Certification in Production Planning and Control (PPC)

Production Planning and Control (PPC) is a core area of manufacturing and operations management that connects production requirements with processes, machines, capacity and demand. Effective PPC helps organizations determine what should be produced, how production should be planned, what resources are required and how available capacity can be aligned with operational requirements.

This course provides a structured understanding of Production Planning and Control, process planning, aggregate production planning, capacity planning, capacity utilization, demand strategies, economies of scale and production planning calculations.

The course combines conceptual learning with examples and 50 exercises with solutions, allowing you to strengthen both your understanding of PPC principles and your ability to work through production planning problems.

The overall decision flow can be understood as:

Production Requirement → Process Planning → Aggregate Planning → Capacity Planning → Analysis → Production Decision

This integrated approach is important because production decisions should not be made in isolation. Process requirements affect machine requirements, demand influences aggregate plans, capacity influences achievable output, and operating levels influence production economics.

Understand Production Planning and Control

The course begins with the fundamentals of Production Planning and Control (PPC).

You will examine the definition of PPC, its objectives, its major functions and the different levels at which production planning and control decisions can occur.

You will also explore the benefits and limitations of PPC.

This establishes the foundation for understanding production planning as a coordinated system rather than simply creating a production schedule.

A useful conceptual flow is:

Production Need → Planning → Resource Coordination → Production Control → Review

Understanding this foundation prepares you for the more quantitative and strategic production-planning topics covered later in the course.

Learn Process Planning

The course then moves into process planning, an important connection between product requirements and actual production operations.

You will explore:

• Process planning

• Factors affecting process planning

• Product realization

• Methods of process planning

• Machine requirements

• Machine requirement calculations

Process planning helps determine how production requirements can be translated into the processes and resources needed to produce an output.

The relationship can be viewed as:

Product Requirement → Process Selection → Machine Requirement → Production Capability

This is an important stage because production plans must ultimately be supported by appropriate processes and machine capacity.

Understand Machine Requirements

Machine requirements are specifically addressed through conceptual learning and calculation-based examples.

A production plan may define the required output, but planners must also consider whether sufficient machine capability exists to support that requirement.

The course therefore connects process planning with machine-resource decisions.

A practical planning sequence is:

Required Output → Process Requirement → Machine Requirement → Capacity Check → Production Decision

This helps build the analytical foundation needed for later topics in aggregate and capacity planning.

Master Aggregate Production Planning

A major part of the course focuses on Aggregate Production Planning (APP).

Aggregate planning addresses how production capacity and output can be aligned with expected demand over a planning period.

You will study the objectives of aggregate planning and the aggregate planning process before moving into different approaches for meeting demand.

The course examines:

• Meeting demand strategies

• Strategies for adjusting capacity

• Level capacity

• Chase demand

• Quantitative techniques for aggregate production planning

• Pure strategies

• Level production strategies

• Chase demand strategies

• Mixed strategies

This allows you to understand that production planning often involves choosing between different ways of balancing demand and available resources.

A useful aggregate planning workflow is:

Demand Requirement → Capacity Assessment → Strategy Selection → Production Plan → Operational Evaluation

Compare Level and Chase Demand Strategies

The course provides dedicated coverage of level capacity and chase demand strategies.

A level approach focuses on maintaining a more consistent production or capacity level, while a chase approach adjusts production more closely in response to changes in demand.

The curriculum also includes examples of:

• Pure strategies

• Level production strategies

• Chase demand strategies

• Mixed strategies

This enables you to examine different aggregate planning approaches rather than viewing production planning as a single fixed method.

The broader planning question becomes:

Should production remain relatively stable, adjust with demand, or combine multiple approaches?

Understanding these alternatives is central to aggregate production planning.

Apply Quantitative Techniques to Aggregate Planning

Production planning requires more than conceptual understanding.

The course introduces quantitative techniques for Aggregate Production Planning and supports them with strategy examples.

You will work through examples involving pure strategies, level production strategies and chase demand strategies before examining mixed strategies.

The objective is to develop a structured approach to evaluating production alternatives.

A useful problem-solving model is:

Problem → Demand & Capacity Information → Planning Strategy → Quantitative Analysis → Comparison → Decision

This framework can be applied when evaluating different aggregate production alternatives.

Develop Strong Capacity Planning Fundamentals

Another major component of the course is capacity planning.

Capacity planning focuses on determining whether an operation has sufficient productive capability to meet its requirements.

You will study:

• Capacity planning

• Strategic capacity planning

• Capacity utilization rate

• Capacity decisions

• Capacity utilization

• Factors affecting capacity requirements

• Importance of capacity planning

• Measuring capacity

• Capacity requirement determination

The course progresses from fundamental capacity concepts into examples and calculations.

A useful capacity-planning flow is:

Expected Requirement → Available Capacity → Capacity Measurement → Utilization Assessment → Capacity Gap → Capacity Decision

This connects production demand with operational capability.

Understand Capacity Utilization

Having production capacity does not automatically mean that capacity is being used effectively.

The curriculum therefore examines capacity utilization and the capacity utilization rate, along with a dedicated capacity utilization example.

Capacity utilization helps production planners compare operating activity with available productive capability.

Understanding utilization supports decisions about whether capacity is being effectively used and whether future requirements may require adjustments.

This creates an important connection:

Available Capacity → Actual Utilization → Requirement Analysis → Capacity Decision

Determine Capacity Requirements

The course goes beyond describing capacity and examines how capacity requirements can be determined.

You will learn about:

• Factors affecting capacity requirements

• Determining capacity requirements

• Steps in capacity planning

• Capacity requirement examples

This creates a structured way of thinking about capacity decisions.

The planning sequence can be summarized as:

Production Requirement → Capacity Requirement → Existing Capacity → Gap Analysis → Capacity Planning Decision

Capacity planning therefore becomes part of a broader operational decision process rather than an isolated calculation.

Understand Best Operating Level

The curriculum also examines the concept of best operating level.

You will study the relationship between operating level and average unit cost of output, supported by examples.

The course also includes a specific example involving the best operating level for a hotel, demonstrating how capacity concepts can be considered beyond a traditional manufacturing environment.

The underlying decision relationship is:

Operating Level → Resource Utilization → Unit Cost → Operating Decision

This helps connect capacity planning with operational economics.

Explore Average Unit Cost of Output

Capacity decisions have economic consequences.

The course examines average unit cost of output in relation to operating level and capacity.

As production or service activity changes, the economic effect of scale and operating level also becomes relevant.

Understanding this relationship helps explain why simply increasing output does not automatically guarantee greater efficiency.

Production planners therefore need to consider both:

Capacity Capability + Cost Behaviour

when evaluating operating decisions.

Understand Economies of Scale

The course provides dedicated coverage of economies of scale, including examples, graphs and operating-level relationships.

Economies of scale help explain how increasing the scale of operations can influence production economics.

The curriculum examines:

• Economies of scale

• Economies of scale and operating-level curves

• Examples and graphical interpretation

This extends capacity planning beyond the question of whether production is possible to the question of how operating scale can influence efficiency and cost.

Understand Diseconomies of Scale

Growth in operating scale does not always produce continuing benefits.

The curriculum therefore also examines diseconomies of scale and the concept of diseconomies of confusion.

This provides an important counterpoint to economies of scale.

As organizations or operations become larger, additional complexity can influence coordination, communication and operating efficiency.

The course therefore presents both sides of scale:

Increasing Scale → Potential Economies → Greater Complexity → Potential Diseconomies

This is an important consideration when evaluating long-term capacity and operating-level decisions.

Learn Strategic Capacity Planning

Capacity decisions can have longer-term implications, which is why the course specifically includes strategic capacity planning.

Strategic capacity planning connects expected requirements with decisions about the productive capability needed to support operations.

Rather than looking only at current production, capacity planning requires consideration of future requirements and appropriate operating levels.

A useful strategic framework is:

Requirement → Capacity Assessment → Utilization → Operating Level → Cost Implications → Capacity Decision

This provides a structured way to think about production capacity.

Strengthen PPC Skills with 50 Exercises and Solutions

A major practical component of this course is the dedicated section containing 50 exercises and solutions.

After learning the fundamentals of PPC, process planning, aggregate planning and capacity planning, you can reinforce your understanding through structured exercises.

Working through exercises is particularly useful in production planning because many decisions require learners to connect multiple concepts rather than memorize individual definitions.

The exercise section supports a practical learning cycle:

Concept → Problem → Analysis → Solution → Review → Understanding

The objective is to strengthen your ability to interpret production-planning problems and work systematically toward a solution.

What You Will Learn

By completing this course, you will develop an understanding of:

• Production Planning and Control (PPC)

• Objectives of PPC

• Functions of PPC

• Levels of Production Planning and Control

• Benefits and limitations of PPC

• Process planning

• Factors affecting process planning

• Product realization

• Methods of process planning

• Machine requirements

• Machine requirement calculations

• Aggregate Production Planning

• Objectives of aggregate planning

• Aggregate planning process

• Strategies for meeting demand

• Strategies for adjusting capacity

• Level capacity

• Chase demand strategy

• Quantitative techniques for Aggregate Production Planning

• Pure aggregate planning strategies

• Level production strategies

• Chase demand strategies

• Mixed aggregate planning strategies

• Capacity planning

• Strategic capacity planning

• Capacity utilization rate

• Capacity decisions

• Capacity utilization

• Factors affecting capacity requirements

• Importance of capacity planning

• Capacity measurement

• Best operating level

• Average unit cost of output

• Economies of scale

• Economies of scale and operating-level relationships

• Diseconomies of scale

• Diseconomies of confusion

• Determining capacity requirements

• Steps in capacity planning

• Capacity requirement examples

• Production planning problem solving through 50 exercises and solutions

Who Should Take This Course?

This course is suitable for production planners, manufacturing professionals, operations professionals, industrial engineers, mechanical engineers, production engineers, operations management learners and students studying Production Planning and Control.

It is also useful for professionals who work with production requirements, capacity, machine utilization, planning or manufacturing operations and want to strengthen their understanding of the principles behind PPC.

Engineering and management students can use the course to build a structured foundation in process planning, aggregate planning and capacity planning.

Production and operations professionals can use it to reinforce how demand, process requirements, machine requirements and capacity decisions connect.

Learners preparing for roles related to production planning can particularly benefit from the combination of concepts, quantitative examples and the dedicated 50-exercise practice section.

Build an Integrated View of Production Planning

Production Planning and Control becomes more useful when its individual components are viewed as one connected system.

Process planning determines how production can be carried out.

Aggregate planning determines how production and capacity can respond to demand.

Capacity planning determines whether sufficient productive capability exists.

Capacity utilization provides insight into how available capability is being used.

Operating-level analysis connects capacity with economic performance.

Economies and diseconomies of scale explain how changes in operational scale can affect performance.

The complete learning model can therefore be summarized as:

Demand → Process → Machines → Aggregate Plan → Capacity → Utilization → Operating Level → Analysis → Production Decision

By understanding these relationships and reinforcing them through examples and exercises, you can build a stronger foundation in Production Planning and Control and its role in manufacturing and operations management.