Article on Minimizing Makespan - Helpful or Useless?

Don't know if this is the right forum, but here it goes...

I wrote an article that I'd appreciate feedback on: "Minimizing Makespan, Explained Using Attack Helicopters." As a US Marine and former AH-1W pilot, it seemed an appropriate example.

Minimizing Makespan, Explained Using Attack Helicopters

It introduces the concept to the layperson, provides rules for minimizing makespan on 2 machines, and introduces a technical framework for constructing a model to minimize makespan on 3+ machines.

Feedback requests:
1. Is this content useful for machinists/shop owners? What would make it more useful?
2. What are some other scheduling topics you'd like information on?
3. Do technical frameworks help, or are they throwaway?

FULL DISCLOSURE: I work at a startup building low-cost, flexible production scheduling software. I'm not trying to sell you anything. Just hoping for feedback on how we can provide content that is actually helpful and not just worthless internet fluff.

Many thanks in advance to those who check it out.

Did another post on finding bottlenecks. It's got AH-1W Super Cobras, Batching Apparent Tardiness Costs with Setup rules, and references to Voltron. Would appreciate any feedback y'all are able to give. Thank you!

Level Up Production Bottleneck Hunting With These Tips

"Makespan", boy I had to look that one up. This Wikipedia article seems to explain it.

Makespan - Wikipedia

It seem to me that it could be applicable to almost any process that requires more than one straightforward sub-process. This appears to be a managerial technique that would be little used on a shop floor. I have been involved with and even responsible for scheduling complex tasks. My observation is that there are often unknown factors that will cause any such schedule to be disrupted on the first attempt to use it. Unfortunately the tasks that I was responsible for scheduling were mostly one time tasks so any improvements that were found to be necessary were never implemented. This and other scheduling techniques can be of great value if the task is repetitive, but for a one time basis they are much less so.

I would suggest that you may want to look for a management forum to ask this question.

But others may have experience here and chine in.

EPAIII said:

"Makespan", boy I had to look that one up. This Wikipedia article seems to explain it.

Makespan - Wikipedia

It seem to me that it could be applicable to almost any process that requires more than one straightforward sub-process. This appears to be a managerial technique that would be little used on a shop floor. I have been involved with and even responsible for scheduling complex tasks. My observation is that there are often unknown factors that will cause any such schedule to be disrupted on the first attempt to use it. Unfortunately the tasks that I was responsible for scheduling were mostly one time tasks so any improvements that were found to be necessary were never implemented. This and other scheduling techniques can be of great value if the task is repetitive, but for a one time basis they are much less so.

I would suggest that you may want to look for a management forum to ask this question.

But others may have experience here and chine in.

Click to expand...

EPAIII, thank you for the feedback! I agree with you, this is more of a shop floor management piece. The plan is to write pieces that start at the 30,000' level as an intro, with future posts & resources getting into more detail for those getting the real work done on the shop floor.

Very much appreciate you taking the time to go through it and provide feedback!

Have two more if any of the topics are of interest:

1. Managing queues in production (intro to Queueing Theory) - Manage Production Queues Like a Boss
2. Choosing a stocking quantity when demand is uncertain (intro to inventory management) - Uncertain Demand? Not a Problem with the Newsvendor Model

The second one was fun to write - it breaks down the algorithm used by many of the super-expensive inventory management software solutions out there. We have another post in the works that addresses the other two prominent inventory management models that the software solutions are based on.

For those that are so inclined, they can use the info in the posts to create spreadsheets that do the same job as inventory management software that costs tens of thousands of dollars (or more!) a year...

Future topics include:
1. Capacity planning for machine shops
2. Accurate response sourcing
3. Dispatching rules for production scheduling