EME 2036 Manufacturing and Operations Management

Tutorial 11: Scheduling 2017/18

Question 1
The Hickory Company manufactures wooden desks. Management schedules overtime every
weekend to reduce the backlog on the most popular models. The automatic routing machine is used
to cut certain types of edges on the desktops. The following orders need to be scheduled for the
routing machine:

Order Time Since Order Estimated Machine Due Date (hours

Arrived (hours ago) Time (hours) from now)
1 6 10 12
2 5 3 8
3 3 15 18
4 1 9 20
5 0 7 21

The due dates reflect the need for the order to be at its next operation.

a. Develop separate schedules by using the FCFS, SPT, and EDD rules. Compare the schedules on
the basis of average flow time and average past due hours for any order.
b. For each schedule, calculate the average WIP inventory.

Ans Question 1:
a. FCFS: 1-2-3-4-5
SPT: 2-5-4-1-3
EDD: 2-1-3-4-5

FCFS: SPT: EDD:

Average flow time 29.4 24.0 28.0
Average past due hours 11.0 8.6 10.2

b.

FCFS: SPT: EDD:

Average WIP inv. 3.3 2.7 3.2

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Question 2
The drill press is a bottleneck operation in a production system. Currently, five jobs are waiting to be
processed. Following are the available operations data. Assume that the current date is week 5 and
that the number of remaining operations and the shop time remaining include the operation at the
drill press.

Processing Due Date Operations Shop Time

Job
Time (wk) (wk) Remaining Remaining (wk)
AA 4 10 3 4
BB 8 16 4 6
CC 13 21 10 9
DD 6 23 3 12
EE 2 12 5 3

a. Specify the priority for each job if the shop floor control system uses each of the following
priority rules: SPT, S/RO, EDD, and CR.
b. For each priority rule, calculate the average flow time per job at the drill press.

Ans. Question 2:
a. SPT: EE-AA-DD-BB-CC
S/RO: AA-CC-EE-BB-DD
EDD: AA-EE-BB-CC-DD
CR: AA-DD-CC-BB-EE

b.
SPT: S/RO: EDD: CR:
Average Flow Time 14.6 20.2 16.8 20.0

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Question 3
Currently a company that designs Web sites has five customers in its backlog. The day when the
order arrived, processing time, and promised due dates are given in the following table. The
customers are listed in the order of when they arrived. They are ready to be scheduled today, which
is the start of day 190.

Day Order Processing

Customer Due Date
Arrived Time (days)
A 180 20 216
B 182 12 240
C 184 28 256
D 187 24 248
E 188 32 290

a. Develop separate schedules by using the FCFS and EDD rules.

b. Compare the schedules on the basis of average flow time and average days past due.

Ans Question 3:
a. FCFS: A-B-C-D-E
EDD: A-B-D-C-E

b.
FCFS: EDD:
Average flow time 68.2 67.4
Average days past due 8.4 6.8

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Question 4
McGee Parts Company is under tremendous pressure to complete a government contract for six
orders in 31 working days. The orders are for spare parts for highway maintenance equipment.
According to the government contract, a late penalty of $1000 is imposed each day the order is late.
Owing to a nationwide increase in highway construction, McGee Parts has received many orders for
spare parts replacement and the shop has been extremely busy. To complete the government
contract, the parts must be first deburred and heat treated next. The production control manager has
suggested the following schedule:

Deburr Heat Treat

Job Start Finish Start Finish
1 0 2 2 8
2 2 5 8 13
3 5 12 13 17
4 12 15 17 25
5 15 16 25 30
6 16 24 30 32

a. Use Johnson’s rule to determine the optimal sequence.

b. Draw a Gantt chart for each operation.

Ans. Question 4:
a. 5–1–2–4–3–6
b.

Debur 5 1 2 4 3 6

Heat
Treat- 5 1 2 4 3 6
ment
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32

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