Scheduling is just a small part in the entire collage of production management. It is an important factor that influences the other areas involved in achieving the goals of production. We’ve published many articles focusing on the different scheduling angles of production. This time, however, we’d like to try to review and reanalyze the fundamentals of managing a production system.
Tomoichi Sato, an expert in production management, defines the production system as a “system to convert demand information into products.” That statement also serves as the main goal of production. “This system is composed of humans, machinery and the space provided by normally a kind of building.
They are generally called resources, human resource and mechanical resource,” he adds.
• Human resource – this is generally defined as the set of individuals who make up the workforce
of an organization, business sector, or economy.
• Mechanical resource – this refers to the machines that are used in production.
According to Sato, the ability to create a production plan can also be termed production control. He underscored that “control” is a more detailed (or stronger, in a sense) word as compared to “management”. Schedulers have the ability to control and influence the results of the entire production system.
Mr. Sato also has a different perspective about what is the main input in production. Conventional view, he said, is to “regard raw materials or parts as input into production system which converts them into products” but his view is quite unconventional, he continued by saying that “The main input is not the raw materials or the parts but the demand information.” In his view, the raw materials, parts and resources are the needed support to convert demand information into products.
Do you agree with Tomoichi Sato’s perspective?