Operations Management: An Integrated Approach, 5th Edition

THE SUSTAINABILITY LINK

Recall that scheduling techniques vary depending on the environment and that we use different priority rules to make scheduling decisions. With the increasing push toward sustainability from customers and other stakeholders, these traditional priority rules and scheduling techniques need to be modified to help develop schedules that meet sustainability criteria. Scheduling has always been about jobs, people, and materials. Now we have to expand these rules to include meeting sustainability criteria.

In addition to traditional priority rules, scheduling decisions should include developing schedules to minimize carbon emission, minimize energy use, lower material chemical content and other environmental pollutants, and maximize the use of recycled material. Job and worker schedules can also be developed to ensure fair treatment of workers as part of social responsibility. This concern also extends to treatment, schedule development, and work demands of suppliers. Therefore, in developing schedules we may want to modify traditional rules—such as ensuring shortest processing time—to also include minimizing certain sustainability standards, such as emissions. These priority rules are not in contradiction but sustainability just adds another criteria for us to consider when developing schedules.