Operations Planning and Control: Chapter Four
Operations Planning and Control: Chapter Four
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1. AGGREGATE PLANNING
Also known as the production plan is intermediate range capacity
planning that typically covers an average time horizon of 2 to 12
months, which is particularly useful for organizations that
experience seasonal or other fluctuations in demand or capacity.
Identifies resources required for operations (i.e. for the next 2 - 12 months)
Details the aggregate production rate and size of work force required
TYPES OF AGGREGATE PLANS
Level Aggregate Plans
Maintains a constant workforce
Sets capacity to accommodate average demand
Often used for make-to-stock products like appliances
Disadvantage- builds inventory and/or uses back orders
Routing:
Theoperations to be performed, their sequence, the work centers, & the time
standards
Bottleneck:
A resource whose capacity is less than the demand placed on it
Due date:
When the job is supposed to be finished
Slack:
The time that a job can be delayed & still be finished by its due date
Queue:
A waiting line
HIGH-VOLUME OPERATIONS
High-volume, also called flow operations, like automobiles, bread, gasoline can
be repetitive or continuous
High-volume standard items; discrete or continuous with smaller profit margins
Designed for high efficiency and high utilization
High volume flow operations with fixed routings
Bottlenecks are easily identified
LOW-VOLUME OPERATIONS
Low-volume, like job shop operations, are designed for flexibility.
Use more general purpose equipment
Customized products with higher margins
Each product or service may have its own routing (scheduling is much more difficult)
Bottlenecks move around depending upon the products being produced at any given time
LOW-VOLUME TOOL – GANTT CHARTS
Developed in the early 1900’s by Henry Gantt
Load charts (see below Figure)
Illustrates the workload relative to the capacity of a resource
Shows today’s job schedule by employee
Progress charts:
Illustrates the planned schedule compared to actual performance
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HOW TO SEQUENCE JOBS
Deals with which of the several jobs should be scheduled first?
Techniques are available to do short-term planning of jobs based on available capacity &
priorities
Commonly Used Priorities Rules
I. First come, first served (FCFS)
II. Last come, first served (LCFS)
III. Earliest due date (EDD)
IV. Shortest processing time (SPT)
V. Longest processing time (LPT)
VI. Critical ratio (CR):
(Time until due date)/(processing time)
Completion
Job Date Due Date Lateness Tardiness
A 10 15 -5 0
B 13 15 -2 0
C 17 10 7 7
D 20 20 0 0
Average 0 1.75