An optimal interaction of quality, costs, time and flexibility of a manufacturing company is the key to corporate success and the performance involved. The performance is obtained by the execution of value-adding processes and the transformation of simple or complex input factors into high-quality output factors. Particularly the production planning and scheduling is in this context essential and also points at a variety of optimization potentials. In the course of this thesis, critical success factors are gathered and defined based on target figures of the production planning and scheduling in forging companies. Then, concepts for improvement will be described, as well as discussed. Furthermore, the identification and analysis of optimization potentials will follow in respect of the guarantee and the improvement of these critical success factors by the example of the voestalpine BÖHLER Aerospace GmbH & Co KG. Finally, recommendations for actions are phrased and will be considered in the production planning and scheduling in the future.