LGT2106 Principles of Operations Management

Lecture 5 Operations Scheduling

Question 1
Five architectural rendering jobs are waiting to be assigned at Victor Architects. Their processing
times and due dates are given in the following table. The firm wants to determine the sequence of
processing according to (1) FCFS, (2) SPT and (3) EDD rules. Jobs were assigned a letter in the
order they arrived. For each rule, calculate the following:

Average flow time = Total flow time/Number of jobs

Average lateness (tardiness) = Total days late/Number of jobs
Average number of jobs in the system = Total flow time/Makespan
(For n/1 case, Makespan = Total processing time or total completion time)

Job (in arriving order) Processing Time (Days) Due Date (Days)
A 6 8
B 2 6
C 8 18
D 3 15
E 9 23
Question 2
a) Seven Jobs must be processed in two operations: X and Y. All seven jobs must go through X first
and then Y in sequence. Determine the optimal order in which the jobs should be sequenced so
that the total time to finish all jobs is minimized. Draw the Gantt chart and determine the total
completion time of the jobs and the idle time at Process Y, if any.
Job Process X Time (hours) Process Y Time (hours)
A 9 6
B 8 5
C 10 7
D 6 3
E 1 2
F 2 6
G 4 7

b) Assuming there is an 8th job (Job H) arrives while the 1st Job assigned has just finished its
operation at Process X, the 8th job has the Process X Time of 2 hours and Process Y Time of 2
hours too, how would you assign this 8th job to the current sequence in order to minimize the total
time to finish all jobs? Why?

c) Assuming situation in part (b) is not considered. If the operating time on Process Y for Job A has
revised to 5 hours. Should we change the processing sequence in order to minimize the total
completion time? Why? What about if we want to minimize the mean flow time? Why?