Scheduling in a Job Shop Environment

The Twin Cities Chapter of APICS has created a unique course that is designed to help improve scheduling results for firms that operate in a "make to order" environment. The class covers all of the fundamental concepts required to successfully use formal scheduling systems and includes lecture, discussion, case studies, and class exercises. Attendees will leave better prepared to select, implement, or support computerized scheduling at their manufacturing firms. It may also prove helpful for more advanced companies who need a review of scheduling basics. Register early! To ensure a good learning environment, class size is limited to 25 students.

Course topics

Scheduling Basics (Calisthenics For Beginning Schedulers)

• Business Systems
• Required Information
• Job Shop Definition
• Forecasting
• Forecast Error
• Estimating

Scheduling Tip & Tricks

• “Real World” Scheduling Issues
• Lead Time Elements
• Serial Operations
• Parallel Operations
• Overlapped Operations
• Lot Splitting
• Capacity Considerations
• Bottlenecks
• Alternate Resources
• Setup Issues

Schedule Components (Legos For Schedulers)

• Defining Work Centers
• Creating Routings
• Bills Of Material/Parts Lists
• Operation Reports§ Material Availability
• Scheduling Objectives
• Performance Reporting
• Data Accuracy

Creating “The” Schedule (Let’s Do It)

• Capacity Planning
• Shop Calendar
• Backward Scheduling
• Infinite Loading
• Forward Scheduling
• Finite Loading
• Capacity/Scheduling Visibility
• Kanbans
• Production Authorization & Release
• Setting Priorities
• Summary

More Schedule Building Blocks

• Inventory Control
• Part Numbering
• Standardization
• Economic Order Quantity
• Safety Stock
• Order Points
• Goals
• Capacity Determinants
• Efficiency
• Load
• Production Leveling

This course is taught in five 3-hour sessions.