Tactical Planning
•Aggregate planning makes the tactical decisions that translate forecast demand and available capacity into schedules for families of activities.
•The master schedule gives a timetable for activities, typically for each week. Its aim is to achieve the activities described in aggregate plans as efficiently as possible.
•A&B Coaches plan their capacity in terms of ‘coach-days’. They classify their business as either ‘full day’, or ‘half day’. Forecasts show expected annual demands for the next two years to average 400,000 full-day passengers and 750,000 half-day passengers.
•A&B have 61 coaches, each with an effective capacity of 40 passengers a day for 300 days a year. Breakdowns and other unexpected problems reduce efficiency to 90%. They employ 86 drivers who work an average of 220 days a year, but illness and other absences reduce their efficiency to 85%.
•If there is a shortage of coaches the company can buy extra ones for £110,000 or hire them for £100 a day. If there is a shortage of drivers they can recruit extra ones at a cost of £20,000 a year, or hire them from an agency for £110 a day.
•How can the company approach its tactical planning?
Generating alternative plans
The most common methods of generating plans
1.Negotiations
2.Adjust previous plans
3.Other intuitive methods
4.Graphical methods
5.Spreadsheetcalculations
6.Simulation
7.Expert systems
8.Mathematical models
Planning cycles