A Model for Shop Makespans and Lead Times

A model has been constructed which enables a component manufacturing shop to be interactively defined at a V.D.U., and used to calculate the average job makespan (time taken on the shop) under a variety of assumptions relating to work content, capacity and operational procedures. A second phase of the model allows the production controller to define a scheduling technique and lead-time assignment method, and provides guidance on how the makespan should be converted to lead times (time allowed on the shop). The model uses a mixture of queueing theory and simulation. This paper principally describes the methodology, but uses of the model are briefly discussed.