episode 09 exercise 02

Part 2

The next three questions relate to the Priority Spreadsheet that contains a sample of orders received between 9:30 and 10:00 on the third Sunday in March. For each order, the spreadsheet contains the order number (which indicates the order of arrival), the number of items in the order, and the time to process the order. In the video, Warren wonders if they could clear out more orders on Monday by using different priority or sequencing rules. We now want to evaluate how different priority rules might affect some of the performance characteristics of the order picking process.

1.	Using the spreadsheet, evaluate the first-come, first-served and shortest processing time priority rules for average queue time and average flow time. What conclusions can you reach regarding these two rules?


2.	How long does it take to complete all of the jobs under the two priority rules? Explain what is happening in this situation to produce different average flow times for the two different rules. Note that the total flow time for an order is a function of how long the order waits to be processed (queue time) and the time to process the order (processing time). The total flow time is the sum of these two components.


3.	Using the spreadsheet, evaluate the following priority rules: first-come, first-served, shortest processing time, longest processing time, and fewest number of items. What recommendations would you make to Debbie for prioritizing the incoming orders?


4.	What practical difficulties might Debbie encounter in implementing a shortest processing time priority rule? How might you address these difficulties?

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