Practice Problem: Chapter 15, Short Term Scheduling

Problem 1:

Assume that Susan is a sorority pledge coordinator with four jobs and only three
pledges. The table below gives the expected time for each pledge to do each job.

Job 1 Job 2 Job 3 Job 4

Alice 4 9 3 8

Barbara 7 8 2 6

Jennifer 3 4 5 7

         

If she wishes to minimize the time taken, to whom should she assign which job?

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Problem 2:
Five jobs are to be done at custom furniture shop:

Job Days Date Promised

to
Finish (in Days from
Today)

A 2 5

B 8 8

C 6 12

D 4 10

E 1 4

Compare the effect of the scheduling methods (A) FCFS (first come, first served), (B) EDD
(earliest due date), and (C) SPT (smallest processing time).

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Problem 3:
The following six jobs are waiting to be processed:

Job Hours Time

to Due
Process

#407 2 7

#281 8 16

#306 4 4

#429 10 17

#038 5 15

#998 12 18

Develop the appropriate sequencing for these jobs using the Critical Ratio criteria.

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Problem 4:
Five jobs go through two work centers, as shown below:

Job   Hours Required

Varnishing Painting
(Center 1) (Center 2)

R 4 5

S 17 7

T 14 12

U 9 2

V 11 6

What is the appropriate sequence for these jobs?

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 ANSWERS

Problem 1:
First, begin with the following assignment table:

 
Job 1 Job 2 Job 3 Job 4

Alice 4 9 3 8

Barbara 7 8 2 6

Jennifer 3 4 5 7

Dummy 0 0 0 0

Note: The “dummy” must be added because we have four jobs and only three people.

Solve this table for the set of assignments giving the minimum total job time.

Your final table should look like:

   

 
Job 1 Job 2 Job 3 Job 4

Alice 0 4 0 3

Barbara 4 4 0 2

Jennifer 0 0 3 3

Dummy 1 0 2 0

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The set of optimal assignments would then be:
Alice - Job 1
Barbara - Job 3
Jennifer - Job 2
Dummy - Job 4
Note that Job 4 does not get done since it is assigned to the “Dummy.”

Problem 2:
(A)

       
FCFS

Sequence Process Flow Due Lateness

Time Time Date

A 2 2 5 0

B 8 10 8 2

C 6 16 12 4

D 4 20 10 10

E 1 21 4 17

TOTALS  
21 69 33

Average completion

Average number of jobs in the

Average

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(B)

       
EDD

Sequence Process Flow Due Lateness

Time Time Date

E 1 1 4 0

A 2 3 5 0

B 8 11 8 3

D 4 15 10 5

C 6 21 12 9

TOTALS   
21 51 17

(C)

       
SPT

Sequence Process Flow Due Lateness

Time Time Date

E 1 1 4 0

A 2 3 5 0

D 4 7 10 0

C 6 13 12 1

B 8 21 8 13

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TOTALS  
21 45 14

Average completion

Average number of jobs in the

Average

Problem 3:

Job Hours to Time Computed

Process Due Critical
Ratio

#407 2 7 7/2 = 3.5

#281 8 16 16/8 = 2.0

#306 4 4 4/4 = 1.0

#429 10 17 17/10 = 1.7

#038 5 15 15/5 = 3.0

#998 12 18 18/12 = 1.5

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Critical Critical
Ratio Ratio
Sequence

#306 1.0

#998 1.5

#429 1.7

#281 2.0

#038 3.0

#407 3.5

Problem 4: