Operations Planning

In operations planning the various types of manufacturing operations needed are identified and their sequence established. The operations are grouped into the following basic classes:

• Basic process operations
• Principal process operations
• Major operations
• Auxiliary process operations
• Supporting operations

The sequence of operations is subjected to occasional review to see if new or better methods can be adopted for increased productivity and reduced costs. To establish operation sequence for a new product or new component, for cost estimation, plant layout and design purpose and also for the guidance of the workers, the process planner prepares the operation sequence best suited for a particular type of production.

The operations are studied properly and the unnecessary operations are eliminated, the remaining operations are arranged in a proper sequence and if possible some operations should be combined to increase the efficiency and accuracy of the production process. To plan operation sequence in an existing plant, the equipment available, its capacity and present load condition should be taken into consideration. The equipment most suited may be overloaded or not available at all. For establishing the operation sequence in such cases, the following information is necessary :

• List of available machines
• List of available general purpose toolings
• Capacity of equipment
• Machine load chart
• Plant layout
• Standard data.