What is the difference between planning and scheduling? What is the "hierarchy" that describes how planning progresses into scheduling in the typical organization?

What is the basic reason for planning? What types of resources typically required some lead-time to procure?

Know the two basic approaches to planning: Level production and chase demand.

Level production. Given a demand forecast, develop a production plan based on the level production approach. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach?

Chase demand. Given a demand forecast, develop a production plan based on the chase demand approach. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach? Recognize peak demand periods. Explain why service businesses are particularly capable of meeting peak demand periods with "flexible capacity."

Which business strategies favor level production and which favor chase demand?

Scheduling

How does scheduling differ from planning?

Scheduling uses lots of heuristics. What is a heuristic?

Explain forward and backward scheduling. Be able to produce a forward or backward schedule given some data. What kinds of businesses might prefer to use a forward scheduling approach? A backward schedule?

Job shop scheduling. Also known as sequencing. Understand that the scope of most sequencing rules is limited—to how to order jobs stacked at a single workstation.

Be able to sequence jobs according the various rules that we do in class, or in the problems.

Which scheduling rule tends to work well in many situations?