Production Planning and Control

Production control is the activity of controlling the workflow in the production. We have list down important questions and answers on PPC (Production Planning and Control) to help you in your job preparation.

Q.1 What is Master Scheduling?
Master scheduling is the planning process for tracking manufacturing output. Moreover, it is the detailed planning process that tracks manufacturing output and matches this with the placed customer orders.
Q.2 What is the basis of assigning weights in weighted moving average?
More recent data is given a higher weighting than older data
Q.3 What is reserve analysis?
Well, reserve analysis is among the most common techniques used to determine the budget of a project. During reserve analysis, a project is analyzed from a cost overrun point of view, and buffers are placed in the relevant place. Hence, these buffers are known as contingency and management reserves.
Q.4 Which factor is the basis of reliability for demand forecasting in multiple regression?
The form of equation and the degree of consistency of the explanatory variables in the estimated demand function is the basis of reliability for demand forecasting in multiple regression.
Q.5 What does QFD stand for?
QFD stands for Quality Function Deployment. This is a structured approach for defining the needs of customers and translating them into plans for producing products to meet those needs.
Q.6 What is the main objective of supply chain?
To improve the efficiency and responsiveness across the whole supply chain and also deliver improved value to the customers.
Q.7 What does MPS and MRP stand for?
MPS stands for Master Production Schedule which is virtually the exact same thing as MRP which stands for Material Requirements Planning.
Q.8 What are the main functions of operation management?
The main functions of operation management are :
1. Effective planning and regulating the operations.
2. Decision making related to production processes.
3. Demand scheduling with minimum cost.
Q.9 How does production planning and scheduling differ?
The major difference between production planning and scheduling is that planning looks into what and how much needs to be done whereas scheduling defines who and when the operations will be performed.
Q.10 What are the features of FMS?
1. Process simultaneously several types of parts in the given mix.
2. equipped with sophisticated flexible machine tools.
3. Computer controlled machine handling system are used.
Q.11 What is BOQ?
BOQ basically lists the total number of materials that are needed to complete a project. Hence, BOQs are helpful for project developers to get detailed quotes for project requirements.
Q.12 What is MPS?
A master production schedule (MPS) is an anticipated build schedule for manufacturing end products or product options. It is an important component of production planning systems such as material requirements planning systems (MRP).
Q.13 What is BOM?
BOM stands for bill of materials. This is a list of the raw materials, intermediate assemblies, sub-assemblies, sub-components, and the quantities of each required to manufacture an end product.
Q.14 What are the types of BOM?
The different types of BOM are: Single-Level BOM Configurable BOM Assembly Bill of Materials Multi-Level BOM
Q.15 What resource types are available in Supply Chain Management ?
The resource types available in Supply Chain Management are vendor, machine, human resources, location, tool and facility.
Q.16 What are planning bills?
Planning bills are the groups of items in a bill of material format reflecting how an item is sold, instead of how it is built. Moreover, planning bills allow us to account for the variety of possible options and features that can be included as components in a saleable end item.
Q.17 Define service BOM.
A service bill of materials is nothing but a list of all of the serviceable parts that are required to maintain an asset while it's in operation.
Q.18 What are the phases of QFD?
There are four phases of QFD: product planning, product development, process planning and lastly production planning.
Q.19 What are the levels of operations management?
Operations management has three levels namely strategic, tactical, and operations.
Q.20 What does service life cycle refer to?
The service life cycle refers to the process of identifying the stage in which a product or service is encountering at that time.
Q.21 What does demand forecasting refer to?
Demand forecasting finds its use to predict independent demand from sales orders and dependent demand at any decoupling point for the orders of customers. Further, the enhanced demand forecast reduction rules offer an ideal solution for mass customization.
Q.22 What is the first step in the forecasting system?
The first step in the forecasting system is to tell the system to use the data set by setting the Data Set field.
Q.23 What are the areas of finance?
The three areas of finance are finance management, financial markets and investments.
Q.24 What is TQM?
TQM stands for total quality management. This is the continual process of detecting and eliminating errors in manufacturing, improving the customer experience, streamlining supply chain management, and making sure that employees are up to speed with training.
Q.25 Mention the pillars of TQM.
There are four pillars of the TQM implementation including satisfying customers, people, system/process and improvement tools.
Q.26 Explain quarterly forecasting.
Quarterly forecasting is the analysis of expenses and revenue that is predicted to be produced or incurred in the future.
Q.27 Explain the EOQ model.
EOQ stands for Economic order quantity that is the ideal order quantity a company should purchase so as to minimize the inventory costs like holding costs, shortage costs, and order costs.
Q.28 What does Lean Kaizen mean?
Lean is a method of eliminating waste and boosting efficiency. Together, Lean Kaizen is an approach of continuously implementing much-needed change and getting rid of unnecessary waste.
Q.29 Mention the types of forecasting models?
The three basic types of forecasting models are: time series analysis and projection, qualitative techniques, and causal models.
Q.30 Define forecasting.
Forecasting is a method that uses historical data as inputs for making informed estimates that are predictive in finding the direction of future trends.
Q.31 What is quantitative forecasting?
Quantitative forecasting models are useful for forecasting future data as a function of past data. For example, informed opinion and judgment, market research, the Delphi method and historical life-cycle analogy.
Q.32 What is Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is a kind of quality-control technique. It emphasizes cycle-time improvement while at the same time decreasing manufacturing defects to a level of no more than 3.4 occurrences per million units or events.
Q.33 How is Six Sigma useful?
Six Sigma helps in enhancing the quality of the final products by finding and eliminating the causes of errors and decreasing variance in manufacturing processes.
Q.34 What is an inventory sheet?
An inventory sheet is a checklist of inventory type, price per unit, amount that one has, and SKU or serial number.
Q.35 Mention the Six Sigma tools.
  • Value-Stream Mapping
  • Kanban System
  • The 5 Whys
  • Cause-and-Effect Analysis
  • Pareto Chart
  • Project Charter
  • Process Mapping
  • RACI Matrix
Q.36 How is inventory calculated?
The general formula for the calculation of inventory is: Beginning inventory + net purchases – COGS = ending inventory.
Q.37 What are the types of control charts?

The three types of control charts are:

  • Xbar and Range Chart
  • Xbar and Standard Deviation Chart
  • Individual-X Moving Range Chart
Q.38 What are the inventory management methods?

The three popular inventory management methods are the

  • push technique
  • the pull technique
  • the just-in-time technique
Q.39 What is beginning inventory?
Beginning inventory is the nothing but the book value of the inventory of a company at the start of an accounting period.
Q.40 What do you mean by capacity management?
Capacity management is the large variety of planning actions that are used to ensure that a business infrastructure has appropriate resources to maximize its potential activities and production output under any condition.
Q.41 Mention some capacity management tools.

The five different types of capacity management tools are:

1. Performance monitoring

2. Workload stacking

3. Trending

4. Analytical modeling

5.Simulation modeling

Q.42 What is the use of capacity management?
The main goal is to ensure that the capacity of the IT services and infrastructure is capable of meet the agreed-upon needs of capacity and performance in a manner that is both timely and cost-effective.
Q.43 What is the purpose of an inventory tracker?
An inventory tracker is any inventory management software, or dashboard that allows you track real-time inventory levels of each SKU for better inventory control in your stores.
Q.44 What is 5S?
5S has been derived from the philosophy of "kaizen". This means "continuous improvement". It stands for the 5 steps of this technique: Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain.
Q.45 What is the PDCA cycle?
The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle refers to a four-step problem-solving iterative method that is used to improve business processes.
Q.46 What are the Lean principles?
Well, according to Womack and Jones, there are five lean principles including value, flow, value stream, pull, and perfection.
Q.47 What is the basis of assigning weights in weighted moving average?
More recent data is given a higher weighting than older data
Q.48 Which factor is the basis of reliability for demand forecasting in multiple regression?
The form of equation and the degree of consistency of the explanatory variables in the estimated demand function is the basis of reliability for demand forecasting in multiple regression.
Q.49 What is the main objective of supply chain?
To improve the efficiency and responsiveness across the whole supply chain and also deliver improved value to the customers.
Q.50 What are the main functions of operation management?
The main functions of operation management are :
1. Effective planning and regulating the operations.
2. Decision making related to production processes.
3. Demand scheduling with minimum cost.
Q.51 What are the features of FMS?
1. Process simultaneously several types of parts in the given mix.
2. equipped with sophisticated flexible machine tools.
3. Computer controlled machine handling system are used.
Q.52 What are the objectives of production planning?
Production planning is an administrative process that occurs within a manufacturing business and involves ensuring that sufficient raw materials, staff and other necessary items are procured and ready to make finished products according to the specified schedule.
Q.53 What are the primary activities of production planning?

The major activities involved in the production planning process are:

  • identifying process activities
  • establishing quality performance standards
  • selecting measurement tools
  • continuously monitoring performance
  • improving process quality.
Q.54 What are the types of production layouts?

The main three types of layout are

  • product or line layout
  • process layout 
  • combination of product and line Layouts.
Q.55 What are the phases of PPC?

The three levels of production planning and control are:

  • Planning Phase
  • Action Phase
  • Control Phase
Q.56 How would you define routing?
Routing refers to the flow of sequence of operation as well as the processes to be followed in producing a specific finished product. It also determines manufacturing operation and their sequence.
Q.57 What are the factors affecting PPC?

The factors that affect the application of production planning and control to manufacturing are - 


  • Type of Product –The complexity of the product that is important, not what the product is, except as this may, in turn, relate to the market being served. Production control procedures are much more complex and involve many more records in the manufacture of large steam turbine generator sets or locomotives to customer orders than in the production of large quantities of a standard product involving only a few component parts, such as electric blankets, steam irons, or similar small appliances.
  • Type of Manufacturing – This is probably the most influential factor in the control situation. For a large continuous manufacturing plant producing a standard product, we have already indicated that the routing was included in the planning of the plant layout.

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