Chapter 22: Scheduling – Part 2

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Scheduling n Jobs on Two Machines (n/2)
• Used when two or more jobs must be processed on two machines in a common
sequence
• Objective is to minimize the flow time from the beginning of the first job to the finish
of the last job
• Called Johnson’s Rule
• Steps in Johnson’s Rule:
1. List the operation time for each job
2. Select the shortest operation time
3. If the shortest time is on the first machine, do first
• If the shortest time is on the second machine, do the job last
• For ties, do first
4. Repeat 2-3 for each remaining job

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Example 22.2: n Jobs on Two Machines
Step 1: List operation times

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Example 22.2: Optimal Schedule of Jobs Using
Johnson’s Rule

• Johnson’s Rule results in scheduling jobs that have the shortest time in
the beginning and end of the schedule – result is that the concurrent
operating time for the 2 machines is maximized, and the total operating
time is minimized

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Johnson’s Rule Summary

• Johnson’s Rule can be extended to n/3 situations (n jobs

on 3 machines)
• If scheduling issues larger than n/3 arise (and they often
do), it becomes a multi-stage queueing problem and
become very complicated and must be solved using
simulation software

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 Scheduling n Jobs on m Machines

• If there are n jobs to be processed on m machines and all

jobs are processed on all machines, then there are (n!)m
alternative schedules for the job set – this can easily
become overwhelming for hand-calculation techniques

• Computer simulation is the only practical way to determine

the relative merits of alternate priority rules

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Shop-Floor (Production) Control
• Major functions of shop-floor control are:

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Tools of Shop-Floor Control
• Gantt Charts
• Daily dispatch list
• Various status and exception reports
• Anticipated delay report
• Scrap report
• Rework report
• Performance summary reports
• Shortage list
• Input/output control reports

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Gantt Chart

Used for project planning as well as to coordinate a number of

scheduled activities

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Dispatch List

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Input/Output (I/O) Control
• The planned work input to a
work center should never
exceed the planned work
output
• If input > output, back logs
build up which causes:
• Increased lead times for
upstream processes
• Congestion
• Inefficient processing
• Sporadic flow to downstream
processes

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10 Principles of Work Center Scheduling
1. There is a direct equivalence between work flow and cash flow
2. The effectiveness of any job shop should be measured by speed of
flow through the shop
3. Schedule jobs as a string, with process steps back-to-back
4. A job once started should not be interrupted
5. Speed of flow is most efficiently achieved by focusing on bottleneck
work centers and jobs

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10 Principles of Job Shop Scheduling (con’t)
6. Reschedule every day
7. Obtain feedback each day on jobs that are not completed at each
work center
8. Match work center input information to what the worker can
actually do
9. When improving output, look for incompatibility between
engineering design and process execution
10. Certainty of standards, routings, and so forth is not possible, but
always work towards achieving it

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Personnel Scheduling In Services
• In service industries, the scheduling problem becomes one of setting
schedules for personnel on predetermined basis (ex. hourly, daily,
monthly, or annual, etc.)

• Management wants a staffing plan that:

• Requires the fewest number of workers to accomplish the workload
• Minimizes the variation between actual and planned output

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Example of Scheduling Daily Work Times

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Summary
• The examples and tools presented in this chapter work well for simple
scheduling problems
• However, many organizations are processing so many jobs, that scheduling
using manual techniques is not feasible – computer simulation is used
instead
• The key to scheduling is to avoid sub-optimization – you don’t want a
schedule that works well in one part of the organization but creates problems
for other parts, or for the customer
• Understanding your key scheduling priority (i.e. minimize lead time, minimize
WIP, maximize utilization, etc.) is necessary to avoid sub- optimization

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 Questions?

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