Fundamentals of planning methods and their types

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

You can achieve the desired results relatively quickly and efficiently, at minimal cost, if you plan responsibly. Drawing up a plan, taking into account all the important and minor aspects that affect the process and the result is the key to the success of the undertaking. This applies to both business and personal life. Using planning methods, you can build a career, develop an enterprise, rationally spend time - in a word, there are many opportunities. It is only important to understand which area of life needs optimization and choose the best option for its design.

Plans and opportunities: own company

Methods of planning in the enterprise is an extremely important management aspect. It is necessary to be able to choose the right ones, to apply them correctly in practice. The main idea of forming a planning system in a company is to organize the workflow in such a way as to fully satisfy consumer demand and provide the company with the maximum stable financial profit.

Creating business plans is a complex task. Application of planning tools and methodsinvolves four successive stages. First, forecasts, tasks, goals are formed. At the same time, the next at least five years are analyzed, sometimes a decade. It is necessary to think over what ways, development options the enterprise has, what opportunities and prospects are associated with them.

For a period of two to five years, long-term planning is calculated. For the coming year - the current one. Operational work - the use of planning and design methods to solve problems in the shortest possible periods - shift, month, reporting period.

Step by step

If there is work to improve the currently implemented system, it is necessary to analyze the specific features of each stage, all the methods of strategic planning used in the work. Experts evaluate the nuances of the company's economic activity, the economic parameters of the company. If you carry out the work in sufficient detail and thoughtfully, you can find the mistakes that are currently being made, which means that you can correct the development vector, thereby improving the results.

Methods: what is used in the enterprise?

The simplest planning method applicable to all four stages mentioned above is the balance sheet. A somewhat more complex approach is the normative one. It involves the application of standards (external, internally developed). The normative method is most relevant for working out the profitable component of the company. It is often used in combination with direct calculation, combined calculation, analytical.

Based on information aboutthe past progress of the enterprise, you can apply extrapolation as a planning method. This approach involves assessing the future of the company, taking into account the tendencies inherent in it in the past.

Another popular option is expert evaluation. For work it is necessary to involve a qualified expert group. This planning method is relevant when it is not possible to accurately assess external significant factors.

Options and approaches

A work planning method aimed at resolving problems associated with the development of the company has become widespread. This is the software target path. As part of the work, you must first determine what exactly is preventing the company from developing, what are the main problems the company encounters on its way, and then work out a plan to eliminate the difficulties.

Modeling using the approaches of economics, mathematics is a method of forecasting, planning, in which experts work on processes through which it would be possible to obtain the most detailed information about the state of the company in the foreseeable future. This method allows you to analyze both short-term and long-term prospects.

Economic, technical calculations - a method of planning processes, within which it is necessary to formulate planned indicators. To prove their correctness, it is necessary to apply algorithms that describe well the firm's activities in stable periods.

Indicative - an approach in which indicators are used, that is, such standards that are associated with the company's sustainable progress whileminimal risk.

About the nuances of planning

The choice of the method of planning finances, progress, sales and other aspects of the enterprise (in most cases) remains with the head. Responsibility for such work is usually borne by management personnel at various levels - from a small department or work group to the head of the company as a whole. Success is achievable if it is possible to formulate a common unified program, to choose the main goal, the result to be strived for. During planning, it is important to distribute work among the participants, coordinate joint efforts, and combine parts of the plan into a system. For the work to be successful, the efforts of all participants must be consistent with each other, and the resulting solution will eventually turn out to be the only one - it will determine the strategy of the enterprise and all employees involved in it.

For the first time, methods for planning goals, work, profits and other aspects were analyzed by Fayol. He identified five basic principles for the formation of plans applicable to the enterprise.

Principles: how about more details?

The key principle of analysis and planning methods is necessity. This means that plans must be developed everywhere, without fail, regardless of what kind of activity is expected. It is especially important to follow this principle when an enterprise is forced to survive in a free market economy. Observing the principle of necessity, it is possible to form a workflow that corresponds tothe requirements of the time and era, as well as learn how to use all resources rationally, given their limitations - and this is true for any modern company, even the most successful and rich.

Another important principle for methods of profit planning, work, workflow management is the unity of plans. This means that, first of all, it is necessary to create a master plan, which will reflect the economic and social vectors that are important for the enterprise. All sections of the plan for the next year (and another period) should be in interaction with each other, thereby forming a single document. This approach ensures the commonality of goals, the mutual work of the company's divisions, the coordination of actions vertically and horizontally. In total, this means that planning and management will be as efficient and effective as possible.

Precise and detailed

Methods of planning finances, work, progress must be applied continuously. Planning, organization of work, solution of managerial tasks within the company are interrelated and continuous processes that depend directly on the activity. It is necessary to plan constantly, improving and reworking programs, taking into account the requirements and realities of the market.

Another important aspect is flexibility. It is ensured by the continuity of the formation of plans. The essence of this principle of all the main planning methods is the ability to change indicators, coordinate various aspects of the company's activities, taking into account the latest trends.

Finally, the lastThe principle is precision. It depends on external and internal factors. A market economy is an operating environment in which it is extremely difficult to achieve the accuracy of plans. Usually the company forms plans to the extent that it is interested in implementing them. At the same time, the current state of finances, market position and other aspects are taken into account.

Principles and methods

The main planning methods differ from each other in terms of the regulatory framework and data processing methods, in terms of goals, methods of obtaining information, options for agreeing goals between all interested persons. The main groups of methods are associated with the following approaches and features:

• experiment;
• balance;
• standards;
• analytics;
• calculations;
• programs;
• goals;
• reports;
• statistics;
• models.

And if in more detail?

Financial planning methods related to analytics and calculations are based on the division of all work into stages, the grouping of resources available to the enterprise, taking into account the mutual relations between areas and industries. The analysis of conditions allows you to plan how to make the interaction between the elements of the plan as effective as possible. Based on the information obtained from the analysis, it is possible to draw up an effective project of work.

The method of financial planning, based on experiment, involves the design of standards, the compilation of plan models, based on experiments, calculations, measurements already made earlier. This takes into account the experience of the entire managerial staff of the enterprise, planners and other categories of workers involved in the development of the firm's plan.

The statistical reporting method of planning involves the formation of plans based on reports, accumulated statistical information and other kinds of information that reflect the state of affairs in reality, how various aspects of the company's activities are developing.

Interesting to know

The planning method is a method, a technique by which you can calculate, predict, plan, program the activities of an enterprise. According to experts, on average, more than one and a half hundred methods of planning activities have already been developed, although only a dozen and a half are actually applicable and widespread, according to some, two dozen. Informatics and computers made it possible to significantly expand the possibilities of forecasting and improve existing methods.

Assessing the formalization, any method can be classified as formalized or a group of intuitive ones.

Intuitives are based on logical thinking and intuition. They resort to them if the object is very complex, many factors cannot be taken into account. Intuitive methods are also relevant in the case when the object is very simple, which means that labor-intensive calculations simply do not justify themselves. It is reasonable to use intuitive approaches in combination with formalized ones. We will especially widely use the approach of expert assessments. Thus, it is possible to assess how production will develop, at what pace the progress of science andtechniques to use resources more efficiently.

Of the formalized approaches, extrapolation and modeling deserve special attention. They are based on theories of mathematics.

And if in more detail?

Extrapolation is a set of methods, among which the feature selection option is especially popular. In mathematics, this is called the method of least squares (LSM). This approach is not only in demand, but is also being actively developed; at present, there are many of its modifications.

Modeling is a family of planning methods, in which the preparation of plans, forecasts involves the use of mathematical, economic models, the essence of which is a formalized description of some object. It is represented as a relationship.

Models are matrix and trend, imitation - there are a huge number of options. To correctly develop and apply the model, it is necessary to use the methods of mathematics, economics.

Planning in everyday life

Planning methods are relevant not only for enterprises and large entrepreneurs, company management departments. To be able to use them in life is necessary for an ordinary person who is interested in achieving success. Of course, here it is possible to manage with simpler methods and approaches. The most affordable option for a person obliges to have at his disposal only paper, writing utensils and his own head.

The simplest planning in everyday life is the formation of a list of things to do. It is convenient to work on it in the evening. The order in which tasks are listed is the order in which you will need to work on them the next day. Do not be surprised if some item appears in the plan every day for many days or even months in a row - if so, you need to work on it.

Having formed a plan for yourself, you need to make it a rule to follow it from the very beginning of the next day. First, you need to complete the first item on the list, then the second - and so on, step by step, until all stages are completed. You can't start a new job without finishing the previous one. An exception is a situation when external circumstances beyond the control of a person do not allow continuing work according to the plan.

Complicating the process

To make planning more effective, more detailed and more detailed, it is worth keeping a diary. In such a journal, a person records everything interesting, useful, what he encounters, as well as thoughts that come to mind, especially those that may be useful in the future. Do not underestimate your capabilities: any person can utter an exceptionally wise thought. So that at the moment when an insight happens, not to miss it, you should have a pen and a notebook with you to write. We must not allow useful and good thoughts to be forgotten, to leave. Keeping a diary, according to psychologists and specialists in helping you plan your everyday life, is an approach that often changes a person’s life. It is wise to have a notebook with you in everyday life, on business and leisure trips, even in the evening for a walk - in a word, all the time.

Similar methodplanning, applicable in everyday life - the use of a diary. By writing down in it all the promises, appointments, plans, events that should happen, you can take control of your life and streamline your everyday life. A diary is a method of recording all the main points of each day. Modern diaries are quite multifunctional, there is free space for fixing various thoughts and additional information that is relevant for a particular day. The diary is a kind of data repository that is with a person all the time.

How to plan a day?

Experts recommend having a planning calendar. It allows you to formulate long-term goals and objectives. However, first you need to master the art of creating effective daily plans. Having understood how it works, what plans you can make for yourself as efficiently as possible, you can extend these principles to a week and longer time periods. At the same time, it is important to fully complete the tasks included in the plan first, only after that proceed to the next ones.

If you managed to accustom yourself to daily planning, the next step is a weekly one. As soon as it is mastered, you can start programming a month in advance. You need to be able to ask yourself correctly when calculating your near future, and also clearly follow the basic rule - each new business begins only after the completion of work on the previous one.

Gradually, a person gets used to building plans and coordinating them, which means that short-term programs will be coordinated with long-term ones - onhalf a year, a year and even more.

Efforts are not in vain

Planning takes a lot of time and effort at first. Some even note that during the preparation of plans, the head starts to hurt! Indeed, it takes some getting used to. Gradually, a person masters the preparation of a program, planning takes less time, and less effort has to be expended. A person begins to notice the benefits of constantly forming a program for his future, from following it in detail. Actions become effective, meaningfulness increases, behavior pursues specific goals without wasting time and effort. Discipline, clarity are the characteristics of a person who clearly follows plans drawn up for his own benefit.

The planning process involves thinking about actions, goals, how they fit together. The more time a person spends in productive thinking, the faster he will be able to achieve his goals.

Making plans with enviable regularity is a way to allocate more time for the activity that is most valuable to a particular individual. Therefore, the work will become more efficient. The planning calendar allows you to formulate a holistic vision of your present and future. You can calculate not only days and months, but also years and even decades.

Time management as the key to success

Organizing your own daily routine, the formation of detailed lists and plans, accounting of cases,that need to be done today, tomorrow, in a month and a year - the key to a successful life and active growth and development in different plans of the individual. To do this, you need to be able to analyze the list being compiled, cross out the unnecessary and ineffective, pay special attention to the complex, breaking such tasks into successive steps. Detailed study and the presence of a clear system of priorities is the key to success. All of them must be formulated before the start of work on the implementation of the planned.

To make time management as effective as possible, you need to be able to determine which things are the most important, and deal with them and only them. The task of a person striving for improvement is to work on everything conceived quickly, efficiently, and with high quality. If you can create a strong habit of planning and prioritizing, you can increase the productivity of all work processes, your daily life in general, which means that your career and personal life will go uphill.