SEQUENCING & SCHEDULING – PGDM

EXAMPLES ON SEQUENCING

Example: A company plans to fill 6 positions. Since the positions are known to vary
considerably with respect to skill and responsibility, different types of aptitude tests
and interviews are required for each. While the aptitude tests are conducted by people
from clerical positions, the job interviews are held by the personnel from management
cadre. The job interviews immediately follow the aptitude test. The time required (in
minutes) by each of the positions is given here:
Position: P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6
Aptitude Test: 140 180 150 200 170 100
Job Interview: 70 120 110 80 100 90

If it is desired to minimize the waiting time of the management personnel, in what

order the position filling be handled?
Solution:
From the given information, the optimal sequence can be determined using the
algorithm. This would be: P2, P3, P5, P6, P4, and P1. The total elapsed time (T) is equal
to 1010 minutes, while the idle time for the management personnel would be :
180+30+60+110+60=440 minutes.

Calculation of Total elapsed time (T)

Position Aptitude Test Job Interview
Start Finish Start Finish
P2 0 180 180 300
P3 180 330 330 440
P5 330 500 500 600
P6 500 600 600 690
P4 600 800 800 880
P1 800 940 940 1010

Example: A firm works 40 hours a week and has a capacity of overtime work to the
extent of 20 hours in a week. It has received 7 orders to be processed on 3 machines
A, B and C, in the order A,B and C to be delivered in a weeks time from now. The
process times ( in hours) are recorded in the given table:
Job: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Machine A: 7 8 6 6 7 8 5
Machine B: 2 2 1 3 3 2 4
Machine C: 6 5 4 4 2 1 5
The manager who in fairness insist on performing the job in the sequence in which
they are received, is refusing to accept an 8th order, which requires 7, 2, and 5 hours
respectively on A,B, and C machines, because, according to him, the eight jobs would

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 SEQUENCING & SCHEDULING – PGDM

require a total of 61 hours for processing, which exceeds the firm’s capacity. Advise
him.
Solution:
To obtain the optimal sequence, first the timings of the processing of all the eight jobs
would be tabulated as shown:
Processing time
Job Machine A Machine B Machine C
1 7 2 6
2 8 2 5
3 6 1 4
4 6 3 4
5 7 3 2
6 8 2 1
7 5 4 5
8 7 2 5
From the table
Min Ai = 5, Max Bi = 4, Min Ci = 1
Since Min Ai > Max Bi, the first of the conditions laid previously is satisfied. We
proceed now to make the consolidation table:
Consolidation table
Job Gi=Ai+Bi Hi=Bi+Ci
1 9 8
2 10 7
3 7 5
4 9 7
5 10 5
6 10 3
7 9 9
8 9 7
According to this, several optimal sequences are possible, of which one is as follows:
7, 1, 8, 4, 2, 5, 3, 6.
Determination of Total elapsed time (T)
Job Machine A Machine B Machine C
In Out In Out In Out
7 0 5 5 9 9 14
1 5 12 12 14 14 20
8 12 19 19 21 21 26
4 19 25 25 28 28 32
2 25 33 33 35 35 40
5 33 40 40 43 43 45
3 40 46 46 47 47 51
6 46 54 54 56 56 57

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 SEQUENCING & SCHEDULING – PGDM

Example: Find the sequence that minimizes the total elapsed time required to
complete the following jobs on machine M1, M2, M3.

Job: A B C D E F
M1: 8 3 7 2 5 1
M2: 3 4 5 2 1 6
M3: 8 7 6 9 10 9

Solution: From the given information Min M1(i)=1, Max M2(i)=6, and Min M3(i)=6.
Since Min M3(i)≥Max M2(i), We can solve the problem as a two machine problem using
Johnson’s rule. Setting Hi= M1(i)+M2(i) and Gi=M2(i)+M3(i), we get
Job Hi Gi
A 11 11
B 7 11
C 12 11
D 4 11
E 6 11
F 7 15

Optimal sequence : D E B F A C, or alternatively, D E F B A C. Total elapsed time 53.

Determination of elapsed time (T)
Job Machine A Machine B Machine C
In Out In Out In Out
D 0 2 2 4 4 13
E 2 7 7 8 13 23
B 7 10 10 14 23 30
F 10 11 14 20 30 39
A 11 19 20 23 39 47
C 19 26 26 31 47 53

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