Production Control in Practice: A Situation-Dependent Decisions Approach

Practice-oriented coverage of production planning and control processes for goods and services, written for any industry

Production Control in Practice explores the operational control of production and inventory processes in organizations across industries, covering both tangible and intangible products and offering viable, efficient solutions to characteristic production control problems, such as what goods to produce when and how. A number of examples/stylized applications are included to help readers understand and apply the discussed concepts and theories to their own organizations.

This book distinguishes between the control of production units and the control of goods flow between these units and the market and discusses various coordination and material supply control mechanisms relevant to supply chains. It also presents a typology of production situations found in practice, using a structured approach to discussing the relevant control decisions for each situation.

This book is unique because (basic) control decisions are discussed for the different characteristic Decoupling Point Control and Production Unit Control situations from a holistic point of view, taking into account both mathematical considerations as well as various situational factors.

Sample topics covered in Production Control in Practice include:

• Terminology and concepts used in production control, including complexity, uncertainty, and flexibility
• Types of release triggers, covering just-in-time versus just-in-case and push versus pull in logistics
• Horizontal and vertical decomposition, and time series-related forecasting for stationary demand versus demand with trend
• Order size, covering optimal batch size in case of fixed order size, relaxation of assumptions, and single period considerations
• MRP systems, covering Material Requirements Planning (MRP-I) and Manufacturing Resource Planning Systems (MRP-II)

With excellent coverage of the subject across different products and industries and several examples to help readers follow along, Production Control in Practice is an ideal reference for bachelor students from universities of applied sciences and academic bachelor students, as well as practitioners in related disciplines.

Henny Van Ooijen, PhD, is Professor in Production and Operations Management at the School of Industrial Engineering of Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. He teaches Introduction to Industrial Engineering, Analyses of Production, Warehousing and Transportation Systems, and other courses.

Corné Dirne, PhD, is Professor in Operational Excellence at the Fontys University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands. Earlier, he was senior lecturer and curriculum coordinator for Industrial Engineering at Avans University of Applied Sciences.