SCHEDULING

ASPECTS IN CONTROLLING SHOP PROCESSES AND JOBS

Plan Schedule Set the sequence of operations. Decide on priorities for various jobs on hand.

WHAT IS SCHEDULING?
Scheduling determines the exact order or sequencing in which the jobs are to be executed. Scheduling provide flexibility in the transformation process to accommodate the ever changing situations due to availability/non-availability of various resources and environmental factors. Scheduling integrates the people, machine, materials, customer demands and quality requirements in finalizing the priorities. 3

INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AFFECTING SCHEDULING

Order booking, Availability of material in quality and quantity, Availability of tools, Availability of required manpower Management priorities Working environment in the company Industrial unrest due to labor problems or unions activities, adversely affecting the operations.
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EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AFFECTING SCHEDULING

Competitive business environment, Sudden demand due to various reasons such as:
War, Political activities, and Natural calamities like earth quake, eruption of volcano, heavy rains, floods, accidents or any other special event.

Example:
Tragedy of gas leakage in 1982 in Union Carbide plant at Bhopal had a terrific impact in and around the Union Carbide plant, killing thousands of people and paralyzing all the industrial activities not only in the Union Carbide 5 plant but also in all the other nearby plants.

OBJECTIVES OF SCHEDULING
Customer satisfaction Optimization of cost Increase in efficiency Reduction in variances in the transformation process
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SHECDULING FOR CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Scheduling establishes the date of completion of the job Compels the shop-floor-control to ensure that the finished product is ready as per plans. Scheduling helps in completing the orders that realizes the corporate vision of the value for the customer. Adhering to the committed delivery date of the order is in fact an important factor in customer satisfaction. It helps in improving the image of the company and leads to repeat order. Helps the customer to reduce his inventory as well as cost of production and creates confidence in the 7 company.

SCHEDULING HELPS IN OPTIMIZATION OF COST - 1

Early completion of jobs results in increased stock of finished goods or work-in-progress inventory increasing the costs as well as the waste. Late completion of the job will results in idling of machines waiting for the next activity in the transformation process. Waiting time in transformation process causes ineffective utilization of machine and manpower. 8

SCHEDULING HELPS IN OPTIMIZATION OF COST - 2

Completion of jobs on schedule builds up a good reputation and helps in repeat orders and may prompt customer even to pay more for the reliability in execution of the order. Building confidence in the customer enables to book order in advance, which can help in utilization of production capacity to the maximum. This helps reduce the overall production cost.
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SCHEDULING INCREASES EFFICIENCY - 1

Overall efficiency on the shop-floor improves by grouping together the orders with similar components, requirements, activities and setups. Workers get all the materials issued at one time from the warehouse rather than going separately for each job in absence of proper scheduling. Travel time for going to the warehouse, issue time and paperwork for each individual case can be greatly reduced by integrating all the jobs of similar nature and scheduling the related activities properly.
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SCHEDULING INCREASES EFFICIENCY - 2

Reduction of setup time for each job separately. Increase in the up-time of the machines Machines are utilized more effectively. All this helps in increasing the efficiency of the production process. Further, cutting down unnecessary work helps in higher employees morale as well as in improving their individual efficiency. Scheduling provides synergic improvements in efficiency.
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REASONS FOR VARIATONS IN TRANSFORMATION PROCEES Peaks and valleys in demand disturbing the normal and stabilized operations, Change in the product-mix calling for increased setup times Non-availability of the special skills required at the time of need. One work center is heavily loaded resulting in congestion due to excessive work.
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SCHEDULING REDUCES VARIATONS IN TRANSFORMATION PROCEES Scheduling can raise the priority levels of orders assigned to relatively idle work centers to keep that equipment busy while reducing the work flow to congested or bottlenecked work centers. Proper scheduling of activities ensures sufficient work load on idle machines.

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EMPLOYEE THE FOCUS IN SCHEDULING - 1

Non-availability of a key employee may even force the scheduler to postpone the work, which can be done correctly by this employee only. The presence of an experienced employee helps other workers in the team, who can get his advice or help in overcoming the problems faced by them. The employee, therefore, is the center of the scheduling process.
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EMPLOYEE THE FOCUS IN SCHEDULING - 2

The supervisor of the department allocates the available resources in terms of equipment, employees, materials and tools keeping in view the capabilities and limitations of the employees and equipment. Employees on the shop-floor link the assets with the scheduling process. His knowledge and understanding of the operation management system, products and overall capabilities of the work center is of great importance in successful completion of work efficiently without compromising on due dates, quality and flexibility.
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SUCCESS FACTORS OF SCHEDULING - 1

There should be an understanding of the working of the scheduling system. Scheduling system should be simple to understand and convenient to use. Identification of problem should be part of the scheduling process. Schedule should be reliable to achieve the work output. Scheduling should endeavor to utilize the available capacity to produce products of desirable quality.
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SUCCESS FACTORS OF SCHEDULING - 2

Schedule should work as an effective communication tool between the production and the production control. Changes in priorities should be possible with adequate flexibility. Scheduling system should provide the management with required information to present the status of production process, resources and quality control.
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ESSENTIALS OF A GOOD SCHEDULING SYSTEM

Correct status of work. Close interaction between various actors. Effective communication. Efficient reporting system.
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SCHEDULING TECHNIQUES FOR JOB OR BATCH MANUFACTURING

Operation scheduling Scheduling with manufacturing orders Bottleneck management

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OPERATION SCHEDULING
Operations scheduling calculates the start date as well as the completion date for each operation or group of operations required to complete the order. In case of a work center, where many orders are to be carried out, it is possible to sequence the work depending upon the due date and decide on its priorities. Operation scheduling is suitable for make to order products. Two methods of scheduling:
Forwarding Scheduling Backward scheduling
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FORWARD SCHEDULING
Forward scheduling starts with the earliest date on which a job order starts. The first operation is planned to start on a date and each subsequent operation start on a date determined by adding the lead time of the previous operation. Forward scheduling provides the earliest date for completion of the order. As the process reaches the last operation, its due date becomes the overall order due date. Shop-floor-control system typically employ forward scheduling method to set due date.
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BACKWARD SCHEDULING
Order completion date is determined and works backward through the sequence of process activities, starting with the last operation and finishing at with the first operation. Lead-time of successive activities is subtracted to determine individual operation due date and ultimately the latest possible order start date. This type of analysis helps in evaluating the possibility of completing the order by the due date. Backward-scheduling information indicates the latest possible operation due dates as well as the latest possible start date for the entire order.
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SCHEDULING WITH MANUFACTURING ORDERS

Scheduling with manufacturing orders refers to two concepts:
Pull Scheduling Push Scheduling.

Pull and push scheduling work on different guidelines for releasing work to the shop floor and moving it between operations.
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PULL SCHEDULING
Pull scheduling system works between activities according to the demand from immediately adjacent down-stream work centers. In case of a production facility having three work-centers A, B and C; arranged in such a manner that work-center A feeds to work-center B and work-center B feeds to work-center C, the work-center A will remain idle after completing an activity until work-center B calls for more inputs from it. The production from work-center A is pulled only when work-center B gives a signal to work-center A that it needs components.
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ADVANTAGES OF PULL SCHEDULING

Each work-center builds just what the internal customers need according to its schedule. Unnecessary inventory are not accumulated as orders from down-stream activities flows only on real demand. Any problem in the production line is immediately known for corrective action required. A breakdown of work-center B will make workcenter A as idle. In case of a problem, piling up of extra work at the bottleneck is prevented by pull scheduling. 25

PUSH SCHEDULING
An order is pushed immediately on completion of the current activity to the next operation or work-center in the route, even if the next work-center is ready or not ready to process it. As work-center A pushes the completed jobs to work-center B, a long queue of work may accumulate.
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ADVANTAGES OF PUSH SCHEDULING

It is relatively simple to operate as the worker on completion of an order moves it to the next work center and then moves to the next order on the priority list. Less coordination is needed in flow of work from one work center to another work center. Simplifies the planning system and shop floor layout. An order can move to a number of different operations from any point in the process and helps in giving more flexibility to deal with widely varying loads on different work centers. Helps in keeping each work center busy as long as there is work in queue.
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DISADVANTAGES OF PUSH SCHEDULING - 1

Work-in-process inventory can build up as orders flow in while a work center processes current orders. Quality problems are faced in the process. If a quality problem occurs at work center A, it is likely to continue to work center B resulting in production of defective parts, until the worker in work center notices it and takes corrective action to inform the worker in work center A. Work build up will occur in case of a breakdown at a work center.
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DISADVANTAGES OF PUSH SCHEDULING - 2

Pressure on worker to rush the activities to clear the waiting work may result in quality problems. Queue formation may increase lead-time. Push scheduling tends to hide the processing problems. Some form of dispatching rule is essential to enable the workers to decide on priority in taking up of next order.
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BOTTLENECK MANAGEMENT
A facility, function, department or resource, if not able to meet the demand placed upon it becomes a bottleneck. If a kiln in a cement plant is expected to produce 3000 tons per day clinker but is able to produce only 2500 tons per day, the kiln is said to be a bottleneck in the process as it is able to produce the clinker at a slower rate than the demand on it. Bottleneck is very important from management point of view and full attention is given to it to maximize the production output.
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HOW BOTTLENECK CAN BE SOLVED? - 1

Machine should never stop. All preparations should be made in advance before the work arrives at the bottleneck so that no time is lost in preparation for carrying out the job. Evaluate the capacity of the bottleneck and try to find out solutions by which the capacity can be increased. Try to have a standby machine to take care of production loss in case of a breakdown of the main machine.
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HOW BOTTLENECK CAN BE SOLVED? - 2

Resort to sub-contracting some of the work. Cement plants buy clinker from other cement plants in the period of high demand as the installed capacity is not able to meet the demand for the clinker. Maintenance should be of high order. In case of a breakdown or stoppage of a bottleneck, spending higher amount than the normal expenditure is a preferred approach to arrange the required resource of materials and men in the shortest possible time.
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INTERACTIVE SCHEDULING PROCESS

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