AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

The coordination of resources in manufacturing organizations can have a huge impact on the success of a company. While over the years many ways to coordinate production have been developed, suiting varying complexities, it is beneficial to examine the unique needs and perspectives of the manufacturing system. This study examines the steps that a Swiss manufacturing company has taken to create a more structured and formalized planning system in order to improve the efficiency of its production. The core of the paper consists of the explanation of the production planning tools and processes that the author of this paper created as an employee of the subject company. The study chose the organizational, decision-making and problem-solving perspectives to be key aspects to take into consideration when analyzing and designing the planning system. Addressing the organizational perspective and arguably the most important schedule for a manufacturer, the master production schedule (MPS) was developed in order to align the complex combination of resources. A seven-step routine to production planning and control was adopted in dealing with the decision-making perspective. Lastly, focusing in on the problem-solving perspective, a machine scheduling tool prototype was developed, eventually leading to capacity planning utilization in SAP. The thesis has contributed to solving the resource coordination problem within the subject company through creating tools to formalize and establish a basic production planning system. The applied research should be of interest to management, researchers and consultants of small manufacturing companies and individuals in production planning and control.