Production control – often called planning – determines the cadence of material, production, and finished goods to meet the needs of sales/marketing and considers the limitations of supply, equipment, and labor.

SIOP (Sales Inventory and Operations Planning) is the high level plan production control uses to develop overall strategy. The critical action of the production control team is to detail SIOP into granular production plans by hour, day, and week (depending on the throughput of the organization).

Production control must understand production flow, equipment capacities and limitations, labor availability, hand-offs, timing, and supply constraints. Organizations can also have unique requirements that production control needs to take into consideration, such as outside processes, third-party inspections, or testing that impacts the production of finished goods.