Production Planning & Control

PART A (Descriptive Type) = 16

PART B (Case Study) = 2
PART C (Multiple Choice) = 80
Instant Downloadable Solution from AiDLo.com

PART A
Descriptive Type Question
Question 1: A small electronics company produces pocket calculators and records the demand
monthly. The following demand data are for a representative calculator:
November 45
December 57
January 60
Using 50 as the exponential smoothing forecast for November, and using 0.3 as the exponential
smoothing coefficient, forecast February sales.

Question 2: ACE Computers has the following expected production capacity and demand for
minicomputers:
Quarter
1
2
3
4
The company does not accept any backorders and wishes to fulfill demand by letting inventories
absorb all fluctuations. How many minicomputers must they have on hand on January 1 to meet
the forecast demand throughout the year?
Question 3: The Vice President of Koza Company has estimated the following demand
requirements for the forthcoming periods.

Periods
1
2
3
4
The operations manager is considering the following plans:
Plan 1: Maintain a stable workforce that is capable of producing 1800 units per period, and meet
the demand by overtime at a premium of $50 per unit. Idle time costs are equivalent to $60 per
unit. Do not build to inventory.
Plan 2: Produce at a steady of 1600 units per period, and accept a limited number of backorders
during periods when demand exceeds 1600 units. The stockout cost of lost sales is $100 per
unit. Inventory costs per period are $20 per unit.
Plan 3: Produce at a steady rate equal to minimum requirements of 1400 units and subtract the
additional units at a $75 per unit premium.
Plan 4: Vary the workforce level, which is currently capable of producing 1600 units per period.
The cost of additional workforce per 100 units is $5000, and the cost of layoffs per 100 units is
$7500.
Plan 5: Vary inventory levels, but maintain a stable workforce level by maintaining a constant
production rate equal to the average requirements. The company can accumulate required
inventory before period 1 at no additional cost. The inventory cost per period is $20 per unit.
Answer the following:
1. Analyse the above plans. Use graph and tables for presentation of your analysis.
2. Discuss the merits and disadvantages of these plans.
3. Which plan will you recommend and why?
Question 4: Using the data in Table 1 below, compute weekly requirement for the following
schedule:

Question 5: With reference to Problem 4, calculate the capacity requirements for the final
assembly department, ignoring lead times.
Average assembly time: 1.2 hours
Average subassembly time: 0.8 hours
Average fabrication time 0.2 hours
The subassembly lead times are included in the assembly lead times.
Question 6: Given the following BOM, MPS and inventory status, develop MRP tables for all
items (ten tables in total)

Question 8: Clark Company makes three products on three different types of equipment. The
matrix of operating times and job setup times (in decimal hours), demand per month, and
economical lot sizes for manufacturing are given in Table below. The machine utilisation factor is
approximately 90%, and operator efficiency of the shop is believed to be 105%.

How many of each of the machines will be needed if the plant works a 40 hour week?

Question 9a: Explain the forecasting process? What are the techniques for monitoring
forecasts?

Question 9b: Explain various forecasting models.

Question 10a: What is aggregate production plan? What are the pure strategies for APP?
Question 10b: The demand and capacities for production of company is given below. Demand
for January, February and March are 900, 300 and 700 respectively. The production capacities
for each of the month are given below.

January

February

March

Regular Time

600

300

200

Over Time

300

300

300

Sub Contracted

500

500

500

The production cost per unit during regular time is Rs 60, during over time is Rs 70, and
the sub contracted cost is Rs 72. The cost of carrying inventory is Rs 5 per unit per
month. The cost of unused regular time capacity is Rs 15. Find the optimum production
plan using transportation model.
Question 11a: What is Master Production Scheduling? Explain various types of Bill of
Materials.
Question 11b: What are the various disaggregation methods in use?
Question 12a: Explain Materials Requirement Planning. What are the inputs and
outputs of MRP?
Question 12b: Explain the various Lot sizing techniques.
Question 13a: Explain assembly line balancing clearly defining various terminologies
like cycle time, precedence diagram, work stations, efficiency, utilization, balance delay,
etc.
Question 13b: Explain the key elements to successful JIT.
Question 14: Explain, long-range, medium-range and short-term capacity planning
methods?
Question 15a: What are various batch processing techniques?
Question 15b: Explain the concept of theory of constraints and synchronous
manufacturing.
Question 16: Short notes
(a) Kanban
b)

Scheduling and sequencing

c)

System nervousness

PART B
Case Study 1
In 1990, Jain began to make custom furniture full time in his garage. Jain's work had been
admired by friends and neighbours, who often asked him to make special pieces for them. In
1995, he expanded his operations by leasing a used facility and hiring two additional skilled
workers: a woodworker and a leather specialist. By 1998, Jain formed a company called Good
Wood P Ltd, and had 11 employees.
Today, Good Wood serves a custom furniture market covering Delhi and surrounding regions.
Jain, the CEO, has a staff of 37 employees. Custom made furniture is the sole product line, and
the company has prided itself on high quality and timely delivery services. Organisationally,
Good Wood has Production, Sales, Purchasing, Shipping, and Design departments. Production
department includes wood framing, wood preparation, wood finishing, metal finishing, leather,
glass, plastics, and cloth fabrics.
This past year, 250 to 300 jobs were processed in the facility on any given day. Although
product quality remains high, on time deliveries have deteriorated. The average job seems to be
four to seven weeks late. Suresh, an employee since 1995, and a special assistant to the shop
manager does the shop loading. His job also includes coordinating the overall shop efforts with
those of the sales and design departments. He recently compiled data on waiting job orders for
a typical day.
Detailed scheduling of orders has always been the responsibility of the three shop foremen.
Joshi is foreman of the wood preparation, framing, and finishing departments. Srivastava is the
foreman for the leather and cloth fabrics departments. Chatterjee is the foreman of the metal,
glass and plastics departments.
Jain is concerned about job lateness. He feels deteriorating customer service might well affect
future sales. He has requested George, whose primary experience has been co-ordinating a
new physical distribution system, to analyse the current situation and recommend changes.
George is uncertain which factors he should consider and how to proceed with the problem.
Discuss

1. What is the main problem and what could be the causes of the problem?
2. Propose a production planning and control system to George which would minimise the
above problems

Case Study 2
a.- A company is setting up an assembly line to produce 192 units per eighthour shift. The following table identifies the work elements, items, and
immediate predecessors.
Work element

Time (seconds)

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
Total
Questions:

40
80
30
25
20
15
120
145
130
115
720

Immediate
predecessor(s)
None
A
D, E, F
B
B
B
A
G
H
C, I

a) What is the desired cycle time?

b) What is the theoretical minimum number of work stations?
c) Use the largest work element time rule to work out a solution.
d) What are the idle time, efficiency and balance delay for the solution?
Question b.- A laundry has three operations washing drying and ironing for the
linen it receives from various customers. The laundry has 7 jobs at hand to be
sequenced for the three activities. The activity times for the various jobs on hand
is given in the following table.
Job

Washing

Drying

Ironing

A
B
C
D
E
F
G

1
3
7
9
4
5
2

7
3
8
2
8
6
1

8
10
9
11
9
14
12

a) Sequence these jobs using Johnsons method and find the overall
processing time.
b) Find out the waiting time for the jobs.
c) Find out the idling times for the machines.
d) What are the conditions for using Johnsons rule?

PART C
Multiple Choice Question Set 1
1. If the order winner is delivery speed to customer, then the production
planning and control
system must focus on:
a)
b)
c)
d)

Cost
Lead time
Quality
Coordination with Marketing

2. A firm uses simple exponential smoothing to forecast demand with a = 0.2. The
forecast for the
month of March was 500 units whereas the actual demand turned out to be 460
units. What is
the forecast for the month of April?
a)
b)
c)
d)

489.6
492
480
490

3. Bias as a measure of forecast error is used to determine:

a)
b)
c)
d)

The total magnitude of error

The direction of error
Absolute value
Weighted average

4. Aggregate output planning generally consists of planning a desired output over a

period of:
a)
b)
c)
d)

one week
five years
daily
three months to 1 year

5. Optimum inventory level as per EOQ system will increase:

a)
b)
c)
d)

in direct proportion to increase in holding cost

inversely with setup cost
in proportion to square root of demand for the year
in direct proportion to square root of holding cost

6. Product structure tree is:

a)
b)
c)
d)

diagram explaining the features of a product

used to display the total makeup of a particular product
is representation of a tree
identical to decision tree

7. Kit numbers are used in MPS:

a) when there are many small, loose parts - such as fasteners, nuts and bolts at level 1 in the product structure
b) to identify related items
c) to add complexity to planning
d) as a quick aid to forecasting
8. MRP takes the output from the master schedule, combines that with information
from inventory
records and product structure records and determines:
a) the volume of production in each period
b) the schedule of timing and quantities for each item to get the right materials
to the right place at the right time
c) closing inventory
d) whether customer demand can be met
9. Manufacturing Resource Planning is:
a) the planning of resources in the manufacturing environment using the closed
loop system
b) another term for rough cut capacity planning
c) is also known as MRP I or little
d) is a quicker way to MRP
10. A classification system has been devised to determine how well an MRP
system has been
implemented. Class C company is:
a)
b)
c)
d)

one
one
one
one

which has MRP II in full use and the closed loop is working
in which MRP system is working only in the computing department
which may have MRP, capacity planning and shop floor controls working
which uses MRP for inventory ordering but not for scheduling

11. MRP logic uses the following relationships:

a)
b)
c)
d)

Net requirements
Net requirements
Net requirements
Net requirements

= total requirements - available inventory

= scheduled receipts + inventory on hand
= gross requirements - allocations
= gross requirements - on hand inventory

12. Lot-for-Lot technique in MRP yields:

a)
b)
c)
d)

high holding cost

low setup cost
zero holding cost
zero setup cost

13. The simulation studies on many of the lot sizing rules show:
a)
b)
c)
d)

good performance of L-4-L rule

good performance of EOQ rule
poor performance of PPB, GR and MCP rules
poor performance of L-4-L and EOQ rules

14. Time fence is a designated length of time

a) to create system nervousness in MRP system
b) that is the longest lead time from raw material to finished production for an end
item
c) that must pass without changing the MPS, to stabilise the MRP system;
afterward the MPS is allowed to change
d) around which the system is upgraded
15. Pegging is used in MRP system for:
a)
b)
c)
d)

identifying which components are affected by disruptions in material plans

pausing the system
showing old records
showing current records with updated status

16. Route sheet used in production planning and control is:

a)

used to indicate the location of each department

b) a document to show the routing of a component, including the work centers

and operation times, through its production processes
c) a flow process chart used for process change
d) a document showing the daily production schedule
17. The Master Production Schedule (MPS) is a schedule of:
a) weekly production plan for each product according to customer
orders and demand forecasts
b) aggregate production plan in product groups
c) daily production plan for shop floor control
d) business activity expressed in money value
18. A good strategy to meet short term overload for a month can be:

a)
b)
c)
d)

buy a new equipment

invest in a new project
subcontract work
telling marketing that the job cannot be done

19. Infinite loading is:

a)
b)
c)
d)

assigning jobs to work centers without considering the work center's capacity
using Gantt chart for loading
using visual load profile for showing load
considering loading of planned orders only

20. Final Assembly Schedule can serve as MPS:

a)
b)
c)
d)

when
when
when
when

the number of end products manufactured is small

the number of end products is large
there is a need to disaggregate
M-bills have to be used

21. An aluminium extruder forecasted the demand for pipe extrusions to be 500
units per month
for each of three months. The actual demands turned out to be 400, 560 and
700. The forecast
error in terms of MAD(Mean Absolute Deviation) is:
a)
b)
c)
d)

-50 units
125 units
120 units
53 units

22. Frigerware has experienced demand for ice coolers at 400 units for April, 500
units for May and
600 units for June. The forecast of demand for July using a three period model
with the most
recent period's demand weighted twice as heavily as each of the previous two
period's demand
is:
a)
b)
c)
d)

425
525
625
400

23. In the regression model for forecasting, the forecast of the period's demand F is
expressed as
F = a + bX, where:
a) F is the independent variable
b) X is the dependent variable
c) X is the independent variable

d) a is the slope of the line

24. Capacity is a facility's productive capability, usually expressed as volume of:
a)
b)
c)
d)

input in case of automobiles

output in case of steel producer
likely business as per marketing
output in case of hospital

25. For short term periods of up to one year, fundamental capacity is fixed.
However, short term
adjustments of capacity are possible by:
a)
b)
c)
d)

building inventories during slack periods to meet later demand

subcontracting during slack periods
building inventories during peak periods to meet demand in slack periods
wishing that some customers may cancel the order

26. Steel manufacturing is an example of :

a)
b)
c)
d)

Job manufacturing process

Continuous manufacturing flow process
Assembly line process
None of the above

27. Visual Load profile is:

a)
b)
c)
d)

a graph comparing work loads and capacities on a time scale

identical to Gantt load chart
used for forward scheduling process
used for job sequencing

28. SPT rule in scheduling:

a)
b)
c)
d)

assigns highest priority to the slowest job

prioritises on basis of setup time
prioritises on basis of delivery times
assigns highest priority to the job order whose processing time is shortest

29. Which sequencing rule will you prefer for minimising average job lateness:
a)
b)
c)
d)

Shortest processing time rule

Longest processing time rule
Earliest Due Date rule
First cum first served rule

30. For scheduling N jobs through two machine centers in series, you will use:

a)
b)
c)
d)

Johnson rule to decide the sequence and then schedule on a Gantt chart
McLaren's Order Moment
Groff's Algorithm
None of the above

31. If a machining center has a machine utilisation of 95% and operator efficiency of
80%, what is
the effective work centre capacity in July assuming 26 working days and 3 shifts
running each
day:
a)
b)
c)
d)

472.24 hours
472 hours
158.08 hours
59.28 hours

32. Critical Ratio used in Capacity Planning and Control is:

a)
b)
c)
d)

Time to due date divided by required time for remaining operations

Time for first job divided by time for second job
Capacity consumed by the job divided by total capacity of the plant
Capacity of output divided by capacity of input

33. Job A and B are waiting to be released. Both will go to work center 1. Then A will
continue on
to work center 3 while B will go to work center 4. Suppose that A has high
priority on the first
work center and center 4 is backlogged and center 4 is idle. Which order should
be released
first?
a)
b)
c)
d)

Job A
Job B
Both Job A and Job B together
Toss a coin and if its heads, go for Job A otherwise Job B.

34. Cycle time as used in assembly line manufacturing is:

a)
b)
c)
d)

the time taken in last work station

the productive time divided by demand
the time taken by the bottleneck operation
both b) and c) are considered and the higher value taken

35. In an assembly line the total processing time per, unit is 380 seconds, and the
cycle time for
the line is 90 seconds. What is the minimum number of workstations required in
the assembly
line?

a)
b)
c)
d)

4 stations
4.22 stations
5 stations
4.2 stations

36. Runout Time (ROT) used in batch processing is:

a)
b)
c)
d)

the time taken to complete the batch

the current inventory of an item divided by the demand per period for that item
the demand for the item divided by the opening inventory level
time for setup plus processing time

37. JIT is:

a)
b)
c)
d)

another management jargon

a philosophy of waste reduction and techniques for reducing inventory and waste
applicable only to job shop units
none of the above

38. If the setup cost is Rs 10,000 per setup, annual demand is 100,000 units and
holding cost is Rs
200 per unit per year the optimal batch quantity in production should be
(rounded off):
a)
b)
a)
c)

3162
316
31623
3000

39. Kanban is:

a)
b)
c)
d)

a push production system

another word for MRP system
a pull system based on a 'visible record' or 'card'
input output system

40. If D is the demand per unit of time, L is the lead time, A is the container capacity
and S the
safety stock factor, the number of Kanbans N will be :
a)
b)
c)
d)

DL(1+S)/A
A(l+S)/D
LAS(l + D)/24
(D/A) + L+S

Multiple Choice Question Set 2

1.

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a production system

a)

It is a universally applicable model

b)

Varies from enterprise to enterprise

c)

It is a framework within which production activities take place

d)

Ensures coordination of various production operations

2.

Which of the following is not a type of production system

a)

Continuous production

b)

Job or unit production

c)

Intermittent production

d)

Flexible manufacturing

3.

All of the following are production functions except

a)

Aggregate planning

b)

Pricing of products

c)

Capacity assessment

d)

Scheduling of operations

4.

Order winner means

a)

The sales person who gets the order

b)

The factor of the product that wins the order for the firm

c)

Order that results in high profits

d)

Repeat order

5.

All of the following are functions of forecasting except

a)

An estimation tool

b)

A tool for predicting events related to operations planning and control

c)

An input for the JIT system

d)

A vital prerequisite for the planning process

6.

Degree of uncertainty in short term forecasting is

a)

High

b)

Low

c)

Nil

d)

Significant

7.

All of the following are key areas of forecasting except

a)

Better materials management

b)

Rationalized manpower decisions

c)

Basis for planning and scheduling

d)

Routine decisions

8.

Which of the following is a dependent demand for an organization manufacturing

refrigerators
a)

Compressor

b)

Requirement for a DG set

c)

Refrigerators

d)

Tea coffee vending machine

9.

If a forecast repeatedly overestimates actual demand, bias will have

a)

Positive value

b)

Negative value

c)

Zero value

d)

Infinity

10.

Which of the following is not a qualitative method of forecasting

a)

Delphi method

b)

Historical data

c)

Econometric models

d)

Nominal group technique

11.

The most suitable method for forecasting the demand for a brand new product is

a)

Moving averages

b)

Historical data

c)

Exponential smoothening

d)

Delphi method

12.

The planning that addresses the supply side of a firm's ability to meet the demand is

known as
a)

Business plan

b)

Aggregate production planning

c)

Aggregate capacity planning

d)

Master production scheduling

13.

Which of the following is not a considerations in developing an aggregate production

plan
a)

Concept of aggregation

b)

Goal for aggregate planning

c)

Forecast of aggregate demand

d)

Supplier lead time

14.

The aggregate production planning strategy that cannot be employed in a strong union

environment is
a)

Changing inventory levels

b)

Changing workforce levels

c)

Subcontracting

d)

Influencing demand

15.

Which of the following is not an alternative for managing supply

a)

Inventory based alternatives

b)

Promotional schemes

c)

Capacity adjustment

d)

Capacity augmentation

16.

All of the following are capacity adjustment alternatives except

a)

Hiring/ Firing of workers

b)

Varying shifts

c)

Varying working hours

d)

Subcontracting

17.

Which of the following is not an aggregate production planning method

a)

Trial-and-error method

b)

Transportation method

c)

Linear programming method

d)

Assignment method

18.

All of the following are characteristics of Master Production Scheduling except

a)

MPS makes use of actual customer orders

b)

Product varieties are taken care of in MPS

c)

MPS is a critical linkage between planning and execution of operations

d)

It is same as rough cut capacity planning

19.

Which is not a characteristic of a Bill Of Materials

a)

List all parts required for one unit of a product

b)

Shows dependency relationships

c)

Gives total number of a part used in a product

d)

Indicates multi levels of a product

20.

All of the following are time phasing requirement of an MRP logic except

a)

Gross requirement will occur at the middle of a period

b)

On hand inventory will be measured at the end of a period

c)

Planned order release will occur at the beginning of a period

d)

Lead time considerations are not taken for time phasing

21.

Which of the following is not an input to the MRP system

a)

The Master Production Schedule

b)

Bill of materials

c)

Engineering drawing

d)

Inventory status file

22.

Which of the following is not a Lot sizing technique

a)

The lot-for lot technique

b)

The EOQ approach

c)

Mini-Max approach

d)

Period order quantity approach

23.

The process of tracing the effect of one component in another is called

a)

Pegging

b)

Cycle counting

c)

Lot sizing

d)

Time fencing

24.

Stability in an MRP is achieved by

a)

Updating

b)

Cycle counting

c)

Lot Sizing

d)

Time fencing

25.

Time fence means

a)

The shortest lead-time from raw material to finished production of an item

b)

Ensuring accuracy of inventory records

c)

Method used to update MRP at regular intervals

d)

Calculating net requirements of components

26.

All of the following are characteristics of capacity except

a)

It is the maximum rate at which a system can accomplish work

b)

Capacity depends on the bottleneck

c)

Capacity is the productive capability of a facility

d)

Capacity is measured in monetary terms

27.

Operations managers are concerned with capacity for several reasons. Which of the

following is not a concern

a)

Enough capacity to meet customer demands

b)

Capacity affects cost efficiency of operations

c)

Investment required in capacity

d)

Machine locations in a facility

28.

Which of the following is not a short term strategy for modifying capacity

a)

Inventories

b)

Employment levels

c)

Subcontracting

d)

Expansion

29.

All of the following are steps in capacity control except

a)

Monitoring of output

b)

Comparing with capacity plan

c)

Assessing demand

d)

Taking corrective actions

30.

Multi-skilling of work force doesn't results in

a)

Increasing capacity

b)

Increasing flexibility

c)

Improving productivity

d)

Waste elimination

31.

Activity not associated with Dispatching is

a)

Issue of instructions concerning movement of materials between work centers

b)

Issue of instructions to operators

c)

Loading work centers with jobs

d)

Issue instructions concerning the issue and return of special tools

32.

Routing doesn't include

a)

Sequence of processes, operations for a product

b)

Machines, tools, work stations used in producing the product

c)

Standard time applicable for each operation

d)

Detailed skills of the operator for each operation

33.

Three planning premises are used in production management. Which of the following is

not one among them

a)

Make to stock

b)

Make to order

c)

Assemble to order

d)

Make subassemblies

34.

A strategy that is not used for altering lead time is

a)

Overlapping

b)

Lot sizing

c)

Operations splitting

d)

Lot splitting

35.

Backlogs can be reduced by all of the following except

a)

Increasing work center capacity

b)

Reducing order release rate

c)

Increasing lead time

d)

Subcontracting

36.

Priority index in scheduling is also known as

a)

Critical ratio

b)

Critical Path

c)

Random number

d)

Earliest due date

37.

All of the following are characteristics of flow shop production except

a)

Special purpose equipment

b)

Many number of end items

c)

Low skilled workers

d)

Low in process inventories

38.

Which of the following is not a characteristic of job shop production

a)

Multipurpose equipment

b)

Highly skilled workers

c)

High investment

d)

Low raw material inventory

39.

Bottleneck operation in line balancing means

a)

Having high operation time

b)

Having high cycle time

c)

Having low operation time

d)

Having more no. of follower operations

40.

Which of the following is not associated with line balancing

a)

Precedence diagrams

b)

Cycle time

c)

Closeness matrix

d)

Minimum number of workstations