SEQUENCING

CASE

• Queueing system wherein customers are served after waiting in a queue for some time.
• In fact, waiting for service is an integral part of our daily life and that too at considerable
cost most of the time.
• The purpose of queueing analysis is to provide information to determine an acceptable
level of service.
• However, the appropriate order in which the waiting customers should be served also
needs to be studied to minimise the total elapsed time.
• Sequencing problems arise whenever there is a choice of determining the order in which a number of jobs
can be performed. These problems play a very important role in manufacturing setups for the optimal use of
resources and/or the customer’s satisfaction.
• Manya-times, manufacturing firms produce goods made up of several components, which are sourced from
other manufacturing firms. The final product undergoes many processes before it is taken to the market for
sale. Since several machines are used in the production process, it is important to sequence the production
process optimally so that the performance measures of the firm are satisfied.
MEANING

• It is the selection of an appropriate order in

which a number of jobs (Operations) can be
assigned to to a finite number of service facilities
(Machines or equipment's) so as to optimize the
outputs in terms of time, cost or profit.
SEQUENCING RULES

• First Come First Served (FCFS): Jobs processed in the order they come to the shop.
• Shortest Processing Time (STP): Jobs with the shortest processing time are scheduled
first.
• Earliest Due Date (EDD): Jobs are prioritized according to their due dates.
• Critical Ratio (CR) = Processing Time of the Job/Remaining time until the due date. The
job with highest CR value is scheduled first.
TYPES OF SEQUENCING PROBLEMS

• One Machine, Many Jobs

• Two Machine, Many Jobs
• Three Machine, Many Jobs
• Many Machine, Many Jobs
SEQUENCING PROBLEM

• A sequencing problem is the determination of the best sequence among all possible
sequences. Here ‘best’ may be defined with respect to set objectives or performance
measure for the concerned problem.
• In sequencing problems, there are two or more customers (jobs) to be served and one or
more facilities (machines) available for this purpose. We wish to know when each job is
to begin and what its due date or time is. We also wish to know which facilities are
required to do each job, in which order these facilities are required and how long each
operation is to take.
A GENERAL SEQUENCING PROBLEM MAY BE
DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:
• Let there be n jobs (1, 2, 3, . . . , Sequencing Problems n), each of which has to be
processed, one at a time, on each of m machines (A, B, C, …).
• The time required for processing each job on each machine is also given.
• The order of processing each job through these machines may be any of the (n!) possible
sequences. But, we are interested in finding that technologically feasible sequence for
processing the jobs which gives the minimum total elapsed time for all the jobs.
PROCESSING OF N JOBS THROUGH 2 MACHINES

• The sequencing problem deals with determining an optimum sequence of performing a

number of jobs by a finite number of service facilities (machine) according to some pre-
assigned order so as to optimize the output. The objective is to determine the optimal order
of performing the jobs in such a way that the total elapsed time will be minimum.
• Consider there are jobs 1,2,3,…….,n to be processed through m machines. (Machine A,
Machine B, Machine C, ……, Machine n). The objective is to find a feasible solution, such
that the total elapsed time is minimum. We can solve this problem using Johnson’s method.
 This method provides solutions to n job 2 machines, n job 3 machines, and 2 jobs m
machines.
JOHNSON’S RULE

• A procedure that minimizes idle time when scheduling a set of jobs on two workstations.
• Conditions that need to be satisfied: • Constant job time. • Jobs must follow two-step
sequence. • Job priorities cannot be used. • All units must be completed at the first work
centre before moving to the second.
STEPS IN JOHNSON’S RULE

• Step 1: Find the shortest processing time among the unscheduled jobs. If two or more
jobs have same processing time, choose any one arbitrarily.
• Step 2: If the shortest processing time is on workstation 1, schedule the job as early as
possible. If it is on workstation 2, schedule it as late as possible.
• Step 3: Continue Step 1 and 2, until all jobs have been scheduled.