rectification of phenomenon gone badly mostly during emergencies. In such cases, demand is usually analyzed from a disaggregated perspective. In the example given above of a hospitality setting, short-term planning and control procedures will make sure that all hospitality procedures in the hotel are seen as individual activities (Harrison & Lock, 2017, p.73). Operational managers, when attempting to balance various aspects of an operation, using short planning and control. These aspects include dependability, speed, quality, costs, and flexibility. When putting this nature of planning and supervision into practice, the operation managers put do little or no calculations of the effects that the short-term effects will have on operations but rely on the general understanding of priorities.
Recommendations
Operation managers are required to make the appropriate choice of nature of planning and control. Uncertainties in supply and demand make planning and control efforts difficult (Olhager, 2013, p. 6836). The more it does not become a habit to plan, the more operations are delayed and some thrown off schedule. It may be possible for operation managers to predict particular patters of the future. In the case of reasonably predictable activities, the need for planning and control is minimal. It is also recommended that operation managers get to understand that certain operations can predict demand better than other procedures.
An excellent example of such an instance is in the relationship between tourists and safari destinations. Many of the tourists schedule their tours towards the end of the year; thus, the safari destinations can plan for their operations in advance. This type of demand is referred to as a dependent claim, as it is predictable because of its dependence on other factors(Kilkenny p.1). There is a demand which is not reliant on different factors. This demand is referred to as independent demand. Operation managers need to have sufficient knowledge of this demand too and how it affects the choice of the nature of planning and control choice.
Conclusion
Planning and control are an essential aspect of business operations because they reconcile demand and supply. It is encouraged to understand the difference between planning and control because, in this light, they are being treated as one thing. There are different natures of demand and supply, and these include long-, medium-, and long-term planning and control, which can be used by operation managers to reconcile demand and amount depending on the type of the operations. It is recommended that operation managers get to understand how demand and supply influence the choice of the nature of planning and control to be used.
word limit should not exceed 800 words starting from introduction till conclusion excluding table of content and references page
References
Gunasekaran, A., & Ngai, E. W. (2012). The future of operations management: an outlook and analysis. International Journal of Production Economics, 135(2), 687. /S0925527311004646
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge, p.73 /9781315263328
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons, p.410.https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xlASDgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR19&dq=operations+management+Planning+and+Control&ots=Xb5pXRO_vU&sig=ZK4Ck3-ZJvIKodCSiZ2xA-Q7puU&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=operations%20management%20Planning%20and%20Control&f=false
Kilkenny, A.M. (2012). Operations management, p.1-3. https://oliverwight-eame.com/library/download/www/Articles/OW-Cutting-OM-InventoryManagement-Aug2012.pdf
Krajewski, L. J., Ritzman, L. P., & Malhotra, M. K. (2013). Operations management. Pearson, p.58. 19007
Olhager, J. (2013). Evolution of operations planning and control: from production to supply chains. International Journal of Production Research, 51(23-24), 6836. /10.1080/00207543.2012.761363
