1. Find a schedule for this manufacturing environment that minimizes the total tardiness of the 8 current jobs. A schedule is an ordering of the jobs at the stations, specifying when they start and when they complete at each station. Tardiness is defined as the difference between the completion time of the job (at the last station) and the due date if the job is late, 0 if the job is early.

2. How many possible job sequences are there? A job sequence is simply and ordering of the jobs.

3. Based on how you developed your recommended schedule, propose a general scheduling process that MachineWorks should be using. Please submit your proposed schedule for the 8 current jobs (also calculating your total tardiness) and a general recommendation as to how MachineWorks should schedule future jobs within a one page report.

Your team has been hired to develop a scheduling tool for a small manufacturing firm, MachineWorks, Inc. MachineWorks prides itself in building customized machined parts to order and delivering them to the customer on time. Lately, however, they have been experiencing a higher order volume and missed deadlines have been commonplace. The general manager feels that the sequencing of jobs through the shop floor can have a significant impact on the delays experienced by customers and is looking for your help to get a better understanding of the situation, as well as a working method to use in an on-going basis. MachineWorks has a single manufacturing facility with 3 stations. Each station has a single machine. Jobs go through the stations in the given order, first through station 1, then station 2, and finally station 3. Jobs are assumed to be complete once they are processed through all of the stations. There are currently 8 jobs in the production backlog. Processing time of jobs at the stations (hours) and the due dates (days) are given below, as well as in the attached Excel file. No processing times at the stations indicate that jobs don't have to go through that station. For instance, job 1 has to only go through stations 2 and 3 and not station 1 . There are 8 working hours in a day in this manufacturing environment