Operating Decisions

Module III
Operations Scheduling and
sequencing
Operations Scheduling

In a production organization the orders that are placed either from the side of the
customer or from the side of the assembly benches are to be completed on or
before the contracted or the promised date.

For fulfilling this, operations scheduling plays a very critical and an essential role.

Operations scheduling helps in the confirmation or the revision of the tentative

delivery date that has been promised in the original quotation.

Sometimes during the operations scheduling of the work order, it may be discovered
that the delivery date originally and tentatively promised cannot be met.

All this may be due to the several problems like the materials that are required
may not be available at that particular time or may not be available immediately. This
problem can also occur due to the increased plant loading while the customer is
deciding whether or not to award the quoted job to this company.

If the operations scheduling is carried out in an efficient manner, then there

occurs a considerable improvement in the performance in the delivery. Also
helps in the achievement of the goals that have been set by the company.
Input-Output Control
This is a key activity that allows operations managers to identify such
problems as insufficient capacity, excessive capacity, and production
difficulties among a group of connected work stations.

If too much work is flowing to a work centre compared to its

capacity, the excessive WIP inventory will occur preceding the work centre.

When jobs pile up at a work centre, the work centre becomes piled up and
overcrowded and also downstream work centers become starved of jobs.

On the other hand, when too little work is flowing to a work center,
compared to its capacity, the work centre is underutilized and idle
machines and workers result.
The coordination of work centre schedules helps in the orderly flow of jobs
between work centers.

For this understanding a Gantt-Chart is useful

Gantt Chart
A Gantt chart is a visual representation of a
project schedule.

It is a type of bar chart.

A Gantt charts show the start and finish dates of

the different required elements of a project.

It is used to visually display the workloads in each

work centre in a department
When you know all the tasks and sub-tasks to complete,
decide how much time each task will take and the order
they need to be completed in. Then draw up a table of an
overall plan.
Operations Sequencing
Operations Sequencing helps us to determine
the sequence in which we will produce a
group of waiting orders at a work centre.

Sequencing problems are analyzed based on

various sequencing rules, the comparison of
the sequencing rules etc.
 Since some jobs logically follow each other because of the ease of changeovers, the sequence of LCC
waiting jobs is determined by analysing the total cost of making all of the machine changeovers
between jobs.
The next job to be produced is the one with the least critical ratio( time to due date divided by CR
total remaining production time) among the waiting jobs
LS
The next job to be produced is the one with the least slack ( time to due date minus total
remaining production time) among the waiting jobs
The next job to be produced is the one with the earliest due date ( date promised to the EDD
customer) among the waiting jobs
SPT
The next job to be produced is the one with the shortest processing time among the waiting jobs
FCFS
The next job to be produced is the one that arrived first among the waiting jobs
Sequencing Rules
One process, Johnsons rule
for two serial processes
Johnsons Rule

Work Centre 1 Work Centre 2

Job
(Drill) (Lathe)
A 5 2
B 3 6
C 8 4
D 10 7
E 7 12
Johnsons Rule
Often , we may want to minimize the total time for producing a
group of jobs. This would result in low production costs and high
worker and machine utilization.

When several jobs must be sequenced through two work centres,

we often want to select a job sequence that hold for both work
centres.. This situation can be effectively utilized by using
Johnsons rule

Question:
What would be the job sequence through the following to work
centres, using Johnsons rule?
Work Centre 1 Work Centre 2
Job
(Drill) (Lathe)
A 5 2
B 3 6
C 8 4
D 10 7
E 7 12
Work Centre
1 3 7 10 8 5
Work Centre
2 6 12 7 4 2

Job B E D C A
Introduction to supply chain
About a Supply Chain
A Supply Chain consists of all parties involved directly or indirectly in fulfilling a customer
request

The parties involved are:

Manufacturers
Suppliers
Transporters
Warehouses
Retailer
Customer

We have to note that most Supply Chains are Supply Networks

The objectives of a Supply Chain are

Reduces inventory
Reduces cycle time
Provides better customer service............. at lower cost.
Supply Chain Management
This is a cross- functional
approach including managing the
movement of raw materials into an
organization, some aspects of
internal processing of materials into
finished goods and movement of
finished goods out of the organization
towards the end customer
Key functions of the Supply chain that need to be managed
are
Inventory Control and Management
What is Inventory?
Inventory is classified as idle possessions
that possess economic value .
It is essential to maintain inventory for
different kind of manufacturing units, retailers,
factories and enterprises.
Other than raw materials, other forms of
inventory include in-process, supplies,
components, and finished goods inventory.
.
Inventory Management
Inventory Management is the application of data collection,
demand, forecasting, lean and operational principles to manage the
total amount of inventory within the supply chain at any point in
time and manage inventory holding costs.

Inventory management is an important business and operational

function as it can provide the capacity and flexibility to service
peak, changing or stable customer demand in a cost effective
manner.

This is important in order for the operation of a business to be

profitable.

In operations management, the inventory control problem, aims to

reduce overhead cost without hurting sales. It answers the 3 basic
questions of any supply chain: When? Where? How much?
Inventory Management cont.
Modern inventory control systems often rely
upon barcodes and radio-frequency identification
(RFID) tags to provide automatic identification of
inventory objects.
Inventory objects could include any kind of
physical asset: merchandise, consumables, fixed
assets,, library books etc.
To record an inventory transaction, the system
uses a barcode scanner or RFID reader to
automatically identify the inventory object, and
then collects additional information from the
operators via fixed terminals(workstations), or
mobile computers.
 Inventory Control Models

Models
Models with
without price-
price-quantity
quantity
discounts
discounts

Deterministic Probabilistic
Demand Demand
model Model

Dynamic
Dynamic Static Demand
Static Demand Demand
Demand Models (Single
Model Models ( Multi-
Model Period Models)
period Models)
Variable
Demand with
Models with Models with Fixed Order Quantity Model with
Constant
no shortage shortage Variable Lead Time
Lead-Time
Model
Fixed Interval Ordering Model
Resource with Variable Lead Time
Constraint
Models
Deterministic & Probabilistic Models
Two fundamental techniques are generally
employed by industries to develop inventory
reserve estimates.

They are the deterministic and probabilistic

methods.