ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a few techniques for planning, at various levels of detail, the production system which is required, rather than the one which is not. Any production system planning process must include provision for critically analysing the system mission and objectives. The overall strategy for the project is laid out and allows an initial test of feasibility for the intended method of construction along with a basic test of how many subsystems are involved in the project. Checking to determine if the planned system is complete is a hygiene activity, otherwise known as housekeeping, which helps to make the control process easier. The measurement of production quantities can result in benefits which may not have been anticipated, one of which is a further analysis of construction methods within the proposed production system. Examination of the system for individual activity precedence represents the first move towards an explicit consideration of resource availability.
