Course: Operations Management

American International University-Bangladesh

SCHEDULING

Scheduling is establishing the timing of the use of equipment,

facilities and human activities in an organization

Effective scheduling can save cost and increase productivity

In educational institutions, scheduling can reduce the need for expansion
of facilities

Effective scheduling can give a company competitive

advantage
The objectives of scheduling are to achieve trade - offs among
efficient utilization of staff, equipment and facilities, and
minimization of customer waiting time, cost, inventories and
process times

SCHEDULING IN HIGH VOLUME SYSTEMS

Scheduling encompasses allocating workloads to specific

work centers and determining the sequence in which
operations to be performed

High volume systems are characterized by standardized

equipment and activities that provide highly similar
operations

Automobiles, personal computers, toy, television etc.

High volume system with standardized equipment and

activities is also known as Flow System

Scheduling for low volume systems with many variations in

requirements is called Job Shop Scheduling

SUCCESS IN HIGH VOLUME SYSTEMS

Process and product design - Cost and manufacturability is

important as well as achieving a smooth flow through the system

Preventive maintenance - Keeping equipment in good operating

order can minimize breakdowns that would disrupt the flow of work

Rapid repair when breakdown occurs - This require specialists

and stocks of spare parts

Optimal product mixes - Optimal blends of inputs to achieve

desired outputs at minimal cost

Minimization of quality problems - Quality problems can be

extremely disruptive, requiring shutdowns while problems are resolved

Reliability and timing of supplies - Shortage of material can

disrupt the operation and excess storage can increase carrying cost

SCHEDULING IN LOW VOLUME SYSTEMS

Scheduling for low volume systems with many variations in

requirements is called Job Shop Scheduling

The assignment of jobs to processing centers is called

Loading

Jobs are assigned to work centers without regard to the

capacity of the work center. It is called Infinite Loading

Jobs are assigned to work centers taking into account the

work center capacity and job processing times. It is called
Finite Loading

Determining the order in which jobs at work center will be

processed is called Sequencing

SEQUENCING

Sequencing is determining the order in which jobs at a

work center will be processed

An area where one or a few workers and / or machines

perform similar work is called Workstation

Simple heuristics used to select the order in which jobs will

be processed is called Priority Rules

PRIORITY RULES

FCFS - First Come, First Served

SPT - Shortest Processing Time

EDD - Earliest Due Date

CR - Critical Ratio

S/O - Slack per Operation

Rush - Emergency

Everything is

# 1 Priority

PERFORMANCE MEASURES OF SEQUENCE

Job Flow Time - This is the length of time a job remains at

a particular work station. It includes processing time, waiting
time, transportation time between operations and other
unexpected delay. The average flow time for a group of jobs
is equal to the total flow time (total cumulative) divided by
the number of jobs.

Job Lateness This is the length of time the job completion

date is expected to exceed the date the job was promised to
a customer. If we only record differences for jobs with
completion times that exceed due dates, and assign zeros
to jobs that are early, the term we use to refer to that is Job
Tardiness.

Makespan Makespan is the total time needed to complete

a group of jobs. It is the length of time between the start of
Average number of jobs = Total flow time / Makespan
the first job in the
group and the completion of the last job in

WHY SCHEDULING CAN BE DIFFICULT

An operation must deal with variability in setup times,

processing times, interruptions, and changes in the set of
jobs.

There is no method for identifying the optimal schedule,

and it would be virtually impossible to sort through the vast
number of possible alternatives to obtain the best
schedule. It is a on going task for a manager.

MINIMIZING SCHEDULING DIFFICULTIES

Setting realistic due dates

Forecasting on bottleneck operations

Considering lot splitting for large jobs

MATH

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