Entering Queue Times Home | FAQs & Troubleshooting

 

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Queue time is the number of hours that a work order sits in front of a work center before it starts. It also includes the "move" time required to physically move partially completed items from the previous operation to the next work center. Queue time is expressed in production hours. Increasing the queue time can reduce the number of hours committed at overloaded work centers. Queue time is used only for scheduling purposes and does not affect the work center capacity.

In most manufacturing companies, the actual "lead time" through the shop is composed of over 90 percent queue time. By varying the amount of queue time you plan into your work orders, you control the planned lead time of a job. Queue time is typed in the Queue Time field in the Work Center Maintenance window.

Queue time does not necessarily apply to all operations performed at a work center. Typically, a "setup" operation has the queue time applied to it, and is then followed immediately by one or more operations that can be performed without any additional wait. You can control whether queue time is used for an operation using the Ignore Queue Time check box in the Operation Code Maintenance or Routing Maintenance window.

Note The queue time affects the number of operational hours available at a work center for the purpose of scheduling a work order, but is not included in the total scheduled hours for the purpose of determining work center capacity.

 Example

A work order has two steps to be performed at a work center. The work center has a capacity of 8 hours per day, and the queue time for the work center is 4 hours. The Ignore Queue Time check box is cleared for the first step and selected for the second step. The start day for the first step is 5/11/03. If the first step requires 2 hours of operation and the second step requires 6 hours, the work center is scheduled as follows.

Date	Queue Time	First Step	Second Step	Scheduled Hours
5/11/03	4 hours	2 hours	2 hours	4 hours
5/12/03			4 hours	4 hours

If the Ignore Queue Time check box is selected for both steps, or if the queue time for the work center is 0, both steps would be scheduled during the first day.

 

For more information, see:

Scheduling