Production Planning in an MRO or 145 environment, a document delivered by Steven Bentley Managing Director Sofema Aviation Services.
Production Planning is a scaleable activity, means in a small organization it is an additional duty of production engineering personnel, whilst in a large organization or an MRO it becomes a significant department.
Production Planning is a dedicated element within 145 reference to 145.A.47.
So we understand therefore that all 145 & MRO organisations must in fact deliver the production planning function, however organisations who are able to derive real benefits, recognize the true value of production planning and develop strategies to improve and optimize the processes.
The real challenges for an organization is to use the Production Department, not just as a service provider within the organization, but as an integrator of best practice.
In an effective Production Planning department within a medium to large size organization The Production Planning activities which are driven solely by regulatory requirements may in fact contribute as little as 20% of the departmental work load. The remainder of the work load (up to 80%) consists of the ongoing management of the various activities under management within the organization.
With the ongoing support of management and the support of quality and safety management system processes, Organisational Strategies for general efficiency improvements may be driven quite effectively from data and experiences generated from within the Production Planning department.
These activities recognize the true importance of the function and the fact that Production Planning sits at the organisations cross roads, interfacing with almost every department in the organization and involved in almost every step of the production planning.
If an organization is also able to implement performance Quality Assurance processes (as opposed to solely compliance process) together with a proactive Production Planning role, there is an opportunity to gather data which management is able to use to improve efficiencies.
What attributes and competencies should a Production Planner posses ?
A comprehensive understanding of the regulatory environment together with an in depth understanding of the companies processes and procedures is an essential requirement to be an effective Production Planner
A good understanding of all interfaces between Maintenance and Production Planning.
To be able to focus and support the delivery of best practice processes to meet the challenge of effective Production Planning.
To demonstrate a good understanding of Quality and Safety Principles and how they can support the effectiveness of the Production Planning function.
Sofema Aviation Services www.sassofia.com offers 2 day Part 145 Aviation Production Planning Courses and 1 Day Part 145 Production Planning basics courses.
For additional details please visit the web site or email office@sassofia.com
