Kibby & Strand – Priority Scheduling Plan

Kibby & Strand – Priority Scheduling Plan

            Kibby & Strand places bids on many different types of contracts auctioned out by many different organizations. Because of this, these contracts often greatly differ in desired materials, quality, price, and allotted time. Kibby & Strand must place priority on newly received contracts using FIFO— “First in, first out is an asset-management and valuation method in which the assets produced or acquired first are sold, used or disposed of first and may be used by an individual or a corporation,” (Kenton, 2019)— so long as the allotted times are not greatly different. For example, if an 8-week contract comes in on week one of March, and a second 8-week contract comes in on week two of March, the first contract would receive priority over the second contract because it will be due a week earlier. However, if that initial 8-week contract is then preceded a week later by a 4-week contract, then the shorter contract will take priority over the first contract because it is due two weeks earlier.

Now, if two contracts of the same allotted time arrived at the same time, then whichever contract possesses a more feasible production quantity will be of less shipping priority, yet remain first in production priority. For instance, two different 8-week contracts arrived on the same day, one of them was for 1,000 t-shirts needing two cotton each, and the other was for 500 ties which required one silk each. Let’s say that each of these two contracts would respectively take the same amount of time to complete; then the next step in decision-making would be to determine, based off of capacity cushion and stockpiled materials, which contract can be prioritized over the other. So, if there was already 100 silk in current inventory, and zero cotton, then the tie contract would be placed first in production priority, while the t-shirt contract would be placed first in shipping priority. Basically, whichever materials are already present in inventory will be sent to production, while the materials that have no inventory presence will be shipped before the materials that already have inventory presence.

“We can’t completely eliminate work-in-process queues in a discontinuous production plant. They are necessary to support efficient machine loading for good utilization rates and to allow some flexibility for minimizing set-ups and changeovers, among other reasons,” (“Production Scheduling…”, n.d.).

The maximum capacity of the production apartment, with the current number of employees that Kibby & Strand has, is five contracts. More specifically, the acute production capacity depends on which machines are being used and how much of each material has to be manufactured on each of those machines. Also, a determinant is the number and types of machines that are present on the production floor. For example, during the simulation, multiple cotton, wool, and nylon contracts were taken and completed with ease. However, once a denim contract was accepted, three new machines had to be installed in order to begin production on the jeans. An embroiderer, a heat-transferrer, and a dyer. Without the installation of these machines the total production capacity would have been much lower than it was. These machines allowed for a work-in-process capacity for denim products that did not exist before. This ties into production scheduling because it is important to know, especially before taking contracts, if the appropriate machines and equipment are present and/or installed. If an entire week if used just to install machines, then that it a week taken off of production for that respective contract that needs those machines.

The production department is the bottleneck of Kibby & Strand’s operational structure. “A bottleneck (or constraint) in a supply chain means the resource that requires the longest time in operations of the supply chain for certain demand,” (“Bottleneck (Constraint)”, n.d.). This is due in large part to the fact that Kibby & Strand takes on contracts that require a great amount of resources, labor, and machinery. There is no way for Kibby & Strand to get rid of this bottleneck, as this is just the nature of the industry. However, through proper scheduling, up-to-date machinery, successful inventory management, and prudence in contract-taking, this bottleneck can be controlled.

References

“Bottleneck (Constraint)”. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.lean-manufacturing-japan.com/scm-terminology/bottleneck-constraint.html

Kenton, W. (2019). What is First In, First Out (FIFO)? Investopedia. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fifo.asp

“Production Scheduling, and Work Flow Control: Working on the Right Job”. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.protectedflowmanufacturing.com/right_job/