personal finance In doing this it must be remembered that although a particular job on a machine may only involve say thirty minutes actual work, the part may have to wait for several hours after arrival at the machine before it can be processed. To be confident of receiving the completed part by a certain date management must be satisfied that it will reach the machine with plenty of time for the 'queueing'. It is evident, therefore, that all the parts needed to complete a given assembly are considered and they must be ordered sufficiently long before they are required for each to take its turn in the queue. The total time that elapses before all the parts are completed is referred to as the Manufacturing Cycle, and is usually counted back from the delivery date of each unit of output. In order to make this calculation simple, it helps to divide the year into equal periods of time, say months, numbered consecutively. It will thus be necessary to order by month I all the parts required for a product which is due for delivery in month III if the manufacturing cycle is 2 months long. To calculate the requirements of parts to be ordered it is usual to go back to the Manufacturing Programme and multiply the number of units of product due for delivery in the period under consideration by the number of different parts required for each unit. Certain parts may be used in more than one product, in which case clerical, punched card, or other mechanical procedures are used to combine the requirements. Some record must be kept of the orders for each individual part, with numbers received against each order, much along the lines of a stock record. It is usual to keep these manually on cards, although for large installations punched cards are more economical and many of the latest types of computer can be used for this purpose. When the requirement of each part is known, the amount of material needed can be calculated and its supply arranged. For some parts, it may not be economical to calculate in such detail, and with the use of clerical effort, the quantity needed; control in such cases can be maintained by keeping a float of parts and simply replacing them as they are used. This method does not give such close control of stocks as that previously described, and there is a risk of being left with redundant stock if the usage ceases, say owing to a design change. Both these methods of stock control are used to indicate to the works' staff that further supplies of a particular part are needed, and steps must be taken to arrange this by issuing orders specifying the parts, the quantity required, and the date the parts are needed. These orders are then distributed to the various processing sections which will handle the parts through the works, and are used by the foremen of those sections to load their operators with work. It will be seen that these procedures ensure that orders are issued at the right time for the right quantity to the right people, who can see from the Production Schedule referred to above when they must complete their work, so that if all goes well, every part is delivered on time. interior Planning