Course Code: 19BMC202A

Course Title: Business Analytics and Quantitative Methods

Course Leader:

Nisha Francis
E-mail: [email protected]

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 Unit 2

Job Sequencing and Replacement Theory

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 Job Sequencing and Replacement

• Determining the sequence (order) in which a number of jobs should be

performed on different machines in order to make effective use of available
facilities and achieve greater output.
• If there are n jobs which are to be performed on m different machines then the
problem is to determine the sequence of jobs, which minimizes the total elapsed
time, that is, the time from the start of the first job up to the completion of the
last job.
• Suppose that 2 or 3 jobs are to be processed on 1 or 2 machines. Then the job
sequencing can be done by the method of enumeration. If, however, the number
of jobs and/or machines increases, then the problem becomes complicated and
the method of enumeration is not suitable.

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 Basic Terminologies in Job Sequencing

• Number of machines - It refers to the number of service facilities through which a

job must pass before it is assumed to be completed
• Processing time - This is the time required by each job on each machine
• Processing order - This refers to the order (sequence) in which machines are
required for completing the job
• Idle time on a machine - This is the time during which a machine does not have a
job to process
• Total elapsed time - This is the time interval between starting the first job and
completing the last job, including the idle time (if any), in a particular order by the
given set of machines
• No passing rule - This means that the passing is not allowed, i.e., the same order of
jobs is maintained over each machine. If n jobs are to be processed through two
machines A and B in the order AB, then this means that each job will go to machine
A first and then to B 4
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 General assumptions for sequencing problems

• The processing time on each machine is known

• The time required to complete a job is independent of the order of jobs in which
they are to be processed
• No machine can process more than one job simultaneously
• The time taken by each job in changing over from one machine to another is
negligible
• Each job, once started on a machine is to be performed up to completion on that
machine
• The order of completion of job has no significance, i.e., no job is to be given
priority
• A job starts of the machine as soon as the job and the machine both are idle

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 Job Sequencing problem-Example1
Example 1:
Let us consider a refrigerator servicing facility that can handle just one refrigerator at a
time. There are six refrigerators awaiting repair at some point of time. After analyzing
the failures, the amount of repair time required by each of them has been found out,.
They are given below. Ref. 1 2 3 4 5 6
no
Time 25 15 12 3 10 16

The facility as such does not have any storage space for the waiting refrigerators.
However, it hires space at a very nearby place against payment towards the storage of
every piece. A refrigerator, once serviced, is immediately sent for delivery at the
client's place. The owner of the facility is interested to know the servicing plan (in
terms of -the sequence of refrigerators) so that the total bill towards storage is
minimized
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 Job Sequencing problem- Example2
Example 2:
Consider a printing press. Each job is processed through two machines MI and M2.
Documents arrive there for printing books, articles, magazines etc. After making the
master from the document, offset printing is done with desired number of copies on
machine MI. Binding (hard or spiral) of the material is then carried out on each volume
on machine M2. The press has at present, five jobs on hand. The time estimates for
printing and binding for each job are worked out as follows.

How do you sequence the jobs in

order to minimize the finish time (the
total time devoted by the press) of all
the jobs?

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 Job Sequencing
• Vocabulary of manufacturing business is used to describe sequencing problems
• Two important identities with respect to sequencing are,
– Job- things to be repaired, manufactured etc.
– Machine- The resource/ Equipment /Service provider
Description of a shop (service facility) is governed by (a) number of machines, and
(b) the flow pattern of jobs through the machines
• Flow patterns in these shops are different. Based on the flow patterns shops can
be;
a. Flow-shop
b. Parallel processors
c. General job-shop

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 Types of Job Sequencing Problem

• Various types of job sequencing problem arise in the world. All sequencing
problems cannot be solved.
• Example for some sequencing problems are :
i. n jobs are to be processed on one machine
ii. n jobs are to be processed on 2 machines, say, machine A and machine B in the
order AB. This means that each job is to be processed first on machine A and
then on machine B
iii. n jobs are to be processed on 3 machines A, B and C in the order ABC, i.e., first
on machine A, second on machine B and third on machine C
iv. n jobs are to be processed on m machines in the given order
v. 2 jobs are to be processed on m machines in the given order

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 Classification of Sequencing Problems

• A sequencing problem is denoted by four parameters

n/m/A/B
Where;
n- number of jobs
m- is the number of machines
A- type of the shop.(When m = 1, the space for A is left blank)
F for flow-shop,
P for parallel processors,
G for general job-shop.
B- describes the performance measure to be used

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 Processing of n Jobs through Two Machines

• Suppose that n jobs are to be processed on 2 machines, say, A and B. Each job has
to pass through the same sequence of operations in the same order, i.e., passing is
not allowed. After a job is completely processed on machine A, it is assigned to
machine B. If machine B is not free at that moment, then the job enters in the
waiting queue.
• Each job from the waiting queue is assigned to machine B according to FIFO (first
in first out) discipline.
• Let;
Ai = processing time for ith job on machine A
Bi= processing time for ith job on machine B
T = total elapsed time
• The problem is to determine the sequence in which n jobs should be processed
through machines A and B so that the total elapsed time (T ) is minimum.
• We present a technique developed by Johnson and Bellman for determining an
optimal sequence.
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 Johnson’s Algorithm
• Step 1: Select the minimum processing time out of all Ai ’s and Bi ’s. If it is Ar
then do the rth job first. If it is Bs then do the sth job at last
• Step 2: If there is a tie in selecting the minimum of all the processing times, then
such a situation is dealt with the following three ways:
i. If the minimum of all the processing times is Ar , which is also equal to Bs, that
is, min(Ai ,Bi ) = Ar = Bs , then do the rth job first and sth job at last.
ii. If min(Ai ,Bi ) = Ar , but Ar = Ak , i.e., there is a tie for minimum among Ai’s,
then select any one
iii. If min(Ai ,Bi ) = Bs , but Bs = Bt , i.e., there is a tie for minimum among Bi’s, then
select any one.
• Step 3: Now, eliminate the job which has already been assigned from further
consideration, and repeat steps 1 and 2 until an optimal sequence is found.

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 Johnson’s Algorithm

• Johnson’s algorithm concentrates on minimizing the idle time of machines

• It is proved that the optimal sequence of n jobs which are to be processed on
machine A and machine B in the order AB necessarily involves the same ordering
of jobs on each machine
• The total elapsed time is minimum when the sequence of jobs is same for both
the machines

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 n Jobs through Two Machines
Example 1
Example 1.
Suppose that there are five jobs, each of which has to be processed on two
machines A and B in the order AB. Processing times are given in the following table.
Determine a sequence in which these jobs should be processed so as to minimize
the total processing time. Also find the total elapsed time and idle time for each
machine

Solution: The minimum time in the given table is 2, which corresponds to job 2 on
machine A. So the allocation of jobs will start as 2
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 n Jobs through Two Machines- Example 1(Conti..)

• Now, we eliminate job 2 from further consideration. The reduced set of

processing times is as follows:

• Now, the minimum time is 3 for job 1 on machine B. Therefore, this job would be
done at last. The allocation of jobs till this stage would be 2 1

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 n Jobs through Two Machines-
Example 1(Conti..)
• After deletion of job 1, the reduced set of processing times is as follows:

• Similarly, by repeating the above steps, the optimal sequence is obtained as

2 4 3 5 1

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 n Jobs through Two Machines
-Example 1
• On the basis of this optimal sequence, the minimum elapsed time is obtained
from the following table as 36 hours. Now, on the basis of this optimal
sequence, we construct the following table:

•2 Optimal Sequence
•4
•3
•5
•1

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 n Jobs through Two Machines
-Example 1(Conti..)
Further,
• idle time for machine A = total elapsed time − time when the last job is out of
machine A = 36−33 = 3 hours
• Idle time for machine B = time at which the first job in a sequence finishes on
machine A + (time when the ith job starts on machine B) − (time when the (i -1)th
job finishes on machine B)
• Therefore, idle time for machine B = 2 + (9 − 9) + (18 − 18) + (27 − 26) + (33 − 32)
= 4 hours

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 Johnson’s Algorithm-n Jobs through Two Machines
Example -2
Example 2: A book binder company has one printing machine and one binding
machine. There are manuscripts of a number of different books. Processing times
for printing and binding are given in the following table:

• Determine the sequence in which books should be processed on the machines

so that the total time required is minimized. Calculate the total elapsed time and
idle time for both printing and binding machine.
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 n Jobs through Two Machines
-Example 2
• Solution: The minimum time in the given table is 1 which corresponds to the
book B on printing machine.
• Therefore, the allocation of jobs will start as B Now, book B is
eliminated. The reduced set of processing times is given in the following table:

Time in hours
Book
Printing Binding
A 5 2
C 9 7
D 3 8
E 10 4

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 n Jobs through Two Machines-
Example 2
• Now, the minimum time is 2 for book A on binding machine. Therefore, this job
should be done at last.
• The allocation of jobs till this stage is .
• The reduced set of processing times is as follows:

• Similarly, by repeating the above steps, the optimal sequence is obtained as

. Now, on the basis of this optimal sequence, we construct the
following table:
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 n Jobs through Two Machines
- Example 2

OPTIMAL SEQUENCE

• From the last column, we find that the minimum elapsed time is 30 hours
• Idle time for printing process = total elapsed time − time when the last job is out of
machine A = 30 − 28 = 2 hours
• Idle time for binding process = 1 + (7 − 7) + (15 − 15) + (23 − 22) + (28 − 27) = 3
hours.

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 n Jobs through Two Machines-
Exercise 1
There are seven jobs, each of which has to be processed on two machines. A and B
in the order AB. Processing times are given in the following table:
Determine a sequence of these jobs that will minimize the total elapsed time. Also
find out the total elapsed time and idle machines A and B

Job Machine A Machine B

1 3 8
2 12 10
3 15 10
4 6 6
5 10 12
6 11 1
7 9 3

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 Johnson’s Algorithm- Processing n Jobs through 3 Machines

• Processing time of Jobs on machine A, B, C

Processi Jobs
ng time 1 2 3 ..... n
on
machine

A t11 t12 t13 ….. t1n

B t21 t22 t23 ….. t2n
• An optimal solution
C to this
t21 problem
t22 can t23
be obtained
….. ift2n
either or both of the
following conditions hold good:
✔ The minimum processing time on machine A is at least as great as the maximum
processing time on machine B, that is, mint1j ≥ maxt2j, for j = 1,2,··· ,n.
✔ The minimum processing time on machine C is at least as great as the maximum
processing time on machine B, that is, mint3j ≥ maxt2j, for j = 1,2,··· ,n
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 Processing n Jobs through 3 Machines
• If either or both the above conditions hold good, then the algorithm can be
summarized in the following steps:
Step 1 : Examine the processing times of the given jobs on all three machines and if
either one or both the above conditions hold, then go to Step 2; otherwise, the
algorithm fails.
Step 2 : Introduce two fictitious machines, say G and H, with corresponding processing
times given by
• tGj = t1j + t2j, j = 1,2,··· ,n, i.e., the processing time on machine G is the sum of
• the processing times on machines A and B.
• (ii) tHj = t2j + t3j, j = 1,2,··· ,n, i.e., the processing time on machine H is the sum of
• the processing times on machines B and C.
Step 3 : Determine the optimal sequence for n jobs and two machine equivalent
sequencing problem with the prescribed ordering GH in the same way as discussed
earlier. 25
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 Processing n Jobs through 3 Machines- Example 1

• Example 1.4: Find the sequence that minimizes the total time required in
performing the following jobs on three machines in order ABC. Processing times (in
hours) are given in the following table : Find the optimal sequence and the total
elapsed time as well as idle time for each machine

• From data of the problem, we see that minimum time taken under machine A (min tAj)= 6
• maximum time taken under machine B(max tBj) = 6
• minimum time taken under machine C (min tCj) = 4 (i.e, min (tAj)=6, min(tCj) = 4; max(tBj) = 6. Since
the condition min(tAj) ≥ max(tBj) is satisfied for all j, the given problem can be converted into a
problem of 5 jobs and two machines. 26
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 Processing n Jobs through 3 Machines- Example 1

• When the procedure described for n jobs on two machines is applied to this
problem, the optimal sequence so obtained is given by 3 2 5 1 4 (it can vary as there
is tie in the minimum values under machine H
• Now, calculate the total time elapsed and idle time of each machine A, B and C the
same way as for two machines
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 Processing n Jobs through 3 Machines- Exercise 2

A company has to process five items on three machines A, B and C.

Processing times are given in the following table:
Job A B C
1 4 4 6
2 9 5 9
3 8 3 11
4 6 2 8
5 3 6 7

• Find the sequence that minimizes the total elapsed time.

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 References

a. Essential Reading
• Class Notes
• Hiller and Lieberman (2017), Introduction to Operations Research, McGraw Hill Education
• Taha, H (2014) An Introduction to Operations Research, Pearson Education India, 9 th
edition
• Sharma, JK (2010), Quantitative Methods: Theory and Applications Paperback, Laxmi
Publications
b. Recommended Reading
• Waters Donald (2011), Quantitative Methods for Business, Pearson Education India; 5 th
edition
c. Magazines and Journals
• Harvard Magazine – Trends in Business decision making, 6 times per year 2. Sloan
Management Review – MIT, Quarterly
• Websites 1. https://harvardmagazine.com/

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