Operations Management

Topic : Scheduling.
Dr.Nitin Kubde.

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How Scheduling
fits the Operations Management
Philosophy

Operations As a Competitive
Weapon
Operations Strategy
Project Management

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Process Strategy
Process Analysis
Process Performance and Quality
Constraint Management
Process Layout
Lean Systems

Supply Chain Strategy

Location
Inventory Management
Forecasting
Sales and Operations Planning
Resource Planning
Scheduling

Scheduling
Scheduling: The allocation of resources over time
to accomplish specific tasks.
Demand scheduling: A type of scheduling
whereby customers are assigned to a definite time
for order fulfillment.
Workforce scheduling: A type of scheduling that
determines when employees work.
Operations scheduling: A type of scheduling in
which jobs are assigned to workstations or
employees are assigned to jobs for specified time
periods.
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Scheduling
Customer Demand
Three methods are commonly used to schedule
customer demand:
(1) Appointments assign specific times for service
to customers.
(2) Reservations are used when the customer
actually occupies or uses facilities associated
with the service.
(3) Backlogs:
The customer is given a due date for the
fulfillment a product order, or
Allow a backlog to develop as customers arrive
at the system. Customers may never know
exactly when their orders will be fulfilled

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Scheduling Employees
Rotating schedule: A schedule that rotates
employees through a series of workdays or hours.
Fixed schedule: A schedule that calls for each
employee to work the same days and hours each
week.
Constraints: The technical constraints imposed on
the workforce schedule are the resources provided
by the staffing plan and the requirements placed on
the operating system.
Other constraints, including legal and behavioral
considerations, also can be imposed.
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What is Operations Scheduling

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Objectives of Operations
Scheduling

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Discussion

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Discussion (cont)

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Purpose Of Scheduling
Enables a firm to allocate production capacity to
meet customer requirements

Scheduling for day to day activities

Provides a competitive advantage

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Scheduling Methods
Scheduling methods depends on volume of production
and the nature of operation.

Forward Scheduling
Backward Scheduling

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Forward Scheduling
When the actual production activities
starts
Determines the start and finish times of
the job
WIP inventory level is high

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Backward Scheduling
Schedules according to the due dates
Determines the latest times.
Basically done in service organizations.

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SCHEDULING ACTIVITIES
Operations schedules are short-term plans
designed to implement the master production
schedule.
Operations scheduling focuses on how best to use
existing capacity.
Often, several jobs must be processed at one or more
workstations. Typically, a variety of tasks can be
performed at each workstation.

Job shop: A firm that specializes in low- to

medium-volume production and utilizes job or batch
processes.
Flow shop: A firm that specializes in medium- to
high-volume production and utilizes line or
continuous processes.
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Raw Materials

Shipping Department

Manufacturing Process

Legend:
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Batch of parts
Workstation

Job Shop
Dispatching
Dispatching: A method of generating schedules in job

shops whereby the decision about which job to process next

is made using simple priority rules whenever the workstation
becomes available for further processing.

Priority sequencing rules: The rules that specify the

job processing sequence when several jobs are waiting in line

at a workstation.

Critical ratio (CR): A ratio that is calculated by dividing

the time remaining until a jobs due date by the total shop time
remaining for the job.
CR = (Due date Todays date)/Total shop time remaining
Total Shop Time = Setup, processing, move, and expected
waiting times of all remaining operations, including the operation
being scheduled.

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Job Shop Dispatching

Earliest due date (EDD): A priority sequencing
rule that specifies that the job with the earliest due
date is the next job to be processed.

First-come, first-served (FCFS): A priority

sequencing rule that specifies that the job arriving
at the workstation first has the highest priority.

Shortest processing time (SPT): A priority

sequencing rule that specifies that the job requiring
the shortest processing time is the next job to be
processed.
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Job Shop
Dispatching
Slack per remaining operations (S/RO): A
priority sequencing rule that determines
priority by dividing the slack by the number
of operations that remain, including the one
being scheduled.
S/RO = ((Due date Todays date) Total shop time remaining)
Number of operations remaining

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Performance Measures
Job flow time: The amount of time a job spends in the

service or manufacturing system. Also referred to as

throughput time or time spent in the system, including service.

Makespan: The total amount of time required to complete a

group of jobs.

Past due (Tardiness): The amount of time by which a job

missed its due date or the percentage of total jobs processed

over some period of time that missed their due dates.

Work-in-process (WIP) inventory: Any job that is waiting

in line, moving from one operation to the next, being delayed,

being processed, or residing in a semi-finished state.

Total inventory: The sum of scheduled receipts and on

hand inventories.
Utilization: The percentage of work time that is
productively spent by an employee or machine.

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Gantt Charts
Gantt chart: are simple bar charts that can be
used to schedule any type of operation
The chart takes two basic forms: (1) the job or activity
progress chart, and (2) the workstation chart.

The Gantt progress chart graphically displays the

current status of each job or activity relative to its
scheduled completion date.
The Gantt workstation chart shows the load on
the workstations and the nonproductive time.

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Gantt Progress Chart

Gantt Progress Chart for an Auto Parts Company
Start activity
Finish activity
Nonproductive time
Job

Scheduled activity time

Current
date

Actual progress

4/17 4/18 4/19 4/20 4/21 4/22 4/23 4/24 4/25 4/26

Ford

Plymouth

Pontiac
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Gantt Workstation Chart

Gantt Workstation Chart for Hospital Operating Rooms

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Johnsons Rule
Johnsons rule: A procedure that minimizes makespan
when scheduling a group of jobs on two workstations.
Step 1. Find the shortest processing time among the jobs not
yet scheduled. If two or more jobs are tied, choose one job
arbitrarily.
Step 2. If the shortest processing time is on workstation 1,
schedule the corresponding job as early as possible. If the
shortest processing time is on workstation 2, schedule the
corresponding job as late as possible.
Step 3. Eliminate the last job scheduled from further
consideration. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until all jobs have been
scheduled.
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Example 16.5
Johnsons Rule

at the Morris Machine Co.

Time (hr)
Motor
M1
M2
M3
M4
M5

Workstation 1
12
4
5
15
10

Workstation 2
22
5
3
16
8

Eliminate
M3
from
consideration.
The
next
shortest
time
Eliminate
M1
and
the
only
job
remaining
to
be
Eliminate
M5
from
consideration.
The
next
shortest
time
is
Eliminate
M2
from
consideration.
The
next
shortest
time
is
Shortest time is 3 hours at workstation 2, so
isat
M2
at Workstation
1,schedule
so schedule
M2
first.
scheduled
is
M4.
M1
at
workstation
#1,
so
schedule
M1
next.
M5
workstation
#2,
so
M5
next
to last.
schedule job M3 last.
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Sequence = M2

M1

M4

M5

M3

Example 16.5
Johnsons Rule

at the Morris Machine Co.

The schedule minimizes the idle time of workstation 2

and gives the fastest repair time for all five motors.
No other sequence will produce a lower makespan.
Gantt Chart for the Morris Machine Company Repair Schedule
Workstation
M2
(4)

M1
(12)

Idle M2
(5)

2
0

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M4
(15)

M3
(5)

M1
(22)

Idle
10

M5
(10)

15

20

25

Idleavailable
for further work

M4
(16)
30

35
Day

40

45

M5
(8)
50

55

M3
(3)
60

65

Scheduling By Type Of
Operations
Different for different types of operations

Types of Operations
Job Operation
Repetitive Operations
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Labor Intensive Operations

Services Operations

Scheduling Jobs for

Multiple
Workstations
Priority sequencing rules can be used to schedule more than
one operation. Each operation is treated independently.
Identifying the best priority rule to use at a particular operation
in a process is a complex problem because the output from one
process becomes the input for another.
Computer simulation models are effective tools to determine
which priority rules work best in a given situation.
When a workstation becomes idle, the priority rule is applied to
the jobs waiting for that operation, and the job with the highest
priority is selected.
When that operation is finished, the job is moved to the next
operation in its routing, where it waits until it again has the
highest priority.
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Scheduling Jobs for

One Workstation
Single-dimension rules: A set of rules such as
FCFS, EDD, and SPT, that bases the priority of a
job on a single aspect of the job, such as arrival
time at the workstation, the due date, or the
processing time.
Priority rules, such as CR and S/RO, incorporate
information about the remaining workstations at
which the job must be processed. We call these
rules multiple-dimension rules.
Multiple-dimension rules: A set of rules that apply
to more than one aspect of a job.
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Labor-limited
Environments
The limiting resource thus far has been the number of
machines or workstations available. A more typical constraint
is the amount of labor available.

Labor-limited environment: An environment in which

1.
2.
3.
4.

the resource constraint is the amount of labor available, not

the number of machines or workstations.
Assign personnel to the workstation with the job that has
been in the system longest.
Assign personnel to the workstation with the most jobs
waiting for processing.
Assign personnel to the workstation with the largest
standard work content.
Assign personnel to the workstation with the job that has
the earliest due date.

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Linking Operations
Scheduling to the Supply Chain
Advanced planning and scheduling (APS)
systems: Systems that seek to optimize resources across
1.
2.
3.
4.

the supply chain and align daily operations with strategic

goals. Four characteristics of these systems are:
Demand Planning. This capability enables companies in a
supply chain to share demand forecasts.
Supply Network Planning. Optimization models based on
linear programming can be used to make long-term decisions.
Available-to-Promise. Firms can use this capability to promise
delivery to customers by checking the availability of
components and materials at its suppliers.
Manufacturing Scheduling. This module attempts to
determine an optimal grouping and sequencing of
manufacturing orders based on detailed product attributes,
production line capacities, and material flows.

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Thank You

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