Final answer:
Functional plans address how different components like production, financial aspects, and facilities of a company support the company's strategy, excluding plans for handling competition, which is considered an external factor.
Step-by-step explanation:
Functional plans in business outline in detail how various departments and components within a company will act to support the overall corporate strategy. Typically, these plans encompass aspects such as production, financial planning, and facilities management. Production involves critical decisions about the firm's activities, like the extent of production, setting prices, and opening or closing facilities. Financial planning delves into strategies for investment and handling assets to ensure that present spending yields future profits. Facilities planning involves decisions on site location for factories, which is key to profitability due to the costs of land, labor, and capital, the main factors of production.
However, one component that is not usually the focus of a functional plan is competition. While understanding competition is crucial for strategic planning, competition is generally considered an external factor that influences strategic choices rather than an internal functional plan.