Logistics and operation managment - Essay Example

In addition to this inventory management, capacity planning and scheduling are all considered to be significant factors in the choice of technology of the organization. These processes help in determining that how much capacity must be needed by the firm, the schedule and all the processes related to inventory management that are required for manufacturing a great product or begin the production of an entire new product. Before discussing the imbalance between inventory management, capacity planning and scheduling, it is important to build some understanding of these production aspects.

Inventory management can be defined as controlling and overseeing the storage, ordering and making use of the components that will be used by the organization in the manufacturing process, as well as controlling and overseeing the quantity of finished goods for sale. Capacity planning can be defined as the maximum rate of transformation system processes or produced inputs. It can also be defined as volume of output within the elapsed time or the production capability of a manufacturing facility.

There are a number of factors that affect capacity such as the number and ability of workers, number of suppliers and machines, waste, defects, scrap, productivity, errors, preventive maintenance and government regulations. The capacity planning can be relevant for both the short term as well as the long operations of the organizations. Scheduling can be defined as the process of controlling, arranging and optimizing the workload in the manufacturing or production process. It is used for allocating the machinery and plant resources, planning production processes, planning human resources and purchasing materials.

It is a significant process for engineering and manufacturing, where it may impose a significant impact on the production of the organization. In manufacturing process, the major purpose of scheduling is to minimize the time and cost of production by