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The paper gives a practical, branch and hound based solution to the scheduling problem, as found in real life. Organizational aspects of solving the scheduling problem are considered, and two organizational ideas, 'the area of responsibility ' and ' the time span of action', are presented. Inteligibility to administrators and operatives of the output from any scheduling system is emphasized, and the adoption of a wholly new concept, the 'Generalized Ordered Schedule', is advocated as a means of achieving intuitive appeal and improved control. The requirements which any useful seheduling system must satisfy are identified, from field studies, and reported. Data are presented on a collection of real problems, and comparisons of decision rule solution procedures with the branch and bound procedure given. These demonstrate that the usually accepted results from conventional simulation and other techniques using artificial job 'operation time and technological route matrices are misleading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of the life profile of stock as a production control measure in Great Britain. Stock is a term used loosely in management to cover a variety of investments. In company accounts the item which appears on the balance sheet as stock is usually elaborated in the notes to the accounts as raw materials and consumables, work in progress and finished goods, effectively the BS 5191 definition. The balance sheet figure does not identify the magnitude of each item although this may be done by reference to the notes to the accounts. The most usual index to the control of stock is the stock turnover, defined as the rate of consumption of stock, frequently calculated by dividing the annual sales level by the level of stock. The weakness of stock turnover as an index from which actions can follow lies in the feet that it is a conglomerate figure bringing together a number of dissimilar components controlled by different actors inside and outside the organisation. For example, with no change in the behaviour of any part of the organisation, a movement of the exchange rate can significantly affect the sales level and hence the stock turnover.