{"id":2060,"date":"2023-11-19T22:26:22","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T22:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/?page_id=2060"},"modified":"2023-12-07T00:20:27","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T00:20:27","slug":"mix-management-application","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/?page_id=2060","title":{"rendered":"Mix Management Application"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

LaundryMaster, as the name suggests, was a business that specialised in laundry appliances \u2013 washing machines, dryers, garment steamers, and so on. Even though the business was doing OK, there was always pressure from cheaper imported goods, and as operations manager Ben was one of the people who had to find ways of dealing with it. One afternoon, Ben saw the sales manager, Alex, walking through the office and called them over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHey Alex,\u201d he began. \u201cI was wondering\u2026 those due dates you put on the jobs. How firm are they? Like, could I shuffle a few jobs around?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex grimaced. \u201cI\u2019d rather you didn\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cGetting things out on time is pretty important. Those customers hate being told their order is going to be late, and I don\u2019t like telling them that either. Why do you want to change the sequence anyway?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all because of testing,\u201d Ben explained. \u201cEverything we make has to go through the testing rig, right? And every product line needs a different setup on the rig. If we do jobs strictly in due date order, we often end up spending more time reconfiguring the rig than we do actually testing products, and that slows down output as a whole. I\u2019m sure we could get more orders completed if we could just shuffle the sequence around a bit so that we\u2019re testing more each testing run and spending less time resetting the testing rig.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex shook his head. \u201cPlease don\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you do that, we\u2019ll end up with some jobs completed earlier than necessary. Last time that happened, some of them got damaged while they were waiting to be shipped, and I don\u2019t want that happening again, and \u2018No\u2019 because sometimes I find that jobs are getting started later than necessary, which means we don\u2019t hit our due dates. I know it might not be the most efficient way to do things, but I reckon due date performance is more important than setup time on the testing rig. Can\u2019t we just get another one if that\u2019s what\u2019s slowing things down?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot really, we just spent nearly three hundred thousand dollars on this one! The board was pretty resistant too, they aren\u2019t going to approve funding for a second one.\u201d Ben exclaimed. \u201cAnd even if they did, we would have to train people to configure it and operate it, too. We wouldn\u2019t even need another one if we could just shuffle around the sequence a bit\u2026\u201d Alex was shaking his head again, and Ben\u2019s voice trailed off in frustration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cSorry,\u201d Alex said, although he didn\u2019t actually sound all that sorry in Ben\u2019s opinion. \u201cI\u2019ll not risk missing our due dates. That\u2019s a hard \u2018no\u2019.\u201d He walked away again, leaving Ben with an unresolved problem. Ben knew they could get more products through the testing rig if only they weren\u2019t reconfiguring it all the damn time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, though, Alex had a point\u2026 it didn\u2019t matter if they got more products tested if they were products that didn\u2019t need to be tested yet, or if the tests happened too late for the products to hit their due date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was like his kid\u2019s shape-sorting toy, there was a constant procession of shapes falling into a box. All the shapes \u2013 jobs, really \u2013 had to be passed through the matching shape hole in one side of the box, but Ben wasn\u2019t allowed to feed in all of one shape at a time because the due dates said some jobs had to be done before others\u2026 he stopped. Actually, that wasn\u2019t a bad analogy, was it? There were always more jobs coming in, so it wasn\u2019t realistic to do all of one type of job, then all of another, because the various jobs arrived, seemingly at random and had to be processed, \u2018sorted\u2019 to use the analogy, within a limited window of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, Ben realised he had to deal with whatever was in the to-be-sorted bin at the time\u2026 But he could tweak the sequence he sorted in, as long as they were all sorted in time… and therein lay the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK, everything had to go through the testing rig. Anything that was at risk of missing its due date would have to get priority at the testing rig. After all those jobs were taken care of, though, it would be fine to change the sequence of what was left to minimise the number of reconfigurations. Now, surely, if he could minimise the reconfigurations then the testing rig would clear its queue of jobs faster. Could he actually pull ahead enough to lock in a window of time we could use to keep on feeding in jobs in a more efficient mix?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben would have to reassess the sequence every day \u2013 maybe more often, maybe less, he wasn\u2019t sure yet \u2013 based on what jobs were \u2018in the box,\u2019 so to speak, but it would still be an improvement on doing everything strictly in due date order. Remembering Alex\u2019s complaint about resequencing jobs meant that the size of this \u2018mix\u2019 window had to be carefully chosen, or else it might make some jobs late. As long as it didn\u2019t make anything miss its due date, Ben was willing to bet that he could do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben grinned. It was time to see if this would work!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few weeks later, Ben was clearing some of his email backlog when Alex came into his office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHi Ben,\u201d Alex said. \u201cI just wanted to say thanks. Due dates have been a bit more reliable since we talked, and I\u2019ve seen how busy your team is. I know that you\u2019re under pressure to increase output, but I think sequencing by due date was the right call. I\u2019m glad you\u2019re sticking with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben laughed awkwardly. \u201cAh\u2026 well, I\u2019m glad you\u2019re pleased with the results. To be totally honest, though, we\u2019re not sequencing by due date. Well, not entirely, anyway.\u201d He explained his new system for scheduling, and at the end of the explanation, Alex nodded thoughtfully. But then, a little perturbed, Alex said, \u201cSo you increased my lead times?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben was ready for this one. \u201cNo, we pulled ahead just a little by clearing a few jobs quicker and then resisted immediately filling the gap with the next job. Our internal processing time sped up a little and we chose not to tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d snapped Alex, \u201cWe could have sold that shorter lead time!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, you couldn\u2019t,\u201d replied Ben evenly. \u201cThat time window was too short for you to clear the jobs in time. Admit it, the change did you no harm, and as you reported, due date performance is more reliable now. This is better!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see what you mean. You\u2019re right, by the way \u2013 as long as we don\u2019t miss due dates, I\u2019m not too bothered by how you sequence the jobs. I was just worried that shuffling things around would cause us to miss due dates. It always has in the past. But it sounds like your idea solves that problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt does,\u201d Ben agreed, \u201cAnd I\u2019ve actually discovered some other good points. Because we\u2019re not constantly reconfiguring the test rig, it\u2019s much easier to get jobs flowing consistently. The people operating it are happy that we don\u2019t change the schedules as much too!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex nodded and got up to leave. \u201cWell, in any case, it seems to be working for you. Don\u2019t go back to how it was before! Did I see Maria walking out as I came over?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cYes, you did,\u201d Ben said. \u201cShe\u2019s been looking at some of our products in terms of throughput. Since the test rig is sort of the main bottleneck for all of our products, she\u2019s been comparing how long each product takes to test with how much margin we make on it. Even products with high margins don\u2019t look so good if they tie up the rig for ages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex nodded again. \u201cWell, if we need to change what we\u2019re selling, we can do that. It sounds like getting the mixture of products right is going to be pretty important. Maybe you\u2019ll be the mix master at LaundryMaster!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben groaned as Alex walked out. Was he really going to be known as \u2018the mixologist\u2019 from now on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LaundryMaster, as the name suggests, was a business that specialised in laundry appliances \u2013 washing machines, dryers, garment steamers, and so on. Even though the business was doing OK, there was always pressure from cheaper imported goods, and as operations manager Ben was one of the people who had to find ways of dealing with …<\/p>\n

Mix Management Application<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2060","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2060"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2060"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2478,"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2060\/revisions\/2478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}