PRODUCTION SCHEDULING PRACTICE PROBLEMS

Problem:
Sunshine House received a contract this year as a supplier of Girl Scout cookies. Sunshine currently
has five production lines, each of which will be dedicated to a particular kind of cookie. The
production lines differ by sophistication of machines, site, and experience of personnel. Given the
following estimates of processing times (in hours), assign cookies to lines to minimize the sum of
completion times:

Problem:
Fibrous Incorporated makes products from rough tree fibers. Its product line consists of five items
processed through one of five machines. The machines are not identical, and some products are
better suited to some machines. Given the following production time in minutes per unit, determine
an optimal assignment of product to machine:

Ans: Product 1 to machine B, product 2 to machine D, product 3 to machine A, product 4 to machine

C, product 5 to machine E

Problem:
Evan Schwartz has six jobs waiting to be processed through his machine. Processing time (in days)
and due date information for each job are as follows:
Sequence the jobs by FCFS, SPT, SLACK, and DDATE. Calculate the mean flow time and mean
tardiness of the six jobs under each sequencing rule. Which rule would you recommend?

Problem:
College students always have a lot of work to do, but this semester, Katie Lawrence is overwhelmed.
Following are the assignments she faces, the estimated completion times (in days), and due dates:

Help Katie prioritize her work so that she completes as many assignments on time as possible. Today
is November 2. How would your sequence of assignments change if Katie were interested in
minimizing the mean tardiness of her assignments?

Problem:
Alice’s Alterations has eight jobs to be completed and only one sewing machine (and sewing
machine operator). Given the processing times and due dates as shown here, prioritize the jobs by
SPT, DDATE, and SLACK. Today is day 5.
Calculate mean flow time, mean tardiness, maximum tardiness, and number of jobs tardy for each
sequence. Which sequencing rule would you recommend? Why?

Ans: SPT: 23.88, 9.75, 22, 5; DDATE: 30.75, 8.25, 13, 7; SLACK: 3.63, 9.13, 17, 7

Problem:
Claims received by Health wise Insurance Company are entered into the database at one station,
and sent to another station for review. The processing time (in minutes) required for each general
type of claim is shown here. Currently, Bill Frazier has 10 claims to be reviewed. In what order should
he process the claims so that the entire batch can get into the system as soon as possible? How long
will it take to process the 10 claims completely?

Problem:
Tracy has six chapters on her desk that must be typed and proofed as soon as possible. Tracy does
the typing; the author does the proofing. Some chapters are easy to type but more difficult to proof.
The estimated time (in minutes) for each activity is given here. In what order should Tracy type the
chapters so that the entire batch can be finished as soon as possible? When will the chapters be
completed?

Ans: 6, 5, 4, 2, 1, 3; 5 hr 35 min