Production Strategy

Your business might not be solely a trading operation – there might be a production element in the offering made to your customers – so lets look at some of the questions that you need to answer if the production #strategy is a suitable one.

1. Manage procurement – is your purchasing function adequate in terms of quality control and inventory control. Also you should ensure that the business is able to negotiate the best possible deal.
2. Plant and machinery – has it been properly serviced and proper maintenance records been maintained. Are proper safety measures being followed. Are government and municipal regulations been adopted in the operation of the machines.
3. Training and development of the staff involved in the manufacturing process – both from a safety aspect and from efficiency angle manpower needs to be trained on the proper use of machinery and adequate supervision should be provided to them.
4. 

   Small Business Strategy

   Quality and productivity are two indicators (KPI) that need to be closely monitored to ensure that the production process will yield high profits. It is important to keep a clear record of all the batches of production to ensure that any defect is detected early. Constant preventive maintenance should be carried out to prevent breakdown in the system.

5. Production planning is also important to ensure that customer demands are met on time and the delivery deadlines are met and also to ensure that to much WIP and raw materials are not held that will drag profitability down.
6. Storing inventory – finished should be stored in the proper storage facility and ensure that production and expiry and other labels have been marked clearly – it may also be important to ensure that not too much inventory builds up as this lead to too much money tied up in working capital.
7. Japanese management techniques have been used around the world with amazing increase in productivity and quality – 5S systems, Kaizen, continuous improvement, just in time are some of the methods that could be adopted in managing the production process.
8. Insurance regulations – insurance companies have very specific requirements from companies operating a production process – you should familiarise with the various covenants that need to be adhered to for the insurance cover to be in force.

Also take a look at the detailed production planning checklist that I have compiled here.

There is also a production planning guide that you could follow here.