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Advantage of Aggregate Planning

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The Advantages of Aggregate Planning
Aggregate planning is a forecasting technique that businesses use in an attempt to predict the supply and demand of their products and services. Mainly, this is done in an effort to save money, streamline operations and increase productivity. To accomplish this, businesses use an aggregate planning model to develop a game plan that will assist them with determining their staffing requirements, materials needed, estimated timelines and budget costs so they can better plan ahead.
Minimize Staffing Fluctuations
By using aggregate planning to forecast production demand, businesses are better able to predict their staffing requirements. Businesses that need additional employees on a temporary basis tend to fill these positions with workers from temporary employment agencies. Through proper forecasting, a business will be able to reduce or eliminate the need to hire these extra workers. This will save the business both time and money as it won't need to pay the additional fees to the staffing agency and it won't have to pay its own workers to train the new additions.
Reduce Overhead
Excess inventory costs businesses a lot of money. Additional materials will need to be stored, and having finished products laying around increases the likelihood of damage to the products before they reach the customer. Adhering to an aggregate planning model can help businesses operate in a leaner manner. Managers will be able to better anticipate how much product they will need and when they will need it so they won't have to stockpile it in advance due to a fear that they'll run out before they can get more.
Increase Production Rates
A significant advantage to using aggregate planning is that it maximizes the utilization of production equipment. Since production equipment is being used at its full capacity, production rates significantly increase.

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