Introduction to NonStop Operations Management

Production Management
Introduction to NonStop Operations Management–125507
5-6
Creating a Production Schedule
Creating a Production Schedule
Perform the following tasks to create a production schedule:
1. Use a 24-hour clock worksheet (like Figure 5-1) to list all tasks that are performed
daily.
2. Identify what task (either business or operations and management) will be
performed and who (either an automated process or a person) will perform it.
3. Identify sets of interdependent business flows (for example, just-in-time [JIT] data
processing) and critical paths.
4. Collect existing documents such as Tandem Advanced Command Language (TACL)
routines, OBEY files, and runbooks.
5. Identify time and resource constraints.
6. Extend the schedule to handle weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly activities.
7. Use automation tools such as NetBatch to ensure that jobs are submitted at the
appropriate times.
Analyzing the Completed Schedule
When analyzing your completed 24-hour clock worksheet, look for the following:
•
Are enough operators available at times when manual procedures must be
performed? For example, some companies need more coverage on weekends when
they bring down the production application and test new applications.
•
Could availability be increased if the schedule were changed? For example, backups
might need to be rescheduled to avoid peak business periods.
•
Is the batch-processing window encroaching on the online transaction-processing
(OLTP) window?
•
Can manual jobs be automated?
The 24-Hour Clock Worksheet
Figure 5-1 is an example of a 24-hour clock worksheet. Your 24-hour clock worksheet
would contain topics specific to your organization, and might be arranged with time on
the x-axis to account for multiple occurrences of the same task.
When completing the worksheet, be sure to:
•
Show starting times and duration of tasks
•
Note special cases on weekends, holiday, end-of-quarter, and so forth