How do managers plan, schedule, and control production activities?

"Operations management: Management of the production process. Production planning: The aspect of operations management in which the firm considers the competitive environment and its own strategic goals in an effort to find the best production methods. Critical path: In a critical path method network, the longest path through the linked activities. Critical path method (CPM): A scheduling tool that enables a manager to determine the critical path of activities for a project—the activities that will cause the entire project to fall behind schedule if they are not completed on time. Program evaluation and review technique (PERT): A scheduling tool that is similar to the CPM method but assigns three time estimates for each activity (optimistic, most probable, and pessimistic); allows managers to anticipate delays and potential problems and schedule accordingly. Gantt charts: Bar graphs plotted on a time line that show the relationship between scheduled and actual production."