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What is planning? What are the steps involved in planning?

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Question added by Wasi Rahman Sheikh , WAREHOUSE SUPERVISOR , AL MUTLAQ FURNITURE MFG
Date Posted: 2016/04/16
Mohamed Abdulfatah  Elhariri
by Mohamed Abdulfatah Elhariri , Supervisor , SBG

Planning is a basic management function involving formulation of one or more details plans to achieve optimum balance of needs or demands with available resources.

Steps of planing :

1- Identifying the goals or objectives.

2-Formulate strategies too achieve them.

3-Creates the means required 

4-monitoring,Direct and control all steps in it's proper sequence.

 

Wasi Rahman Sheikh
by Wasi Rahman Sheikh , WAREHOUSE SUPERVISOR , AL MUTLAQ FURNITURE MFG

1. Goal setting:

Plans are the means to achieve certain ends or objec­tives. Therefore, establishment of organizational or overall objectives is the first step in planning. Setting objectives is the most crucial part of planning. The organizational objectives should be set in key areas of operations.

They should be verifiable i.e., they should as far as possible be specified in clear and measurable terms. The objectives are set in the light of the opportunities perceived by managers. Establishment of goals is influenced by the values and beliefs of executives, mission of the organization, organizational resources, etc.

Objectives provide the guidelines (what to do) for the preparation of strategic and procedural plans. One cannot make plans unless one knows what is to be accom­plished. Objectives constitute the mission of an organisation. They set the pattern of future course of action.

The objectives must be clear, specific and informative. Major objectives should be broken into depart­mental, sectional and individual objectives. In order to set realistic objectives, planners must be fully aware of the opportunities and problems that the enterprise is likely to face.

2. Developing the planning premises:

Before plans are prepared, the assumptions and conditions underlying them must be clearly defined these assumptions are called planning premises and they can be identified through accurate forecasting of likely future events.

They are forecast data of a factual nature. Assessment of environment helps to reveal opportunities and constraints. Analysis of internal (controllable and external (uncontrollable) forces is essential for sound planning premises are the critical factors which lay down the bounder for planning.

They are vital to the success of planning as they supply per tenant facts about future. They need revision with changes in the situa­tion. Contingent plans may be prepared for alternate situations.

3. Reviewing Limitations:

In practice, several constraints or limitations affect the ability of an organization to achieve its objectives. These limitations restrict the smooth operation of plans and they must be anticipated and provided for.

The key areas of Imitations are finance," human resources, materials, power and machinery. The strong and weak points of the enterprise should be correctly assessed.

4. Deciding the planning period:

Once the broad goals, planning premises and limitations are laid down, the next step is to decide the period of planning. The planning period should be long enough to permit the fulfillment of the commitments involved in a decision.

This is known as the principle of commitment. The planning period depends on several factors e.g., future that can be reasonably anticipated, time required to receive capital investments, expected future availability of raw materials, lead time in development and commercialization of a new product, etc.

5. Formulation of policies and strategies:

After the goals are defined and planning premises are identified, management can formulate poli­cies and strategies for the accomplishment of desired results. The res­ponsibility for laying down policies and strategies lies usually with management. But, the subordinates should be consulted as they are to implement the policies and strategies.

Alternative plans of action should be developed and evaluated carefully so as to select the most appropriate policy for the organization. Imagination, foresight, experience and quantitative techniques are very useful in the development and evalua­tion of alternatives.

Available alternatives should be evaluated in the light of objectives and planning premises. If the evaluation shows that more than one alternative is equally good, the various alternatives may be combined in action.

6. Preparing operating plans:

After the formulation of overall operat­ing plans, the derivative or supporting plans are prepared. Several medium range and short-range plans are required to implement policies and strategies.

These plans consist of procedures, programmers, sche­dules, budgets and rules. Such plans are required for the implementation of basic plans.

Operational plans reflect commitments as to methods, time, money, etc. These plans are helpful in the implementation of long range plans. Along with the supporting, plans, the timing and sequence of activities is determined to ensure continuity in operations.

7.Integration of plans:

Different plans must be properly balanced so that they support one another. Review and revision may be necessary before the plan is put into operation. Moreover, the various plans must be communicated and explained to those responsible for putting them into practice.

The participation and cooperation of subordinates is necessary for successful implementation of plans. Established plans should be reviewed periodically so as to modify and change them when­ever necessary.

A system of continuous evaluation and appraisal of plans should be devised to identify any shortcomings or pitfalls of the plans under changing situations.

Thanks for the invite, I leave the answer to the experts, specialists in this area

Ahmed Mohamed Ayesh Sarkhi
by Ahmed Mohamed Ayesh Sarkhi , Shared Services Supervisor , Saudi Musheera Co. Ltd.

the process of making plans for something.

 

A basic management function involving formulation of one or more detailed plans to achieve optimum balance of needs or demands

Ghada Eweda
by Ghada Eweda , Medical sales hospital representative , Pfizer pharmaceutical Plc.

Thanks for invitation. Agree on expert answers.

TARIG BABIKER AL AMIN
by TARIG BABIKER AL AMIN , Head of Planning and Studies Unit , Sudanese Free Zones and Markets Co.

Planning is a basic management function involving formulation of one or more detailed plans to achieve optimum balance of needs or demands with the available resources

The Steps are

Goal setting

Developing the planning premises

Reviewing Limitations

Deciding the planning period

Formulation of policies and strategies

Preparing operating plans

Integration of plans

sameer abdul wahab alfaddagh
by sameer abdul wahab alfaddagh , عضو هيئة تدريس , جامعة دلمون

Administrative activity is based on setting goals and actions and activities to be carried out of the possibilities available at a specific time to achieve those goals.Systematic thinking to achieve the goals, and ends to take decisions regarding what should be done and when it works and how it works and what are the possibilities for its implementation.The planning stages:1. Identify the target (where you want to access) is a statement of the result to be achieved within a quantitative measure specific date2. regulation: How do we get to what we want (and operational plans of time plans)3. Implementation: once we have achieved what we want (operational plans)4. Calendar: How do we know we have achieved what we want

1.  A systematic approach to achieve desired results at any point of time considering all the external factors and internal stake holders

2.  List out all the factors

3.  List out all the constraints and how to clear them

4.  Route map

5.  Task assignment to sub groups

6.  Resources allocation

7.  Responsibility fixation

8.  Coordination and control

9.  Goal setting

10. Go ahead signal to start

Saiyid Maududi-Oracle Applications Consultant
by Saiyid Maududi-Oracle Applications Consultant , Entrerprise Architect , US Technomatrix, Inc

Hello Team,

Whatever we do or perform in our day today life, which may include doing some work at the job or may be doing some work at the home, to do it in an efficient way and to obtain good results it is very necessary to plan every – thing so that one is prepared for the various activities involved in the process and is able to face any type of the problem that may arise during the process.

The management is very contingent to a situation then present but is also very performance oriented in a given situation. The main function of the management is to plan everything, which mainly includes the planning, the organizing, the staffing, the maintaining the control over the various things and also to maintain the coordination between the different departments. For the proper working of the management, it is very important to classify the various functions of the manager in the suitable groups of the activities. This step is very much logical in the nature as the managers can play a very defining role in the proper working of the management.

We can always learn from the past and at the same time we can also plan for the future, depending on the past and the present. But one major fact is that we can act or take any type of the action only in the present. The mistakes that have been committed in the past can be improved by taking various steps in the present. In the future we can only plan and think but cannot perform anything but when the time for the action comes, it becomes easy to understand everything and take any type of the action with more ease.

Very careful thinking and the planning is very essential, as it saves a lot of time and also the cost is brought down. Hence, the planning can be defined as the process of deciding the future course of the actions in terms of the time, the performance and the cost.

Significance of the Time  In the process of the planning, the importance of the time is very much critical in the nature and has been regarded as the most important criteria in the process of the planning, by the various system analysts. It is very important that we look into the future and then plan everything and get prepared and ready for the different types of the situations that may arise but one very important point to remember here is that whole the time we cannot and should not look into our future. We should look as far as we think it’s worthwhile to do something in the present to make such a future feasible in the nature.

The planning is not just to think about the future but it also involves the forecasting and the prejudging of the future and then forming some lines of the action. The more one thinks of the future, the more one is able to amend the present.

The words short term and the long term indicate the comparison of the time. The short run can be defined as a clear foreseeable future for which the definite actions can be taken but in the case of the long run, one can surely foresee but various definite actions cannot be taken like in the case of the short run. The above explained points are very important to be understood as the whole concept of the planning is largely based on these references.

The decisions that are taken in the short run can sometimes prove to be very inconsistent in the nature. With the longer run thinking, more stability creeps into the operations of the business but these decisions are also accompanied with more number of the risks of various things going wrong.

Factors leading to the failure of the planning

1. Inadequate preparation. 2. Lack of the study. 3. Lack of the vision mars planning efforts. 4. Becomes very haphazard when it is done for a certain group and when many plans are built based on the compromises. 5. Lack of clarity in the objectives and the goals. 6. Absence of the feedback. 7. Lack of the staff control. 8. Inadequacy in defining the various businesses. 9. Absence of the review.

Regards,

 

Saiyid

Mohd Arifuddin
by Mohd Arifuddin , Lead Consultant , Binzagr CO

Planning means setting up a blue print for future and deciding what do you went to do and who will do a particular task. Plans are of many times types and are formulated to achieve specific purposes or all purpose plans.

There are 7 elements of planning: 1) Objectives 2) Policies 3) Procedures 4) Rules 5) Budget 6) Programs 7) Strategies.

A successful plan should be flexible in nature and subject to improvement. It should also be subject to enforcement to be effective. A successful plan is evaluated by the extent that a plan is in conformity with the objectives of the organization and to the extent a plan satisfied the requirements of cost, speed, quality and return on investment.

Prabin Rai
by Prabin Rai , inventory officer , bijaya motor

Planning is one of the most important project management and time management techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal.

Different steps involved in the planning are

1.       Premising:

Acts as a great tool for carrying out the planning of the business. The premises must be consistent to all the plans and the sub plans. The premises can be the possible growth in the market, the availability of the resources, the nature of the future competition, the strategic considerations etc.

2.       Information/intelligence collection and the forecasting:

In this step, all the relevant data that is needed for the plan is collected. Both the primary data and the secondary data can be used. This data is interpreted in terms of the future utility.

3.       Establish vision:

Vision is what we do not see but what we feel is in store for the future. It is required for giving the much needed direction for moving ahead in the future.

4.       Define mission:

Serves the beneficiaries depending on their needs and the satisfaction. The mission is stated in terms of the recipient. it is very subjective in the nature.

5.       Decide the policy:

The guidelines in the nature of an umbrella of the decisions of the long term are settled mainly to provide a firm guideline for many subsidiary decisions. It provides the discretion within the boundaries, hence helping in the adjustment of the performance to the situation.

6.       Set the objectives:

Objectives are defined as the achievements that maily aim at the broad terms to establish some of the guidelines, in order to take the required action.

7.       Set the goals:

Goals are divided into people working, so that each one has a target to achieve.

8.       Draw the program

For the achievement of the objectives simultaneously, synchronization is very necessary.

9.       Convert the program into the gudget:

Budget can be defined as the available achievable targets and expressed in the money terms with the revenue and the expenditure for all the activities aiming at the possible surplus.

.   Collect the information on the feedback:

After the implementation, this step is performed.

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