SHOP FLOOR MANAGEMENT Defined as the techniques and technologies by which the progress and status of p roduction is compared

to the plans. Shop floor management or control is concerned with Release of production orders to the factory. Controlling the progress of the orders through various work centers. Acquiring current information on the status of the orders. In simplest possible terms shop floor control deals with managing the work in pr ogress. Input to the Shop floor control system is the collection of production plans viz ., Results of Process Planning MRP Capacity Planning The factory productions operations are pictured as the process to be controlled. The shop floor control system is indicated by dotted lines.

A Typical shop Order Order Order

floor control system consists of three phases. Release Scheduling Progress

These phases are executed by a combination of computer and human resources. These phases are connected to other functions in the production management syste m.

ORDER RELEASE Provides the documentation needed to process a production order through the fact ory. Collection of these documents is sometimes called Shop Packet. It consists of Route Sheet. Material requisitions to draw necessary materials from inventory. Job cards or other means to report direct labor time devoted to the order; als o used to indicate progress of the order through the factory.

Order release has two inputs Authorization to produce that derives from Master Schedule Proceeds through the various planning functions [MRP and Capacity planni ng] that provide timing and scheduling information. Engineering and Manufacturing data base Provides the product structure and process planning information required to prepare various documents that accompany the order through the shop. ORDER SCHEDULING Assigns the production orders to the various work centers in the plant. Executes the dispatching function in production planning and control. Prepares a dispatch list that indicates which production orders should be accom plished at the various work centers.

Provides information about relative priorities of different jobs, showing due d ates for each job. Order scheduling module is intended to solve two problems in production control: 1. Machine loading problem Allocating the orders to the work centers is ref erred to as machine loading or shop loading. 2. Job sequencing problem Involves determining the order in which the jobs will be processed through a given work centre. To determine this sequence, priorities are established among the jobs in th e queue, and the jobs are processed in the order of their relative priorities. Priority control is a term used in production planning and control to denote the function that maintains the appropriate priority levels for the various product ion orders in the shop.

Rules to establish priorities for orders: Earliest Due Date Orders with earlier due dates are given higher priorities. Shortest processing time Orders with shorter processing times are given higher p riorities. Least slack time Orders with least slack time are given higher priorities. Slack time is defined as the difference between the time remaining until due dat e and the process time remaining. Critical ratio Orders with lowest critical ratio are given higher priorities. Critical ratio is defined as the ratio of the time remaining until due date and the process time remaining. First Come First Serve Priorities are assigned as per the order received. Longest processing time Orders with longer processing times are given higher pri orities. Relative priorities may change over time. Reasons are: Lower or higher than expected demand for certain products. Equipment break down causing Production delays. Cancellation of an order by customer. Defective raw materials and other reasons. Priority control function reviews the relative priorities of the orders and adju sts the dispatch list accordingly. When an order is completed in at one work centre, it enters the queue at the nex t machine in its process routing. That is, the order becomes part of the machine loading for the next work centre and priority control is utilized to determine the sequence of processing among t he jobs at that machine. ORDER PROGRESS Monitors the status of the various orders in the plant, work in process, and oth er characteristics that indicate the Progress and performance of production. Its function is to provide information that is useful in managing the factory ba sed on data collected from the factory or shop floor. The information that is presented to production management is often summarized i n the form of reports. The reports include: Work order status reports Indicate the status of the production orders. Typical information listed in the report includes: Current work centre where each order is located Processing hours remaining before completion of each order Whether the job is on time or behind schedule and Priority level. Progress reports Is used to report performance of the shop during a certain time

period usually a week or month in the master schedule. Provides information on a) How many orders were completed during the period? b) How many orders that should have been completed during the period were not completed etc, Exception reports Indicates the deviations from the production schedule (overdue jobs) and similar exception information. These reports are useful to production management in making decisions about a) Allocation of resources b) Authorization of overtime hours c) Other capacity issues and d) In identifying problem areas in the plant that adversely affect achieving the master production schedule. FACTORY DATA COLLECTION SYSTEMS (FDC) Consists of various paper documents terminal and automated devices located throu ghout the plant for collecting the data on shop floor operations plus the means of compiling and processing the data usually by computer. FDC system serves as an input to the order progress module in shop floor control . FDC system is the sensor component of the shop floor control system The types of data on factory operations collected by the FDC system include: Piece counts completed at a certain work centre Direct labor time expended on each order Parts that are scrapped Parts requiring rework Equipment down time and Time clock used by employees to punch in and out of work PURPOSE OF FDC To supply data to the order progress module in the shop floor control system To provide current information to production foremen, plant management and pro duction control personnel. This can be done in either on-line or off-line mode In on-line system data are directly entered into the plant computer. Advantage: Status of the shop can be kept current at all times. In the off-line system the data are temporarily stored in either a storage devic e or a standalone computer system to be entered and processed subsequently by th e plant computer. Delay in the data processing and consequently the computer system cannot provide real time information on the plant status Disadvantage: Delay and the requirement for a separate data storage system Advantage: Generally easier to install and implement