Scheduling Assignment (Operations Management)

What Is the Production Rate?

Production rate, in terms of manufacturing, refers to the number of goods that can be
produced during a given period of time. Alternatively, production rate is also the amount of
time it takes to produce one unit of a good.

In construction, this is the rate at which workers are expected to complete a certain segment,
such as a road or building. The production rate will depend on the speed at which workers are
expected to operate, generally categorized as slow, average, or fast.

Q.A] Production Rate of Truck, Engine and Pistons for 6 & 8 cylinder engines is as follows:-

 8-Cylinder Engine

Truck Production Rate = Truck Sales Rate (2560) =

Truck Start Rate = (Truck Production Rate/Yield)

= 2560/0.997
= 2568
Engine Production Rate = Truck Start Rate x Quantity Per = 2568 x 1
Engine start rate = (Engine Production Rate/Yield)

=2568/0.999

=2570

Piston purchase rate=Engine Start Rate x Quantity per Truck

=2570 x 8
=20562

 6-Cylinder Engine

Truck Production Rate = Truck Sales Rate (640) =

Truck Start Rate = (Truck Production Rate/Yield)

= 640/0.997
= 642
Engine Production Rate = Truck Start Rate x Quantity Per = 642 x 1
Engine start rate = (Engine Production Rate/Yield)

=642/0.999

=643
 Piston purchase rate=Engine Start Rate x Quantity per Truck
=643 x 6
=3858

Is lead-time information necessary to plan rate based flow?

 Lead Time: - It is the time it takes for one unit to make its way through your operation
from taking the order to receiving payment. If the lead time is much higher than cycle
time, it means you have a lot of units in your inventory.

 Flow Rate: - The number of flow units (e.g. customers, money and produced
goods/services) going through the business process per unit time, e.g. served customers
per hour or produced parts per minute. The flow rate usually is an average rate.

 Based on the above definitions we can conclude that Lead time is not necessary to
plan rate based flow because the production capacity of plant is fixed.

What is the takt time for the trucks coming off the line?

 Takt time is the average time between the start of production of one unit and the start
of production of the next unit, when these production starts are set to match the rate of
customer demand.

Problem Solution:-

“Assuming 90% efficiency and 90% utilization (with working at rate of 8 hours per day)”

Takt Time=Total Available Production Time/Average customer demand

= 389 (minutes)/3200
= 12 minutes for every 100 trucks

Mixed model scheduling sequence for final assembly by transmission and engine option
assuming that 50% of market demand is for automatic transmission and 50% for standard
stick shift transmission.

Scheduling: - Scheduling can be defined as “prescribing of when and where each operation
necessary to manufacture the product is to be performed”. It is also defined as “establishing of
times at which to begin and complete each event or operation comprising a procedure”. The
principle aim of scheduling is to plan the sequence of work so that production can be
systematically arranged towards the end of completion of all products by due date.
Principles of Scheduling:-

1. The principle of optimum task size: Scheduling tends to achieve maximum efficiency when
the task sizes are small, and all tasks of same order of magnitude.

2. Principle of optimum production plan: The planning should be such that it imposes an equal
load on all plants.

3. Principle of optimum sequence: Scheduling tends to achieve the maximum efficiency when
the work is planned so that work hours are normally used in the same sequence.

Inputs to Scheduling:-

1. Performance standards: The information regarding the performance standards (standard

times for operations) helps to know the capacity in order to assign required machine hours to
the facility.

2. Units in which loading and scheduling is to be expressed.

3. Effective capacity of the work center.

4. Demand pattern and extent of flexibility to be provided for rush orders.

5. Overlapping of operations.

6. Individual job schedules.

Problem Solution:-

Percentage of 8 cylinder model produced= 2560/3200*100

=80%

Therefore the production rate for 8 cylinder engine truck model is 80% and for 6
cylinder engine truck model it is 20% i.e. If 10 trucks are to be manufactured 8 will be *
cylinder and 2 will be 6 cylinder.

Based on 50% automatic and 50% manual transmission the production rate should be as
follows:-
Applications of scheduling system in Mumbai Locals:
OPTIMAL DESIGN OF TIME TABLES:-

It can be classified into static and dynamic scheduling. In static scheduling, there is information of all the
trains beforehand. But in dynamic it is available sometimes only when it enters the network. Even the
static time table can have two dimensions, off-line timetabling and real time dispatching.

Techniques like Simulated Annealing also have been applied to operational scheduling. It has been
named so because it mimics the process undergone by misplaced atoms in a metal when it is heated and
then slowly cooled. Genetic Algorithms have also been tried. But in all cases they focus on small
networks, although it does serve the purpose of giving a benchmark for larger networks. There are
several decision variables and constraints in scheduling of trains.

Decision Variables on Trains

• Origin, destination and routes of trains

• Days of operation and train times

• Trip plans for all stock

• Locomotive assignment

• Crew assignment

Constraints are:-

• Yard capacity

• Line capacity

• Train capacity

• Rules and norms for operations