Master Production Schedule for a Major Airline

Consider the master flight schedule of a major airline, such as Air New Zealand. Discuss the ways in which it analogous to a master production schedule for a manufacturer.

A flight schedule is determined by the passengers who reserve flights for various destinations around the world. Passengers can be considered production inventory that passes through the airline’s system. The following aspects of master scheduling can be applied to flight schedules.

The sums of the quantities in the MPS must equal those in the sales and operations plan.

The number of passengers in the flight schedule must equal the number of passengers in the sales and operations plan.

The production quantities must be allocated efficiently over time.

Passengers must be passed through the airports efficiently over time.

Capacity limitations and bottlenecks, such as machine or labor capacity, storage space, or working capital, may determine the timing and size of MRP quantities.

Capacity limitations of airplanes and bottlenecks during boarding may determine the timing and the number of passengers that can be passed through the system.

The following steps to developing a master production schedule can be applied to developing a flight schedule:

Calculate Projected On-Hand Inventories

The number of passengers can be considered inventory but they would not have to include on-hand inventory at the end of last period since all passengers are “used up” every day. They would only need to calculate the number of passengers who already reserved a flight plus the projected number of passengers who may reserve a flight in a future time period.

Whenever an airline schedules a flight, certain supporting