Question

Why is the “job release” an important function for a shop manager? What are the impacts of releasing jobs too early (or too late) to the shop floor?

Answer 1

Job release is an important function in make-to-order manufacturing environments wherein it is used to manage the manufacturing lead times. Equilibrium is maintained between predetermined maximum and minimum levels for the released backlog length. Each work center has a complete control over maintaining this balance between maximum and minimum level of the released backlog length. Thus, with the help of the released backlog lengths, the throughput times can be controlled. This method to control the throughput time which is an important function in manufacturing lead times facilitates to reduce the overall lead time for the job floor.

Job release is a concept to release the job as late as possible so as to reduce the inventory, simultaneously arranging to send the inventory to any bottleneck machines to achieve the desired level of the throughput time. Thus, releasing jobs too early might have high impact on the inventory cost and increased throughput lead time. Additionally, if the job is released too late, then it might hinder the desirable level in the manufacturing lead times.

To conclude, job release is an important function for just-in-time manufacturing environments. The shop manager uses the concept of job release to control the throughput lead times and avoid bottlenecks. The advantages of job release are that it helps to reduce the job/shop congestion, lower cost and lower work-in-progress.