Job Scheduling in a Small Scale Gari Processing Firm in Nigeria

Cassava’s toasted granules (Gari) has maintained an important position in the food timetable of many households in Nigeria and many African countries. The Gari processing firm has therefore occupied a significant position in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of these countries and has benefited from government support of its accelerated development drive. This paper develops a framework for the proper scheduling of orders (jobs) in a Gari processing firm in Nigeria. The methodology addresses this problem: suppose we have (n) customers (where n is large); in what way should customers’ order be processed such that the firm’s profit is maximized? The problem is addressed by using makespan as a measure of performance with the solution methods of CDS heuristics, A1 heuristics, and serial order (SO) method utilized to solve the problem. The results show that CDS and A1 heuristics are preferred to the traditional method of SO. Accordingly, the CDS heuristic, followed by A1 heuristic, gives the best makespan results. This result is further confirmed when the number of times that CDS, A1, and SO give the best results in a set of 50 experiments was considered. The results obtained are 50, 24, and 0, respectively. Since results obtained show the feasibility of applying scheduling principles in the allocation of orders to machines, this paper presents a framework that could benefit stakeholders in the Gari processing industry towards improved customer’s satisfaction, less idle time, and growth in the profit margin of the organization.