Planning Tools & Techniques

Muhammad Farhan Adeel Ur Rehman Muhammad Anees Zahid Ali Khan

Objectives

Techniques for assessing the environment Techniques for allocating resources Contemporary planning techniques

Assessing the Environment

Environmental scanning The screening of large amounts of information to anticipate and interpret changes in the environment. Used by both large and small organizations, and research has shown that companies with advanced environmental scanning systems increased their profits and revenue growth

Assessing the Environment

SWOT analysis: An analysis of an organizations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It brings together the internal and external environmental analyses in order to identify a strategic niche the organization might exploit.

Assessing the Environment

Competitor intelligence: An environmental scanning activity that seeks to identify who competitors are, what they are doing, and how their actions will affect the organization Global Scanning: Another type of environmental scanning is global scanning in which managers assess the changes and trends in the global environment

Assessing the Environment

Forecasting The process of predicting changing conditions and future events that may significantly affect the business of an organization

Important to both planning and decision making Used in a variety of areas such as: production planning, budgeting, strategic planning, sales analysis, inventory control, marketing planning, logistics planning, and purchasing among others Forecasting techniques are most accurate when the environment is not rapidly changing

Assessing the Environment

Methods of Forecasting 1. Quantitative forecasting relies on numerical data and mathematical model to predict future conditions. 2. Technological Or Qualitative aimed primarily at predicting long-term trends in technology and other important aspects of the environment

Assessing the Environment

Benchmarking the search for the best practices among competitors or non-competitors that lead to their superior performance.

Assessing the Environment

Steps in Benchmarking

Allocating the Resources

Resources The assets of the organization that includes financial, physical, human, intangible, and structural.

Budgeting: A numerical plan for allocating resources to specific activities Popular because theyre applicable to a wide variety of organizations and units within an organization

Allocating the Resources

Types of Budgets

Allocating the Resources

Scheduling: involves a list of necessary activities, their order of completion, which is to do each, and time needed to complete them The Gantt chart named after Henry Gantt, is a scheduling chart that visually shows actual and planned output over a period of time with time on the x-axis and output on the y-axis

Allocating the Resources

A Gantt Chart

Allocating the Resources

The Load Chart Evolved from Gantt chart, it list either entire departments or specific resources. It schedules capacity by work areas

Allocating the Resources

A Load Chart

Allocating the Resources

PERT, or Program Evaluation and Review Technique PERT is a network planning method for managing and controlling large one-time projects. It is a technique for scheduling complicated projects comprising many activities, some of which are interdependent is a flowchart like diagram that depicts the sequence of activities needed to complete a project and the time or costs associated with each activity

Allocating the Resources

Events & activities in constructing an Office Building

Allocating the Resources

A visual PERT Network for Constructing an Office Building

Critical Path: A - B - C - D - G - H - J - K

Allocating the Resources

Breakeven analysis A technique for identifying the point at which total revenue is just sufficient to cover total costs The Formula
Total Fixed Costs Breakeven: Unit Price - Unit Variable Costs

Allocating the Resources

Breakeven Analysis

Allocating the Resources

Linear programming: A mathematical technique that can be used to solve resource allocation problems. LP is a quantitative tool for planning how to allocate limited or scarce resources so that a single criterion or goal (often profits) is optimized It is the most widely used quantitative planning tools in business There are optimal conditions for using linear programming

Allocating the Resources

Production Data for Cinnamon-Scented Products

Allocating the Resources

Graphical Solution to LP Problem

Contemporary Planning Techniques

Project: One-time-only set of activities that has a definite beginning and ending point in time. Project Management: The task of getting a projects activities done on time, within budget, and according to specifications

Contemporary Planning Techniques

Project Planning Process

Contemporary Planning Techniques

The role of the project manager a. The only real influence project managers have is their communication skills and their power of persuasion b. Team members seldom work on just one project; theyre usually assigned to two or three at any given time.

Contemporary Planning Techniques

Scenario planning: A scenario is a consistent view of what the future is likely to be 1. Developing scenarios also can be described as contingency planning 2. The intent of scenario planning is not to try to predict the future but to reduce uncertainty by playing out potential situations under different specified conditions 3. Scenario planning is difficult to use when forecasting random events

Thank You
References Management
Stephen P. Robbins, Mary Coulter

Principles of Management
Virtual University of Pakistan