Production and Operations Management

Module 6: Production Scheduling

Production scheduling on the shop floor aims to:

• Meet customer demands of Quantity
• Meet customer requirements of delivery
• Achieve maximum utilization resources ( human and infrastructure)
• Achieve lowest production cost

Production scheduling methods vary depending on type of product, continuous

production or batch production, made to order or made to stock etc.

Broadly the sequence of realizing the business plan is as follows;

1. Aggregate planning
Determines the production requirements over a period of 6 months to 18 months
2. Master production scheduling
Converts production plan into specific material and capacity require nets. This is
the beginning of all short range planning
3. Material requirement planning
Converts MPS into what materials are required , how much and when.
4. Loading
Assignment of jobs to various work centers based on future processing, resource
utilization and sequence of operations
5. Sequencing
Determines what jobs are to be processed when on each work centre. This
depends on priorities of jobs and best utilization
6. Detailed scheduling
Determines start and finish dates and times for jobs on each machine.
7. Expediting
Actions to ensure scheduling is met by coordination for materials, tools,
availability of machines and manpower.
8. Production control
Information on status of plan and accruals. Information on problems that may be
faced in future period. This helps in taking decisions to meet the aim of
production planning and scheduling.

Master Production Scheduling (MPS)

MPS is a plan for future production . The plan unit may be weeks, months or
Quarter
Inputs for MPS
• Customer orders
• Market forecasts
 • Inventory levels
• Facility loading and capacity information

Objectives of MPS
• To schedule products to meet Delivery requirements
• To fully utilize capacity at lowest production cost

Procedure for preparation of MPS

1. Estimate product quantities and due dates ( based on customer orders and
Stocking requirements)
2. Decide time period For MPS ( week, month, Quarter)
3. check existing Inventory
4. Calculate load ( no.. of hours ) at each work centers for the time period
5. Check for over loading or under loading work centers
Updating of MPS
1. MPS is made as frozen, firm and open ( frozen –no change, firm –change in
exceptional cases, open- major changes may be effected0
2. Firm MPS is released for production planning and control
3. Based on actual production and inventories MPS is updated

Poorly Designed MPS results in:

• Over loaded facilities
• Under loaded facilities
• Excessive inventories or frequent shortages
• Excessive expediting
• Unreliable deliveries

Detailed scheduling:

Detailed scheduling is concerned with identifying and determining

• Product and operations to be carried out on specific work centre
• Period ( day, week, month)
Scheduling depends on volume of orders, nature of operations and job complexity.
Two types of scheduling techniques are used:
• Forward scheduling: loading starts as soon as materials are available and work
centers are free. No control over when the product may be available. Results in
excess inventories. Used where supplier is unable to meet delivery dates.

• Backward scheduling: Here the delivery dates is the starting point and the
loading date is determined by the lead time taken in each work center working
back wards
Facility loading
Facility loading is the process of determining which work centre receives which job
Loading depends on capacity determined by load schedules, priority sequencing and
work centre utilisation.
Finite loading – jobs are assigned to work centers based on required hours and hours
available.
Infinite loading- Jobs are assigned to work centers without regard to available capacity.
This requires decisions regarding overtime, subcontracting or delaying selected orders.
Load charts helps in visualizing loading and progress;

Dept Machine shop Week no 3 Month January

2004
Work Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
centre
Turning

Milling

Grinding

Drilling

Priority sequencing
Question of sequencing arises when several jobs require same work centre for processing.
Priority indicates which is to be loaded first.

Some single-criterion priority sequencing rules

1. First in first served-Normally applied at service operations like banks, super
bazaars
2. Shortest processing time- Job requiring least processing time is taken first. This
may ultimately increase throughput time.
3. Longest processing time-Job with longest processing time is taken first.
4. Least slack job first- slack= available time-processing time
5. Earliest due date job first
6. Truncated shortest processing time- Jobs waiting for more than specified time
is given priority
7. Preferred customer order- important customers are given priority
8. Random selection
9. Cost over time- based on ration of delay cost and processing cost
10. Least change over cost- change over is based on overall cost of all change over
between jobs
Example: Single machine, 6 waiting jobs
Jobs Processing time
( mins)
A 7
B 6
C 4
D 3
E 2
F 1

Rule: longest processing time first

Jobs Processing time Total flow time
( mins)
A 7 7
B 6 7+6=13
C 4 13+4=17
D 3 17+3=20
E 2 20+2=22
F 1 22+1=23

Average flow time = (7+13+17+20+22+23 )/6 = 102/6= 17 mins

Rule 2; Shortest processing time first

Jobs Processing time Total flow time

( mins)
F 1 1
E 2 1+2 =3
D 3 3+3=6
C 4 6+4=10
B 6 10+6=16
A 7 16+7=23

Average flow time = (1+3+6+10+16+23 )/6 = 59/6= 9.83 mins

Sequencing of ‘n’ jobs on 2 machines. ( Johnson’s rule )

• Minimum total flow time

• Minimum idle time

Step 1- List all processing times on two work centers

Step2-Scan the processing times
Step 3-Select the job with the shortest time. If the shortest time is at first work center ,
select the job first. If it is at second work center , select the job last.
Step 4- remove the job from the list.
Step5- continue step 2 to 4 till all jobs are assigned..

If the processing time is same on work centre 1 and 2 , arbitrarily assign either in the
beginning or last.

Processing time in hours

Job Work center 1 Work center 2
A 2 1
B 4 2.25
C 0.75 2.5
D 1.5 3.0
E 2.0 4.0
F 2.0 3.5

Sequence : C, D, E ,F , B , A

Calculation of cumulative flow time:

0.75 1.5 2.0 2.0 4.0 2.0

2.5 3.0 4.0 3.5 2.25 1.0

17 hours

Total flow time = 17 hour

Idle time Work center 1= 4.75 hrs
Idle time Work center 2= 075 hrs
Total idle time =5..5 hrs.
Total operation time 12.25 + 16.25 = 28.5 hrs.

Check Total operation time + total idle time = twice cycle time
28.5 + 5.5 = 2 x 17= 34 hrs.
Line Balancing
Line balancing deals with apportionment of sequential work activities to work stations in
order to gain high utilization of labour and equipment and therefore minimize idle time.

Steps in line balancing

Step 1- determine tasks to be performed to complete one unit of finished product,

determine the sequence . Draw a precedence diagram.
Step2- estimate task time
Step3- determine cycle time to meet desired production ( hourly/ daily etc)
Step4 – assign tasks each task to worker and balance the assembly line

Analysis of line balancing ;

1. Determination of number of work stations and time available at each work station
2. Group the individual tasks into approximately equal amounts of work at each
work station
3. Evaluate the efficiency

Grouping of tasks should be at or slightly less than the cycle time or multiples of cycle
times. If multiples are present more than one worker will be doing the same job.

• Cycle time = Available time / out put required

• Theoretical number of workers required:

=( total operation time X out puts per period )/ available time per period per worker.

• Balance efficiency = Out put of task time / cycle time x no. of work stations(
workers)
Balance efficiency = Theoretical no. of workers/ Actual no. of workers

Problem:
Precedence diagram . operation time in minutes.

D
0.20

A B C F G
0.65 0.40 0.30 0.400 0.30

E
0.45
Operation time = 7 hours per day
Output desired is 550 units per day

Cycle time = Available time / output = 7 x 60 / 550 = 0.76 mins

Theoretical minimum no. of workers= (0.65 + 0.40 + 0.3 + 0.2 0 + 0.45 0.4 + 0.3 )/0.76
= 2.7 / 0.76= 3.552

Workstation 1 : idle time = 0.11

Workstation 2 : idle time = 0.06
Workstation 3 : idle time = 0..11
Workstation 4 : idle time = 0..06

Total idle time = 0.34 mins

Balance efficiency = (2.7 x100)/ 4 x 0.76 = 88.81%

Also = 3.552/ 4 X 100 = 88.81

Line of Balance ( LOB)

LOB is a technique used for production scheduling and control to ensure committed
delivery requirements.

There are 5 stages followed on LOB technique.

Stage 1 – Preparation of operation program chart. This is based on lead times for each
activity. Delivery date is taken as 0 and worked back wards

Stage 2- Preparation of completion schedule

Stage 3 – Construction of line of balance chart
Stage 4 – Construction of program progress chart
Stage 5 – Analysis of progress and corrective action.

Left part of chart indicates the week numbers and cumulative number of products to be
completed
Right side chart indicates the operations required
At any period line can be drawn from left hand chart and the quantity of products that
should have been completed at various operations can be easily read from the Right hand
chart
 Cumulative completion
Quantity LOB

Q
T
Y

1 2 3 4
Week no.
Operation stages

Benefits of LOB Technique:

• LOB is a planning and controlling technique which enables controlling at each stage
of production line
• Production problems may be spotted early and necessary actions may be taken
• When products are to be delivered as per schedule and there are many processing
steps and production lead times, LOB has the greatest advantage.