Manufacturing Planning and Control (MPC) system

A production (or manufacturing) planning and control (MPC) system is concerned with planning and controlling all aspects of manufacturing, including materials, scheduling machines and people, and coordinating suppliers and customers. An effective MPC system is critical to the success of any company. An MPC system's design is not a one-off undertaking; it should be adaptive to respond to changes in the competitive arena, customer requirements, strategy, supply chain and other possible problems (Vollmann )

There are 5 levels in the manufacturing planning and control (MPC) system:

- Strategic business plan,
- Production plan (sales and operations plan),
- Master production schedule,
- Materiel requirements plan,
- Purchasing and production activity control.

Each level varies in purpose, time span and level of detail. Since each level is for different time span and purposes, each differs in the following:

- Purpose of the plan,
- Planning horizon: the time span from now to some time in future for which plan is created,
- Level of detail: the detail about products require for the plan,
- Planning cycle: the frequency with which the plan is reviewed.

At each level, 3 questions must be answered:
- What are the priorities: how much of what is to be produced and when?
- What is the available capacity: what resources do we have?
- How can differences between priorities and capacity be resolved?