Scheduling

Learning Objectives

 Explain the different kinds of scheduling operations

 Describe different shop loading methods
 Develop a schedule using priority rules
 Develop a schedule performance measures
 Calculate scheduling for multiple workstations
 Describe scheduling techniques for service applications
 Scheduling  picking up the dry cleaning,
 washing the dog,
 Buying a new remote for the TV at the mall,
 going to the bank,
 paying bills,
 cleaning out the garage,
 meeting a friend for lunch,
 calling Mom, preparing dinner,
 doing laundry
 Are there some activities that can be done in parallel (simultaneously)?
 Can you arrange your schedule to avoid bottlenecks?
 Can you let someone else do some of the tasks for you?
 Are there some activities that can be postponed to another time?
 Do you create additional tasks because of the sequence you choose to follow?
 Scheduling
 To schedule effectively, you must know:
 What has to be done,

 How long it should take to do,

 Who must do it and

 What its priority

 Planning your schedule is the last step before actually completing the
tasks on the schedule.
 Scheduling
 Business also make schedules to show how labor, material and
equipment should be used.
 An automobile maintenance and repair facility
 The start and finish time for each activitiy

 The resources to be used

 Scheduling Operations
 Companies differentiate based on product volume and product
variety
 Differentiation affects how the company organizes its
operations
 Each kind of company operation needs different scheduling
techniques
 Scheduling has specific definitions for routing,
bottleneck, due date, slack and queue
 Scheduling Definitions
 Routing:
 The operations to be performed, their sequence, the work centers,
& the time standards
 Bottleneck:
 A resource whose capacity is less than the demand placed on it
 Due date:
 When the job is supposed to be finished
 Slack:
 The time that a job can be delayed & still finish by its due date
 Queue:
 A waiting line
 Scheduling Operations
 A company providing a high-volume, standardized, consistent-quality,
lower-margin product or service such as a commercial bakery or a
fast-food restaurant focuses on product layout.
 This type of operation needs dedicated equipment, less-skilled
employees, and a continuous or repetitive process flow.

 Companies providing low-volume, customized, higher-margin

products or services, such as a custom furniture maker or an
upscale restaurant, focus on process.
 They need general-purpose equipment, more highly skilled
employees, and flexible process flows.

 Each kind of operation needs a different scheduling technique.

 High-Volume Operations
 High-volume, also called flow operations, like automobiles,
bread, gasoline can be repetitive or continuous
 High-volume standard items; discrete or continuous with

smaller profit margins

 Designed for high efficiency and high utilization

 High volume flow operations with fixed routings

 Bottlenecks are easily identified

 Commonly use line-balancing to design the process

around the required tasks

 High-Volume Operations
 Flow operations use fixed routings—the product or service is
always done the same way in the same sequence with the same
workstations.
 The workstations are arranged sequentially according to the routing.
 Similar processing times are needed at each workstation to achieve a
balanced line. Workstations are dedicated to a single product or a limited
family of products. They use special-purpose equipment and tooling.
 In a service operation, individuals performing a specific but limited
activity are the equivalent of special-purpose equipment. For example,
when you attend the theater, you go through a number of processing
points. First you buy the tickets at the box office. Then you hand the
ticket to the ticket taker. Next you are escorted to your seat by an usher.
Each person attending the performance goes through these same
processing points.
 High-Volume Operations
 Material flows between workstations may be automated. A well-
designed system minimizes work-in-process inventory and reduces the
throughput time for the product or service. The design of the production
line dictates the capacity of the flow system.
 The workstation or processing point that needs the greatest amount of
time is the system’s bottleneck, which determines how many products
or services the system can complete. Thus the goal is to sequence the
operations so they need the least control possible.
 Major concern with flow operations is employee boredom with
repetitive tasks.
 Companies use techniques like job enrichment, job
enlargement, and job rotation to reduce boredom and maximize
line output.
 Low-Volume Operations
 Low-volume or job-shop operations are used for high-quality,
customized products such as custom stereo systems or custom
automobile paint jobs, or for services such as personal fitness, with
higher profit margins.
 Companies with low volume operations use highly skilled employees,
general-purpose equipment, and a process layout.
 The objective is flexibility, both in product variation and product
volume. Equipment is not dedicated to particular jobs but is available
for all jobs.
 In low-volume operations, products are made to order. Each
product or service can have its own routing through a unique
sequence of workstations, processes, materials, or setups.
 Low-Volume Operations
As a result, scheduling is complex.
The workload must be distributed among the work centers or service
personnel.
A useful tool for viewing the schedule and workload is a Gantt chart.
 Low-Volume Tool – Gantt Charts
 Developed in the early 1900’s by Henry Gantt
 Load charts (see below Figure)
 Illustrates the workload relative to the capacity of a resource

 Shows today’s job schedule by employee

 Two kinds of Gantt charts are the load chart and the progress chart.

Sample load chart

 Gantt Chart (continued)
 Progress charts:
 Illustrates the planned schedule compared to actual performance
 Brackets show when activity is scheduled to be finished. Note
that design and pilot run both finished late and feedback has not
started yet.
7 Reasons to use Gantt charts
 Scheduling Work - Work Loading
 Infinite loading:
Scheduling that calculates the capacity needed at work centers in the
time period needed without regard to the capacity available to do the
work.
Ignores capacity constraints, but helps identify bottlenecks in a proposed
schedule to enable proactive management
 Scheduling Work - Work Loading
Finite loading is an operational schedule with start and finish times for each activity.
It does not allow you to load more work than can be done with the available capacity.

The finite loading schedule shows how a company plans to use available capacity

at each work center.

In a manufacturing company, the schedule shows the jobs to be done at a particular work

center if the work center uses a set number of production hours each day.
For example, if the work center can build 50 wire assemblies per hour and the company

needs 1000 wire assemblies, the job will take 20 hours of capacity at that work center.
 Scheduling Work - Work Loading
 In a service organization, a doctor’s office is a good example. To spend
10 minutes with each patient, the doctor can have 6 patients scheduled
per hour.
 Finite vs. Infinite Loading
 Companies benefit from both infinite and finite loading. Infinite
loading identifies resource bottlenecks for a proposed schedule
so that planners can find solutions proactively, such as changing
the schedule and increasing the resource capacity.
 Finite loading develops the operational schedule that uses the
available capacity.
 Finite and infinite loading assign work to specific work centers
based on a proposed schedule.
 Both techniques use either a schedule (infinite loading) or a
prioritized list of jobs to be done (finite loading).
 Other Scheduling Techniques
 Forward Scheduling – starts processing immediately when a job is received

 The disadvantage to finishing a job early is that it causes an inventory buildup if items are not delivered before the
due date.

 Backward Scheduling – begin scheduling the job’s last activity so that the job is finished on due date

 Backward scheduling shows you how late the job can be started and still be finished on time.
 Forward and Backward
Scheduling
When you are using backward scheduling and forward scheduling
together, a difference between the start time of the first activity indicates
slack in the schedule.
Slack means that you can start a job immediately but you do not have to

do so. You can start it any time up to the start time in your backward
schedule and still meet the due date.
 Monitoring Work Flow
Input/Output Control
Input/output control is a capacity-control technique used to monitor
workflow at individual work centers. Input/output control monitors the
planned inputs and outputs at a work center against the actual inputs and
outputs.
Planned inputs are based on the operational schedule, whereas planned

outputs use capacity-planning techniques.

Actual input is compared with planned input to ensure that enough work
enters the measured work center. A work center cannot process items that
have not yet arrived.
Actual output is used to identify possible problems in the work center,

such as an equipment problem or unexpected absences.

 Input/Output Control
Figure 15-6 Input/output report for work center 101
Input Information (in hours) Period
4 5 6 7 8
Planned Input 800 750 800 820 800
Actual Input 750 780 780 810 810
Deviation -50 30 -20 -10 10
Cumulative deviation 0 -50 -20 -40 -50 -40

Output information (in hours) Period

4 5 6 7 8
Planned output 800 800 800 800 800
Actual output 800 750 780 850 825
Deviation 0 -50 -20 50 25
Cumulative deviation 0 0 -50 -70 -20 5

Backlog (in hours) 100 50 80 80 40 25

 The backlog row is the amount of work waiting to be finished at the work center. In our
example, Work Center 101 has 100 standard hours of work waiting. The only time the size of
the backlog changes is when actual input does not equal actual output.
 When a work center receives more work than it finishes, the backlog increases.
 When a work center produces more output than the input received, the backlog decreases.
 How to Sequence Jobs
 Which of several jobs should be scheduled first?
 Operation sequencing or job sequencing as a technique for short-
term planning of actual jobs to be run in each work center based on
capacity and priorities.

 We expect a work center to have several jobs waiting to be processed,

so we decide on the sequence for processing the jobs.

 Operation sequencing sets projected start and finish times and expected
queues. Techniques are available to do short-term planning of jobs
based on available capacity & priorities
 Priorities Rules (commonsense rules)

Priority rules are (simple heuristics used to select the order in which jobs
will be processed) typically classified as local or global:

A local priority rule sets priority based only on the jobs waiting at that
individual work center. For example, the highest priority might be given
to the job that arrives first or the job that can be done the fastest.

Global priority rules, like critical ratio or slack over remaining

operations, set priority according to factors such as the scheduled
workload at the remaining workstations that the job must be processed
through. (Pertaining to multiple work station)
 Commonly Used Priorities Rules
 First come, first served (FCFS)
 Last come, first served (LCFS)
 Earliest due date (EDD)
 Shortest processing time (SPT)
 Longest processing time (LPT)
 Critical ratio (CR):
 (Time until due date)/(processing time) (job with the

lowest first)
 Slack per remaining Operations (S/RO)
 Slack /(number of remaining operations) (Schedule

lowest first)
 How to Use Priority Rules
 Decide which priority rule to use

 List all jobs waiting to be processed with their job time

 Using priority rule determine which job has highest priority then
second, third and so on
 Using SPT and EDD at Jill’s Machine Shop
 Using SPT(shortest processing time) and EDD (earliest due date) as a
priority rule, determine the sequence for the following jobs waiting at
Work Center 102 at Jill’s Machine Shop. The job information follows.
 Example Using SPT, EDD

Example Using SPT and EDD at Jill's Machine Shop-Work Center 101

Job Time Days to SPT Rule EDD Rule

Job Number (includes Setup & Run Time) Due Date Sequence Sequence
AZK111 3 days 3 EZE101 AZK111
BRU872 2 days 6 BRU872 EZE101
CUF373 5 days 8 AZK111 DBR664
DBR664 4 days 5 DBR664 BRU872
EZE101 1day 4 FID448 CUF373
FID448 4 days 9 CUF373 FID448
The first five columns of the following table contain information about a set
of four jobs that just arrived (end of hour 0 or beginning of hour 1) at an
engine lathe. They are the only ones now waiting to be processed. Several
operations, including the one at the engine lathe, remain to be done on
each job. Determine the schedule by using (a) the CR rule and (b) the
S/RO rule.
 Measuring Scheduling Performance
Job flow time: measures response time—the time a job spends in the shop,
from the time it is ready to be worked on until it is finished.
It includes waiting time, setup time, process time, and possible delays.

We calculate job flow time as:

Job flow time = time of completion - time job was first available for
processing

Average # jobs in system:

Measures the work-in-process inventory and also affects response time. The greater
the number of jobs in the system, the longer the queues and subsequently the
longer the job flow times. If quick customer response is critical to your company,
the number of jobs waiting in the system should be relatively low.
Average # jobs in system =sum of flow time ÷ sum of job work time in
the system (makespan)
 Measuring Scheduling Performance
 Makespan:
 The time it takes to finish a batch of jobs; measure of efficiency
 Job lateness (focuses on schedule)
 Whether the job is completed ahead of, on, or behind schedule;
 When a job is finished ahead of schedule, it has negative lateness.
 For example, if job X is due on day 15 and it is finished on day 12, it has a lateness value
of negative (-3) days.
 If job X is finished on day 15, its lateness value is zero. If job X is done on day 17, its
lateness value is a positive (+2) days.
 Job tardiness (focuses on due date)
 How long after the due date a job was completed, measures due
date performance
 Positive job lateness values are typically described as job tardiness.
 Tardiness indicates how many days pass after the due date before the job is completed.
 Scheduling Performance Calculations
Job A finishes on day 10 Job B finishes Job C finishes Job D ends
on day 13 on day 17 on day 20
Giving job schedule

 Calculation mean flow time:

 MFT= (sum job flow times)/ # of jobs
= (10+13+17+20)/4 = 60/4 = 15 days
 Calculating average number of jobs in the system:
 Average # Jobs =(sum job flow times)/ # days to complete batch
= (60)/20 = 3 job
 Makespan is the length of time to complete a batch
 Makespan = Completion time for Job D - start time for Job A
= 20 – 0 = 20 days
 Performance Calculations (Cont.)
 Lateness and Tardiness are both measures related to
customer service

 Average tardiness is a more relevant Customer Service

measurement as illustrated below
Example 15-5 Calculating job lateness and job tardiness

Completion
Job Date Due Date Lateness Tardiness
A 10 15 -5 0
B 13 15 -2 0
C 17 10 7 7
D 20 20 0 0
Average 0 1.75
 Sequencing Jobs through Two Work Centers
 At times, all jobs must be processed through the same two work centers
sequentially.
 For example, when you do laundry, clothes go through the washer before
the dryer. Different kinds of clothing need different wash cycles and
different drying times, but the sequence is the same.
 To shorten the time it takes to do your laundry, you can use Johnson’s
rule.
Johnson’s rule is a scheduling technique for developing a sequence
when jobs are processed through two successive operations. The operations
can be at machine centers, departments, or different geographical
locations.
Johnson’s Rule – a technique for minimizing makespan in a two-stage,
unidirectional process
 Sequencing Jobs through Two Work Centers –Johnson’s
Rule
Step 1 – List the jobs and the processing time for each activity

Step 2 – Find the shortest activity processing time among the

jobs not yet scheduled
 If the shortest Processing time is for a 1st activity, schedule

that job in the earliest available position in the job sequence

 If the shortest processing time is for 2nd activity, schedule

that job in the last available position in the job sequence

 When you schedule a job eliminate it from further

consideration

Step 3 – Repeat step 2 until you have put all activities for the job
in the schedule
Vicki’s Office Cleaners
Vicki’s Office Cleaners does the annual major cleaning of university
buildings. The job requires mopping and waxing the floors in 5 buildings at
Mideast University. Each building must have the floors mopped and stripped
(first activity), and then waxed and buffed (second activity).Vicki wants to
minimize the time it takes her crews to finish cleaning the five buildings.
Use Johnson’s method to develop the sequence Vicki should follow.
Job Sequence
 Johnson’s Rule Example:
At the end of each month, a research and development team writes status reports for the projects at work. The team
leaders, Andrew and Julie, submit them to the R&D director on the first Monday of each month. Unfortunately, they forgot
to check their calendar one month until late Friday evening. To their surprise, they discovered that the month ended on
Sunday and the reports were due the following Monday morning. As they had not started writing them, they decided to
come to work early Saturday morning, so they could finish the reports before Monday morning. They split the work as
follows: Andrew writes and edits the reports while Julie collates data and draws all the necessary graphs. Assume that Julie
starts her work on a report as soon as Andrew is finished with it and that Andrew works continuously. Times for the
reports (in hours) are as follows:
a)What is the order of the tasks using Johnson's rule?

b)How many hours will it take them to finish all the reports?

c)How many hours is Andrew idle?

d)How many hours is Julie idle?

Projects Andrew Julie

A 4 2
B 3 5
C 5 1
D 7 3
E 8 6
b)Andrew:

Julie:

c)Andrew’s idle time:

d)Julie’s idle time:

 Scheduling for Service Organizations
 In many service organizations, scheduling is complicated
because service demand—quantity, type of service, and timing
—is often variable and hard to forecast.
 In addition, inventories may not be possible and capacity is limited. For
example, a movie theater cannot show the movie before the customers
arrive and hope to satisfy demand.
 The theater is also limited as to how many people can occupy the
theater at any given time.
 Because of these constraints, some additional techniques are available
for scheduling services. These include scheduling the services
demanded and scheduling the workforce.
 Scheduling for Service Organizations
 Demand management:
 Appointments & reservations
 Posted availability
 Delayed services or backlogs (queues)
 Appointments minimize customer waiting time and make good use of
the service provider’s capacity. Appointment systems are used by
physicians, lawyers, auto repair or service shops, and hair salons.
 A reservation system provides advance notice of when the item is
needed and for how long. Deposits usually reduce the problem of last-
minute cancellations or “no-shows.”
 Many service providers post a schedule indicating when a service is
available. Movie theaters, universities, airlines, trains, buses, retail
stores, museums, concerts, and sporting events are all examples of
services that post schedules. The posted schedule tells the customer
the event’s date and time.
 Scheduling for Service Organizations

 Managing service capacity:

 Staff for peak demand (if cost isn’t prohibitive)
 Floating employees or employees on call
Temporary, seasonal, or part-time employees
 Organizations typically staff for peak demand when the service
providers have significant skills and the size of the workforce cannot be
changed quickly. An example is your local fire or police department.
 Highlights
 Different kinds of environments need different scheduling techniques.
Scheduling in the high-volume environment is typically done through
line design and balancing. Scheduling in a low-volume environment
typically involves the use of priority rules.

 Shop loading techniques included infinite or finite loading. Finite

loading loads jobs up to a predetermined capacity level. Loading can
be done using forward or backward scheduling

 Performance measures reflect the priorities of the organization. Mean

flow time, mean job lateness, mean job tardiness, makespan, and the
average number of jobs in the system measure the effectiveness of
schedules.
 Highlights
Johnson’s Rule is a effective technique for minimizing makespan when
two successive workstations are needed to complete the process.

Service organizations use different techniques such as appointments,

reservations, and posted schedules for effective use of service capacity.