Production Planning and Control (PPC) for Startups

What added value can our product offer? How can we create an appealing design? And which channels should we use to reach our target groups?

These are a few of the questions that startups tend to ask themselves during the product development process. But production planning is just as important. Before you get into the details of marketing and distribution, you should carefully consider your product manufacturing processes. In this article, we’ll explain why production planning is so vital – especially for startups – and how you can put it into practice.

Startups: Focus on Product Development

Product development is one of the biggest challenges for startups. Today, there are plenty more startups turning to alternative production concepts such as the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). It’s a great way for your company to get a head start, but unfortunately, the MVP is not always enough. That’s why smart production planning might just be your ideal solution.

What is Production Planning and Control?

Production planning encompasses the entire production process. It’s the theoretical foundation on which actual production methods are built. It’s usually combined with production control and referred to as Production Planning and Control (PPC). This covers the operative, temporal, quantitative and spatial planning of all processes necessary for product manufacturing.

What does PPC include?

Comprehensive production planning, for most industrial companies, includes:

1. Production Planning and Scheduling: Which products to manufacture, the lead time, and quantity.
2. Material Requirements Planning: Integrated control system calculating the materials and components required to manufacture the product in the desired quantity and quality.
3. Production Process Planning: The manufacture of the products is divided into various subtasks. The focus is on the production of individual components, assemblies, and the actual assembly of the products.

To get started, it’s enough if you understand that production planning ensures that all production processes run smoothly. If you’re interested in learning more, then you’ll find details in our free whitepaper: “Start-Up: Challenges & Opportunities”.

Production Planning and Control for Startups

Think carefully about what your production plan looks like if you manufacture physical products. Established medium-sized companies or large industrial groups have the advantage of experience, the capital, and manpower to boost production. In most cases, all the necessary machines and systems are available, meaning that manufacturing new products is no longer a major challenge.

Obviously, things are a little different for startups. The budget and resources are limited. However, this situation comes with advantages. You’re not stuck with rigid structures and can customize your production planning – from the outset – in a way that suits you and your start-up. In other words, while the established competition is losing efficiency with partly outdated methods and inflated workflows, you benefit from lean processes that have a positive impact in the long term. 

Production Planning and Control Systems Steps

Regardless of the industry you work in or the physical product you want to manufacture, your goal is to seek an efficient production that wastes as little time and resources as possible. For this to succeed, you should plan this step by step:

1. Product analysis: Manufacturing a prototype or a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) and testing it should be your priority. Get customer feedback and discover potential production process issues as well as your customers’ requirements for this product.
2. Involve experience partners: Seek out suppliers with experience in designing different production processes. They might be able to share some with you. 
3. Work out the costs: Clear cost planning is essential to production planning. Get an accurate overview of the costs of materials, workforce, and the ongoing production expenses for the machinery and equipment. Finally, make sure you compare the supplier prices.
4. Production type: There are two major types of production: mass and series production. Obviously, variants exist.  But the best type of production for you depends on your product and your options. Garment production tends to come with low unit costs. On the other hand, acquiring suitable machines that can handle this is comparatively expensive.
5. Validation testing: Is your production planning in place and prototype or MVP developed? If so, it’s time for some validation testing. Produce a batch that isn’t intended for sales but is meant to highlight any final errors in your production process.

These steps are subject to change but give you an idea how a production planning design should look like. However, another aspect to consider is the use of software solutions.

Product Development and Production Planning Networking

Product development often involves marketing and sales right from the start, whether you’re an established company or a start-up. However, production teams tend to be forgotten and are clearly as important. They can share their knowledge and expertise on the technologies to use, the production concept, and planning at an early stage.

Ideally, you want to mix the production and development teams with marketing and sales. Together, they can evaluate customers’ feedback and carry out competitor analyses. The advantage is that it brings knowledge and experience from various team members while ensuring nothing is left out.

In Our Experience…

With the right software, production planning is easier, faster, and offers more transparency. PLM platforms provide an array of solutions for anyone involved in the production planning. Benefit from SIMULIA for virtual product tests, or DELMIA for Product Data Management (PDM) and Production and Assembly Planning. 

The result is an efficient production plan and a quick market launch tailored to the requirements of the target groups. However, proper production planning can be simple and complex at the same time, and a strong partner such as TECHNIA can advise you during the initial stages of your production development. So, when can we help?