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13. 13.1

PRODUCTION PLANNING Background and Master Schedule Any manufacturing process, particular one so complex as shipbuilding, has to be planned carefully. Men, material, machinery (and money) must be co-ordinated and controlled at every successive stage of production in offices, steelwork ships and outfit areas. Hence an integrated planning system is essential for efficient management. The degree of sophistication will vary depending upon the size of the yard, the number and types of vessels being built, customer requirements (eg. MOD or RN contracts), etc. Before production planning can take place in detail, a long term perspective needs to be established. The planning of all contracts to be built and those under production needs to be based upon a long range schedule describing the loading the utilisation of the shops and berth facilities. This schedule, often known as the master shipbuilding schedule, determines to a large extent the success of other schedules which must be derived from it. The schedule usually presents the construction time of each ship )determined conventionally from a rough analysis of past ships or similar type) in bar chart form. An erection schedule for 6-9 months is made for each ship according to the master schedule. On the basis of the erection schedule, other production stage plans can be analysed sequentially. The hierarchical approach to planning must be conducted carefully as not all stages are dependent on berth schedule and some phases can be regarded as secondarily dependent on others. For example, the lead times required for major machinery items may mean a change of launch date. The erection schedule is usually presented in bar-chart form. However, it is converted into a network layout (see Section 13.2) to form the basis of an overall plan for the vessel and shipyard.

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13.2

Detailed Planning Network Analysis The task of detailed planning can be summarised as being to determine when, where and how each operation should be done within the framework of the master and erection schedules. Before detailed scheduling can be started, however, the ship must be broken down into groups of assemblies or operations with each group forming a convenient package. The following information needs to be known: definition of complete operation breakdown of operation into elements number of hours for each operation/trade number of workmen required manhours for service trades material required for the operation equipment required for the job.

The information contained in this list forms the basis of planning and it is essential that these figures should be kept as accurate as possible. Ideally such figures would be set by a process of work measurement (see Chapter 10), but in practice is usually a combination of work measurement and existing (or historical) knowledge and information. Detailed construction schedules show where the critical operations or bottlenecks are likely to occur and also determine the critical path to delivery. One of the most important techniques used in detailed planning is network analysis. Network Construction A network, or arrow diagram, is a diagrammatic representation of a project showing the chronological order and inter-relationship of all events and activities necessary for its completion. In the most common representation, individual tasks (or activities) are shown as arrows/links joining numbered events (or nodes) with arrow head indicating the direction of progress from start to finish of the event.

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Definitions of some of the terms are set out below: Event: usually denoted by a circle is a point in time representing completing or one activity and the commencement of another. Events are identified by a number placed inside the circle and no two activities may be defined by the same pair of event numbers. Activity: is a task with zero duration. There are two reasons for including them. The first is concerned with representing precedence relationships which could not otherwise be shown in the network. For example, consider the following four tasks with precedence constraints. A followed by B, C B followed by D C followed by D D followed by A network of the form shown in Figure 13.1(a) is incorrect because it includes the relationship C precedes B which is not required. Instead a dummy task is inserted to give the network in Figure 13.1(b). The dummy task shown as the dasked arrow has no time requirement; it implies that C cannot start until both A and C are complete but it does not introduce the additional and incorrect relationship between C and B of figure 13.1(a). The second reason for including dummy activities is to eliminate ambiguities of notation. Tasks are usually identified in networks by their start and finish nodes. However, if two tasks have the same start and finish nodes, they cannot be distinguished clearly. For example, the four tasks: A followed by B, C B followed by D C followed by D D followed by

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might be shown in the network in Figure 13.2(a), but in this representation it is not clear whether the task (2, 3) refers to B or C. To resolve this ambiguity a dummy activity is inserted to give the network of Figure 13.2(b) or (c). Note that the dummy is inserted before one of the regular tasks. As noted earlier, the nodes or events in a network as usually numbered, and the individual tasks or activities are commonly referred to by their start and finish nodes. Thus a link from node i to node j is referred to as task (i, j). In this case i precedes j in the network, written i j. The duration of the task is represented by dij. Consider, for example, the project with activities and associated details as shown in Table 13.1 below. Activity A B C D E F G H Preceded by A A B B, C D, E D, E F, G Followed by B, C D, E E F, G F, G H H Duration 1 5 4 3 6 10 4 2

Table 13.1: An Eight-Activity Project This can be drawn as a network diagram as shown in Figure 13.3. The dummy task (3, 4) is necessary to show the precedence relationships between tasks B, C, D and E while dummy (5, 6) is introduced for notational reasons, to enable F and G to be distinguished. Task durations are written below the links, except the dummy tasks which have zero duration by definition.

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Figure 13.3: Network for Eight-Activity Project

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Time Calculations From the network diagram such as the one shown in Figure 13.3 the earliest and latest times at which each event can take place without delaying the project and without violating precedence constraints. The early time of event j, ETj, is the earliest time by which all activities leading to j can be completed:

ETj = max i j ETi + d ij

The early times are calculated in a forward pass through the network. Consider the example of Table 13.1 and Figure 13.3 again. Event 1 has no predecessors, so its early time ET1 is set to zero. Event 2 has only one predecessor event 1 so its early time is:

ET2 = ET1 + d 12 = 0 + 1 = 1
Similarly, for event 3:

ET3 = ET2 + d 23 = 1 + 5 = 6
Event 4 has two predecessors, so:

ET4 = max ET2 + d 24 , ET3 + d 34 =6

b = maxa1+ 4, 6 + 0f

Similarly,

ET5 = max( ET3 + d 35 , ET4 + d 45 ) = max (6 + 3, 5 + 6) = 12 ET6 = ET5 + d 56 = 12 + 0 = 12 ET7 = max( ET5 + d 57 , ET6 + d 67 ) = max(12 +19, 12 + 4) = 22 ET8 = ET7 + d 78 = 22 + 2 = 24
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Event 8 is the last event in the project: and the earliest time when this can be completed represents the minimum project duration. In other words, the project required 23 time periods for completion. The latest times for various events can now be calculated. The late time for event i, LTj, is the latest time at which activities leading from event i can start without delaying the project.

LTi = min i j ( LTj d ij )

The late times of events are calculated in a backward pass through the network, in a similar fashion to the early times. Noting, obviously, that LT8 = 24 and moving back through the network:

LT7 = LT8 d 78 = 24 2 = 22 LT6 = LT7 d 67 = 22 4 = 18

LT5 = min LT6 d 56 , LT7 d 57 = 12

b g = min a18 - 0, 22 - 10f b = min a6 - 0, 12 - 3f g

LT4 = min LT4 d 34 , LT5 d 35 =6

LT2 = min LT4 - d 24 , LT3 - d 23 =1 LT1 = LT2 - d 12 = 1-1 = 0

b = min a6 - 4, 6 - 5f

Associated with each event is an amount of slack which is the difference between late and early times. The slack measures the time by which the event can be delayed without delaying the completion of the project. Table 13.2 summarises the results so far and identifies the critical events, ie. those for which slack is zero.

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Event 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Early Time ETi 0 1 6 6 12 12 22 24

Late Time LTi 0 1 6 6 12 18 22 24

Slack Si 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0

Critical * * * * * * * *

Table 13.2: Summary Results for Eight-Event Project Events

Identification of critical events is necessary to determine the critical path which is the longest path through the network. These calculations form the basis of critical Path Analysis (CPA) or Central Path Method (CPM). From the event times, the earliest/latest start and finish times for the individual activities can be calculated. Earliest start Earliest finish Latest start Latest finish ESij EFij LSij LFij = = = = ETi ESij + dij LTj - dij LTj

Corresponding to the slack associated with an event, two measures associated with an activity are total float and free float.

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Total float is the amount by which an activity can be delayed without delaying the completion of the project:

TFij = LSij ESij = LTj d ij ETi

Free float is the amount by which an activity can be delayed without delaying any other activity.

FFij = Early time for event j - earliest finish time of (ij) = ETj - ETi + d ij

The results of these calculations are summarised in Table 13.3. Activity (i, j) A (1, 2) B (2, 3) C (2, 4) D (3, 5) E (4, 5) F (5, 7) G (6, 7) H (7, 8) Duration dij 1 5 4 3 6 10 4 2 Early Start ESij 0 1 1 6 6 12 12 22 Late Start LSij 0 1 2 9 6 12 18 22 Total Float TFij 0 0 1 3 0 0 6 0 Free Float FFij 0 0 1 3 0 0 6 0 * * * Critical * * *

Table 13.3: Summary Results for Eight-Event Project Activities From the table, it will be noticed that the activities (with zero float) on the critical path are: (1, 2), (2, 3), (4, 5), (5, 7), (7, 8)

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In the drawing of network in Figure 13.3, no attempt was made to put it on a time scale. This is primarily because the Float was not know. Figure 13.4 illustrates the network on a time basis.

Figure 13.4: Network on Time Basis

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13.3

Resource Allocation Once the network has been transferred to a timescale, then labour and machinery requirements can be derived. The manpower required for a proposed contract is added to the existing loading within the time scale desired and the cardinal dates determined.

Figure 13.6: The S Curve

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These charts are then used at executive level to balance workload against labour force. The total required manhours for the contract is carefully monitored and controlled through the projects progress. Non-critical activities can be delayed or stretched within limitations of float to help balance available resources. Results of the formal planning at the detailed network level such as that shown in Figure 13.7 include: Optimum use of berth and plant capacity, Management being able to profit from failures and weaknesses in the system be continued feedback, Knowledge of material stock position as well as accurate material requirements and the position of material on order, Arrangements being made in good time for sub-contracting when necessary, Provision of accurate labour, machinery and material resource information for forecasting financial performance, Launch and delivery dates being accurate.

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Figure 13.7: Network for Boat Deck Production Activities

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