Review

Different Levels of Planning

The level of planning is determined by the level of goal setting.

• Reaching strategic goals requires strategic planning, reaching production goals requires a production plan, and reaching pest and disease control goals requires a pest and disease control plan.
• Product selection depends mostly on environmental factors (climate, soil, water availability, etc.) and on market opportunities.
• Planning has to be flexible, allowing changing circumstances to guide their relevance and validity.
• A budget is a financial expression of a plan.
• Income is money generated from the sale of a product.
• Expenditure is the cost associated with generating income.
• Costing means determining the actual cost of producing a specific product or delivering a specific service.

Scheduling

• Scheduling is about putting plans to a timeframe.
• Scheduling indicates who will perform the work, where will the work be performed, what resources are required, how progress will be measured against the scheduled work, and how progress will be reported on
• Scheduling techniques are tools used to facilitate the scheduling process.
• The most commonly used scheduling techniques are flow, milestone, CPM, PERT and Gantt charts.
• Schedules can be created forwards, meaning from a certain date onwards with an estimated completion date, or backwards, meaning from a predetermined completion date back to the date on which the task will begin.
• Schedules must be displayed prominently and communicated well.

Production Optimisation Techniques

• Production optimisation techniques are about making accurate, early predictions relating to the crop, and manipulating the tree and its environment to produce the best possible quality and quantity crop.
• Decisions on production interventions are made on the basis of accurate information, which is obtained from records.
• Records must be kept of inputs made and their costs.
• Output records that must be kept include yield and fruit size distribution, percentage to each market segment, cull factor analysis, maturity indexing data, and actual versus budgeted income.
• Statistical analysis is used to evaluate the validity or significance of the results from data collected, and to determine the extent to which two variables are proportional or linearly related to each other.
• The steps required to manage a production unit are:
• Decide the objective or goal.
• Set the required standards.
• Decide on the implementation plan.
• Schedule the activities.
• Allocate responsibilities and resources, or inputs.
• Measure progress and results.
• Evaluate by comparing the results with the goals and targets set.
• Adapt the goals and/or targets.
• Adapt the inputs, and go back to step 5.

Assessing Planning and Scheduling

• Production activities are varied, often overlap, and should follow a logical sequence.
• Goal setting is followed by planning, which is followed by scheduling, which is followed by implementation, of which records are kept, which are used to evaluate the implementation of the plan and the achievement of the goals, which allows for optimisation.

Definitions

Budgeting: Budgeting is the process that provides a detailed breakdown of what is planned to be spent and earned for each item of income and expenditure by the month for the financial year.

Income: Income is money generated from the sale of the product and may include other minor sources, such as interest received.

Expenditure: Expenditure is the cost associated with generating income and supporting the business over the longer term.

Costing: Costing is a process for determining the actual cost of producing a particular product or providing a particular service.