342 Making it Happend

other, the mills in another, and the automatic screw machines are in
the building next door.
In a job shop, the work moves from work center to work center
based on routings unique to the individual items being produced. In
some job shops, there can be dozens or even hundreds of different
operations within a single routing. Each one of these operations
must be formally scheduled via a complex process known as back
scheduling. These back-scheduled operations must then be grouped
by work center, sorted by their scheduled operation completion
dates, and communicated to the plant floor via what’s called a dispatch
list. This process is repeated once per day or more frequently.
Do job shops exist in other than metalworking? You bet. In a typical
pharmaceutical plant, specifically that section making tablets
and capsules, there are single-function departments for granulating,
compressing, coating, capsule filling, and so on. The nature of the
product would determine its routing. Tablets go to the compressing
department; capsules don’t. Some tablets got coated; some don’t.
Capsules get filled but not compressed.
This is a job shop, by the above definition. Note: They’re not making
specials. Their goal is to make the same products, to the same
specifications, time and time again. The Food and Drug Administration
prefers it that way.
Advantages typically attributed to the job shop form of organization
include a higher rate of equipment utilization and enhanced
flexibility.
FLOW SHOP
Flow shops are set up differently. Here’s a definition:
Flow Shop: a form of manufacturing organization where the resources
are grouped by their sequence in the process.
Some refer to this as a process layout. Examples include oil refineries,
certain chemical manufacturing operations, an automobile assembly
line, a filling line in a consumer package goods plant, or a
manufacturing cell.
Back to our previous example—the pharmaceutical plant making
tablets and capsules. The filling and packaging operation is typically