Relationship Between Planning & Controlling Functions Essay Example

inseparable functions of management. 3. Activities are put on rails by planning and they are kept at right place through controlling. 4. The process of planning and controlling works on Systems Approach which is as follows: Planning > Results > Corrective Action 5. Planning and controlling are integral parts of an organization as both are important for smooth running of an enterprise.

. Planning and controlling reinforce each other. Each drives the other function of management. Example: British Airways (BA) is one of the world’s largest international airline operators. A BA flight takes off somewhere around the world, on average, every 90 seconds. The difficulties in planning a schedule which involves the world-wide resources of British Airways and ensuring that every flight leaves on time must be one of the most complex planning and control tasks in any operation.

The BA headquarters at Heathrow Airport near London is its busiest hub.

It is there that one will find a small, but vitally important department known as Operations Control, which handles the seven days prior to take-off for long-haul flights, and the three days prior to take-off for short-haul flights. Initial flight schedules are produced up to two years in advance, and the route schedules are negotiated at a six-monthly global conference. The planning and scheduling group at BA will then manage the production of a flight timetable, taking account of the longer term implications of allocating certain aircraft types to each route.

Any new routes or timings agreed are passed to Operations Control for comment on the practicalities of what is being proposed. Operations Control inherits this final flight schedule, and can only make minor

changes in order to cope with unexpected situations arising during the period prior to take-off. It is responsible for co-ordinating the three main resources required to provide the flight services, which are the schedule, the aircraft and the crew. They also are responsible for managing the knock-on effects of any delays, shortages or disruption to any of these inputs.

The Operations Control team is in charge of every flight until it lands, when departments such as Engineering and Station Control can take over. This handover is illustrated in the figure. The performance of the Operations Control team is evaluated in terms of the regularity and subsequent punctuality of their flights. Regularity is defined as the percentage of flights actually taking off compared with the number scheduled. Passengers need to have total confidence that their flight will actually operate, and current performance is almost 99 per cent (canceling a flight is the very last resort for Operations Control).

Punctuality is the measure of the timing of the take-offs. BA sets an internal standard whereby a flight is considered late if it does not take off at the time defined in the schedule. Thus a flight can only be early, dead-on-time, or late. Other component parts of the Operations Control Centre are the Emergency Procedures Information Centre (EPIC) and the Operations Control Intelligence Centre (OCIC) back-up centers. These are unmanned areas, set up to deal with certain types of incident at the ‘press of a button’.

The staff who would operate the centers are nominated, and are well trained in advance, even down to having simulated exercises on a regular basis.

The EPIC centre is activated should

BA, or any other contracted airline (there are over 60 subscribers to the service) be involved in an accident or serious incident, and it acts as a contact point for the public, and as a focal point for information regarding those on board. The OCIC centre is used only when a serious global incident, such as war, is affecting the entire BA business.

Again, the centre is manned by specially trained staff and headed by a BA board director. The team will then be on 24-hour action stations until the crisis has been resolved. These two crisis centers have become well known, and EPIC is frequently used by other organizations.

The strategy of having independent crisis centers means that the day-to-day business units do not have to cater for every eventuality. They continue to work in the knowledge that an emergency situation will not be their responsibility, and they can thus focus more efficiently on the core operation.

Conclusion: In the present dynamic environment which affects the organization, the strong relationship between the two is very critical and important. In the present day environment, it is quite likely that planning fails due to some unforeseen events. There controlling comes to the rescue.

Once controlling is done effectively, it give us stimulus to make better plans. Therefore, planning and controlling are inseparable functions of a business enterprise.