 Customer satisfaction regarding on-time schedule

performance is critical in a highly competitive

industry such as air transportation.
 Idling can be costly
 Flight and crew scheduling is a complex process
 9000 employees, 85 domestic and 50 international
flights daily

16-2

16-2
 Five year market plan identifies new and existing
segments that need to be serviced
 Further refined to a three year plan.
 Specific departure and arrival times arrived at.
 Crew availability to be matched to flight
schedules
 Crew means both pilots and attendants

16-3

16-3
 Pilots cannot be scheduled for more than 35 hours
in a 7 day week
 No more than 100 hours in a 28 day cycle.
 They must have a 36 hour break every seven days
and 30 days off in an 84 day cycle
 Each pilot’s tour of duty begins and ends at a crew
base, and consists of alternate duty and rest
periods
 Duty periods may have one or more flights

16-4

16-4
 Sophisticated optimization models are used to
design generic minimum cost schedules that
recognize all the constraints.
 The tours of duty are posted and crew members
bid on them within a specified period of time.
 Actual crew rosters are constructed from the bids
received.
 Roster must ensure that…

16-5

16-5
 …each flight has a qualified crew
 …and that each crew member has a feasible
schedule over the roster period.
 Crew requests and preferences may be there.
 Daily disruptions may happen. Weather,
emergencies, mechanical snags
 Customers expect these to be resolved quickly
and companies look for low cost solution.

16-6

16-6
 Establishing the timing of the use of
equipment, facilities and human activities in
an organization
 Allocating resources over time to accomplish
specific tasks.
 Scheduling Encompasses allocating workloads
to specific work centers and determining the
sequence in which operations are to be done.

16-7

16-7
 Eg: Manufacturers must schedule production,
which means developing schedules for
workers, equipment, purchases, maintenance,
etc..
 Eg: Hospitals must schedule admissions,
surgery, nursing assignments, and support
services such as meal preparations, security,
maintenance and cleaning.

16-8

16-8
 Eg: Educational institutions must schedule
classrooms, instruction, and students.

 Eg: Lawyers, doctors, dentists, hair dressers, auto

repair shops must all schedule appointments

16-9

16-9
 Location of police stations, capacity of men
and patrol cars are other decisions.
 Forecasting of requirements

 Scheduling is the critical link between

planning and execution.
 More and more ERP applications include
Scheduling applications

16-10

16-10
 Scheduling is a process that must answer
questions such as:
 Is it low cost?

 How fast can they be generated?

 How often do they need to be revised, once

initiated? (quality)
 How many different employee, service or
product groups can it handle? (variety)

16-11

16-11
 Demand Scheduling (involves assigning
customers to a definite time for order
fulfillment):
 Workforce scheduling (involves determining
when employees will work)
 Operations Scheduling (involves assigning
jobs to workstations or employees to jobs for
specified time periods).

16-12

16-12
 Operations Scheduling and Valentine week?

16-13

16-13
 Low-volume

Intermediate-
volume

High-volume

Service operation
16-15
 Characterized by standardized equipment and
activities that provide identical or highly
similar operations on customers or
jobs/products as they pass through the system.
 The goal is to obtain a smooth rate of flow of
goods and services through the system in
order to get a high utilization of labor and
equipment.

16-16

16-16
 Flow system: High-volume system with
Standardized equipment and activities
 Flow-shop scheduling: Scheduling for high-
volume flow system

Work Center #1 Work Center #2 Output

Continuous flow
shop
Assembly line 16-17
 Line Balancing..

 Allocating resources to work stations so that

they satisfy technical constraints and are
balanced with respect to equal work times
among stations.

16-18

16-18
 Systems are highly repetitive in nature

 Hence many of the loading and sequencing

decisions are taken at the design stage itself.
 Use of highly specialized tools and equipment
and their arrangement..

16-19

16-19
 Use of specialized material handling
equipment..
 Division of labor..

 All to enhance flow of work through the

system.
 Petroleum refining, sugar refining, autos, PCs,
fertilizer manufacture..
 Cafeteria lines, news broadcasts, mass
inoculations in services..

16-20

16-20
 Few flow systems are entirely dedicated to a single
product or service
 Each product change requires
 Slightly different inputs of parts
 Slightly different materials
 Slightly different processing requirements that must be
scheduled into the line
 Need to avoid excessive inventory buildup
 Disruptions may result in less-than-desired output
 The following factors often dictate the success of high-
volume systems:
• Process and product design
• Preventive maintenance
• Rapid repair when breakdowns occur
• Optimal product mixes
• Minimization of quality problems
• Reliability and timing of supplies
 Outputs fall between the standardized type of output
of high-volume systems and the make-to-order output
of job shops
 Output rates are insufficient to warrant continuous
production
 Rather, it is more economical
to produce intermittently
 Work centers periodically
shift from one product to
another
 Three basic issues:
 Run size of jobs
 The timing of jobs
 The sequence in which jobs will be produced

2 DS p
QO 
H p u
 Volumes are larger when compared to job
shops.
 Canned foods, baked goods, paint and
cosmetics.
 Run size of jobs, timing of jobs and the
sequence in which jobs should be processed
are the issues

16-25

16-25
 Important considerations
 Setup cost
 Usage is not always as smooth as assumed in the
economic lot size model
 Alternative scheduling approach
 Base production on a master schedule developed from
customer orders and forecasted demand
 MRP more important for assembled goods
 For companies producing processed goods (beverages,
canned products, paints, magazines), time-phasing may
not be that important.
 Job shop scheduling
 Scheduling for low-volume systems with many
variations in requirements
 Make-to-order products
 Processing requirements keep varying
 Material requirements vary across batches
 Processing time varies across batches
 Processing sequence and setups varies
 A complex scheduling environment
 It is impossible to establish firm schedules until actual job
orders are received
 Loading refers to the assignment of specific
jobs to work centers and to various machines in
the work centers.

 In cases where a job can be done only by a

specific center, loading presents little difficulty.
 When multiple centers are capable of taking on
the same job, a decision has to be taken.

16-28

16-28
 Loading
 the assignment of jobs to processing centers
 Gantt chart
 Used as a visual aid for loading and scheduling purposes
 Purpose of the Gantt chart is to organize and visually display the
actual or intended use of resources in a time framework
 Managers may use the charts for trial-and-error schedule
development to get an idea of what different arrangements
would involve
 Load chart
 A Gantt chart that shows the loading and idle times for a
group of machines or list of departments
 Infinite loading
 Jobs are assigned to workstations without regard to the capacity of the work
center (may result in imbalance and subsequent steps to correct the same)
 Finite loading
 Jobs are assigned to work centers taking into account the work center
capacity and job processing times
Infinite loading

Capacity over over

1 2 3 4 5 6

Finite loading

Capacity

1 2 3 4 5 6
 Forward scheduling
 Scheduling ahead from some point in time.
 Used when the question is:
 “How long will it take to complete this job?
 Backward scheduling
 Scheduling backwards from some due date
 Used when the question is:
 “When is the latest this job can be started and still be
completed on time?”
 used as a visual aid for scheduling
 The job or activity progress chart
 The workstation chart

Current date

Job 4/17 4/18 4/19 4/20 4/21 4/22 4/23 4/24 4/25 4/26
Start activity

Ford Finish activity

Scheduled
activity time
Nissan Actual progress
Nonproductive
time
Pontiac
16-33
 Time
12
Workstation 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm

Dr. Jon
Operating Adams Dr. Aubrey Brothers Dr. Alaina Bright
Room A

Dr. Jeff
Operating Dr. Gary Case Dow Dr. Madeline Easton
Room B

Operating Dr. Jordanne Flowers Dr. Dan Gillespie

Room C

16-34
 Schedule chart
 A Gantt chart that shows the orders or jobs in progress
and whether they are on schedule
 Assignment model
 A linear programming model for optimal assignment of
tasks and resources
 Hungarian method
 Method of assigning jobs by a one-for-one matching to
identify the lowest cost solution
1. Row reduction: subtract the smallest number in each row from
every number in the row
a. Enter the result in a new table
2. Column reduction: subtract the smallest number in each
column from every number in the column
a. Enter the result in a new table
3. Test whether an optimum assignment can be made
a. Determine the minimum number of lines needed to cross out all zeros
b. If the number of lines equals the number of rows, an optimum assignment is
possible. Go to step 6
c. Else, go to step 4
4. If the number of lines is less than the number of rows, modify
the table:
a. Subtract the smallest number from every uncovered number in the table
b. Add the smallest uncovered number to the numbers at intersections of cross-out
lines
c. Numbers crossed out but not at intersections of cross-out lines carry over
unchanged to the next table
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until an optimal table is obtained
6. Make the assignments
a. Begin with rows or columns with only one zero
b. Match items that have zeros, using only one match for each row and each column
c. Eliminate both the row and the column after the match
 Determine the optimum assignment of jobs to
workers for the following data:
Worker
A B C D
1 8 6 2 4
2 6 7 11 10
Job
3 3 5 7 6
4 5 10 12 9
 Worker Row
A B C D minimum
1 8 6 2 4 2 Subtract the smallest
2 6 7 11 10 6 number in each row from
Job every number in the row
3 3 5 7 6 3
4 5 10 12 9 5

Worker
A B C D
1 6 4 0 2
2 0 1 5 4
Job
3 0 2 4 3
4 0 5 7 4
 Worker
A B C D
1 6 4 0 2 Subtract the smallest
2 0 1 5 4 number in each column
Job from every number in the
3 0 2 4 3 column
4 0 5 7 4
Column min. 0 1 0 2

Worker
A B C D
1 6 3 0 0
2 0 0 5 2
Job
3 0 1 4 1
4 0 4 7 2
 Worker
A B C D
Determine the minimum
1 6 3 0 0
number of lines needed to
2 0 0 5 2 cross out all zeros. (Try to
Job cross out as many zeros as
3 0 1 4 1
possible when drawing lines
4 0 4 7 2

Since only three lines are needed to cross out all

zeros and the table has four rows, this is not the
optimum. Note: the smallest uncovered value is 1
 Worker
A B C D
Subtract the smallest
1 6 3 0 0
uncovered value from every
2 0 0 5 2 uncovered number, and add
Job it to the values at the
3 0 1 4 1
intersection of covering
4 0 4 7 2 lines.

Worker
A B C D
1 7 3 0 0
2 1 0 5 2
Job
3 0 0 3 0
4 0 3 6 1
 Worker
A B C D
1 7 3 0 0 Determine the minimum
number of lines needed to
2 1 0 5 2 cross out all zeros. (Try to
Job
3 0 0 3 0 cross out as many zeros as
possible when drawing lines
4 0 3 6 1

Since four lines are needed to cross out all zeros and
the table has four rows, this an optimal assignment
can be made
 Worker
A B C D
1 7 3 0 0 Make assignments: Start
with rows and columns with
2 1 0 5 2 only one zero. Match jobs
Job
3 0 0 3 0 with workers that have a
zero
4 0 3 6 1

Assignment Cost
2-B $7
4-A $5
1-C $2
3-D $6
Total $20
 Sequencing: Determine the order in which jobs
at a work center will be processed.

 Workstation: An area where one person works,

usually with special equipment, on a
specialized job.

16-46

16-46
 Sequencing
 Determine the order in which jobs at a work center will be
processed
 Priority rules
 Simple heuristics used to select the order in which jobs will be
processed
 The rules generally assume that job setup cost and time are
independent of processing sequence
 Job time
 Time needed for setup and processing of a job
 FCFS - first come, first served

 SPT - shortest processing time

 EDD - earliest due date

 CR - critical ratio

 S/O - slack per operation

 Rush - emergency
 The set of jobs is known; no new orders arrive after
processing begins and no jobs are canceled
 Setup time is independent of processing sequence

 Setup time is deterministic

 Processing times are deterministic

 There will be no interruptions in processing such as

machine breakdowns or accidents
 Common performance metrics:
 Job flow time
 This is the amount of time it takes from when a job arrives until it is complete
 It includes not only processing time but also any time waiting to be processed
 Job lateness
 This is the amount of time the job completion time is expected to exceed the
date the job was due or promised to a customer
 Makespan
 The total time needed to complete a group of jobs from the beginning of the first
job to the completion of the last job
 Average number of jobs
 Jobs that are in a shop are considered to be WIP inventory
EXAMPLE
Currently a consulting company has five jobs in its backlog.
The time since the order was placed, processing time, and promised
due dates are given in the following table.
Determine the schedule by using the different rule, and calculate the
average days past due and flow time.

Time Since Order Processing Time Due Date

Customer
Arrived (days ago) (days) (days from now)
A 15 25 29
B 12 16 27
C 5 14 68
D 10 10 48
E 0 12 80

16-58
 A(25) B(16) D(10) C(14) E(12) FCFS

0 25 41 51 65 77

B(16) A(25) D(10) C(14) E(12) EDD

0 16 41 51 65 77

D(10) E(12) C(14) B(16) A(25) SPT

0 10 22 36 52 77

16-59
 Time Since
Processing Time remaining
Job Order Arrived Due Date CR
Time (days) till due date
(days ago)

A 15 25 29 29 1.16
B 12 16 27 27 1.69
C 5 14 68 68 4.86
D 10 10 48 48 4.80
E 0 12 80 80 6.67

A(25) CR
0 25

Now, assume Time 25 and repeat the procedure till all jobs are sequenced

16-60
Customer Start Processing Finish Due Days Days Ago Flow
Sequence Time Time (days) Time Date Past Since Order Time
(days) (days) Due Arrived (days)

A 0 + 25 = 25 29 0 15 40
B 25 + 16 = 41 27 14 12 53
D 41 + 10 = 51 48 3 10 61
C 51 + 14 = 65 68 0 5 70
E 65 + 12 = 77 80 0 0 77

0 + 14 + 3 + 0 + 0
Average days past due = = 3.4 days
5
/Tardiness
40 + 53 + 61 + 70 + 77
Average flow time = = 60.2 days
5

16-61
Customer Start Processing Finish Due Days Days Ago Flow
Sequence Time Time (days) Time Date Past Since Order Time
(days) (days) Due Arrived (days)

D 0 + 10 = 10 48 0 10 20
E 10 + 12 = 22 80 0 0 22
C 22 + 14 = 36 68 0 5 41
B 36 + 16 = 52 27 25 12 64
A 52 + 25 = 77 29 48 15 92

0 + 0 + 0 + 25 + 48
Average days past due = = 14.6 days
5
/Tardiness

20 + 22 + 41 + 64 + 92
Average flow time = = 47.8 days
5
16-62
Customer Start Processing Finish Due Days Days Ago Flow
Sequence Time Time (days) Time Date Past Since Order Time
(days) (days) Due Arrived (days)

B 0 + 16 = 16 27 0 12 28
A 16 + 25 = 41 29 12 15 56
D 41 + 10 = 51 48 3 10 61
C 51 + 14 = 65 68 0 5 70
E 65 + 12 = 77 80 0 0 77

0 + 12 + 3 + 0 + 0
Average days past due = = 3.0 days
5
/Tardiness
28 + 56 + 61 + 70 + 71
Average flow time = = 58.4 days
5

16-63
 Sequence FCFC SPT EDD

Avg Flow Time 60.2 47.8 58.4

Average days
past due
3.4 14.6 3
/Tardiness

# of Tardi Jobs 2 2 2

16-64
 Variability in
 Setup times
 Processing times
 Interruptions
 Unforeseen and sudden changes in the set of jobs
 No method for identifying optimal schedule
 Scheduling is not an exact science
 Ongoing task for a manager

16-65
 Set realistic due dates

 Focus on bottleneck operations

 Consider lot size splitting for large jobs

16-66
 Johnson’s Rule
 Technique for minimizing makespan for a group of jobs
to be processed on two machines or at two work centers.
 Minimizes total idle time
 Several conditions must be satisfied
 Job time must be known and constant for each job at the
work center
 Job times must be independent of sequence
 Jobs must follow same two-step sequence
 All jobs must be completed at the first work center before
moving to second work center
1. List the jobs and their times at each work center
2. Select the job with the shortest time
a. If the shortest time is at the first work center, schedule that job first
b. If the shortest time is at the second work center, schedule the job last.
c. Break ties arbitrarily
3. Eliminate the job from further consideration
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3, working toward the center of the sequence, until
all jobs have been scheduled
 Theory of constraints
 Production planning approach that emphasizes balancing
flow throughout a system, and pursues a perpetual five-step
improvement process centered around the system’s currently
most restrictive constraint.
 Bottleneck operations limit system output
 Therefore, schedule bottleneck operations in a way that minimizes
their idle times
 Drum-buffer-rope
 Drum = the schedule
 Buffer = potentially constraining resources outside of the bottleneck
 Rope = represents synchronizing the sequence of operations to
ensure effective use of the bottleneck operations
 Varying batch sizes to achieve greatest output of bottleneck
operations
 Process batch
 The economical quantity to produce upon the activation of a given
operation
 Transfer batch
 The quantity to be transported from one operation to another, assumed
to be smaller than the first operation’s process batch
 Improving bottleneck operations:
1. Determine what is constraining the operation
2. Exploit the constraint (i.e., make sure the constraining resource is
used to its maximum)
3. Subordinate everything to the constraint (i.e., focus on the
constraint)
4. Determine how to overcome (eliminate) the constraint
5. Repeat the process for the next highest constraint
 Three important theory of constraints metrics:
 Throughput
 The rate at which the system generates money through sales
 Inventory
 Inventory represents money tied up in goods and materials used
in a process
 Operating expense
 All the money the system spends to convert inventory into
throughput: this includes utilities, scrap, depreciation, and so on
 Service scheduling often presents challenges not found
in manufacturing
 These are primarily related to:
1. The inability to store or inventory services
2. The random nature of service requests

 Service scheduling may involve scheduling:

1. Customers
2. Workforce
3. Equipment
 Scheduling customers: Demand Management
 Appointment systems
 Controls customer arrivals for service
 Reservation systems
 Enable service systems to formulate a fairly accurate estimate
demand on the system for a given time period
 Scheduling the workforce: Capacity Management
 Cyclical Scheduling
 Employees are assigned to work shifts or time slots, and have days off,
on a repeating basis
 Translate the staffing plan into specific schedules
of work for each employee
 Constraints
 Technical constraints
 Legal and behavioral considerations
 Psychological needs of workers
 Rotating / Cyclical schedule
 Fixed / Repeating schedule

16-79
 Steps in developing a workforce schedule
Step 1: Find all the pairs of consecutive days
Step 2: If a tie occurs, choose one of the tied pairs,
consistent with the provisions written into the
labor agreement
Step 3: Assign the employees for the selected pair of
days off
Step 4: Repeat steps 1 – 3 until all of the requirements
have been satisfied

16-80
EXAMPLE
The Amalgamated Parcel Service is open seven days a week. The
schedule of requirements is

Day M T W Th F S Su
Required number of employees 6 4 8 9 10 3 2

The manager needs a workforce schedule that provides two

consecutive days off and minimizes the amount of total slack
capacity. To break ties in the selection of off days, the
scheduler gives preference to Saturday and Sunday if it is
one of the tied pairs. If not, she selects one of the tied pairs
arbitrarily.

16-81
SOLUTION
Friday contains the maximum requirements, and the pair S – Su
has the lowest total requirements. Therefore, Employee 1 is
scheduled to work Monday through Friday.
Note that Friday still has the maximum requirements and that
the requirements for the S – Su pair are carried forward because
these are Employee 1’s days off. These updated requirements are
the ones the scheduler uses for the next employee.
The day-off assignments for the employees are shown in the
following table.

16-82
 Scheduling Days Off

M T W Th F S Su Employee Comments
6 4 8 9 10 3 2 1 The S–Su pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 1 to a M-F schedule.
5 3 7 8 9 3 2 2 The S–Su pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 2 to a M-F schedule.
4 2 6 7 8 3 2 3 The S–Su pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 3 to a M-F schedule.
3 1 5 6 7 3 2 4 The M–T pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 4 to a W-Su schedule.
3 1 4 5 6 2 1 5 The S–Su pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 5 to a M-F schedule.
2 0 3 4 5 2 1 6 The M–T pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 6 to a W-Su schedule.
2 0 2 3 4 1 0 7 The S–Su pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 7 to a M-F schedule.
1 0 1 2 3 1 0 8 Four pairs have the minimum requirement and the
lowest total. Choose the S–Su pair according to the tie-
breaking rule. Assign Employee 8 to a M-F schedule.
0 0 0 1 2 1 0 9 Arbitrarily choose the Su–M pair to break ties because
the S–Su pair does not have the lowest total
requirements. Assign Employee 9 to a T-S schedule.
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 10 Choose the S–Su pair according to the tie-breaking rule.
Assign Employee 10 to a M-F schedule.
16-83
 Scheduling Days Off

M T W Th F S Su Employee Comments
6 4 8 9 10 3 2 1 The S–Su pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 1 to a M-F schedule.
5 3 7 8 9 3 2 2 The S–Su pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 2 to a M-F schedule.
4 2 6 7 8 3 2 3 The S–Su pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 3 to a M-F schedule.
3 1 5 6 7 3 2 4 The M–T pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 4 to a W-Su schedule.
3 1 4 5 6 2 1 5 The S–Su pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 5 to a M-F schedule.
2 0 3 4 5 2 1 6 The M–T pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 6 to a W-Su schedule.
2 0 2 3 4 1 0 7 The S–Su pair has the lowest total requirements. Assign
Employee 7 to a M-F schedule.
1 0 1 2 3 1 0 8 Four pairs have the minimum requirement and the
lowest total. Choose the S–Su pair according to the tie-
breaking rule. Assign Employee 8 to a M-F schedule.
0 0 0 1 2 1 0 9 Arbitrarily choose the Su–M pair to break ties because
the S–Su pair does not have the lowest total
requirements. Assign Employee 9 to a T-S schedule.
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 10 Choose the S–Su pair according to the tie-breaking rule.
Assign Employee 10 to a M-F schedule.
16-84
In this example, Friday always has the maximum requirements
and should be avoided as a day off. The final schedule for the
employees is shown in the following table.
Final Schedule
Employee M T W Th F S Su Total
1 X X X X X off off
2 X X X X X off off
3 X X X X X off off
4 off off X X X X X
5 X X X X X off off
6 off off X X X X X
7 X X X X X off off
8 X X X X X off off
9 off X X X X X off
10 X X X X X off off
Capacity, C 7 8 10 10 10 3 2 50
Requirements, R 6 4 8 9 10 3 2 42
Slack, C – R 1 4 2 1 0 0 0 8
16-85