What is Operations Scheduling?

Introduction
In the operations management or the production management, this technique of operations scheduling forms a very important part and acts as the back – bone for the performance of the manufacturing or the service organizations. With the help of the operations scheduling, two very important factors or the aspects of the resources within an organization that can be pertained are as follows –

1. Allocating the resources within an organization.
2. Setting up the time – table.

In today’s competitive world, the orders that are placed either from the side of the customer or from the side of the assembly benches – are to be completed on or before the contracted or the promised date. For fulfilling this, operations scheduling plays a very critical and an essential role and completely ensures that these dates are met.

Operations scheduling helps in the confirmation or the revision of the tentative delivery date that has been promised in the original quotation. Sometimes during the operations scheduling of the work order, it may be discovered that the delivery date originally and tentatively promised cannot be met. All this may be due to the several problems like the materials that are required may not be available at that particular time or may not be available immediately. This problem can also occur due to the increased plant loading while the customer is deciding whether or not to award the quoted job to this company.

It has been observed that the operations scheduling has a direct affect on the effectiveness of the production function and this relation was actually explained by Vollman.

According to Vollman, “The priority planning and the shop floor control and the scheduling elements ultimately determine the performance of the production system.”

If the operations scheduling is carried out in an efficient manner, then there occurs a considerable improvement in the performance in the delivery. Also helps in the achievement of the goals that have been set by the company. Efficient operations scheduling playa a very critical part in the reduction of the production lead times.