Work Programming

Work programming varies in terms of the size, timescale and scope of an organizations operations. The cyclical nature of landscape maintenance associated to seasonal conditions over a year make this a convenient time frame for planning, undertaking and reviewing work. Such programming lends itself to a systematic approach (Cobham, 1990) and typically comprises four principal components: planning, organizing, directing and controlling. Slack,

53 Brandon-Jones and Johnston (2013), whilst recognising that specific terminology for work planning and control varies with organizations, identifies four overlapping activities in loading, sequencing, scheduling and monitoring and controlling. Planning refers to the activities that take place for the transformation process to happen and control describes activities that take place in the conversion of inputs to outputs. In actual practice it is not always possible to separate planning and control activities (Brown et al, 2001). Loading is concerned with how much work there is to do. Actual operating time for productive working can often be significantly below the maximum time available as losses occur due to machine breakdown, idling time, set-up time and unplanned interruptions (Slack, Brandon-Jones and Johnston, 2013). Decision’s about the order that specific tasks are undertaken to complete a job or process is termed sequencing. Often there will be pre-determined rules which dictate such sequencing of work activities (Slack, Brandon-Jones and Johnston, 2013) which is the case for many golf green cultural practices and course set-up for play. Turf operations such as coring which are particularity disruptive to surface quality often have to be scheduled around player event calendars.

Scheduling is concerned with the short-term control of activities, when things must be done, the output of which is an actual timetable for performing work (Brown et al, 2001). Golf course managers often utilise daily or weekly work plans for such immediate operations. Scheduling is one of the most complex activities in operations management as there are several types of resource to organise simultaneously (Slack, Brandon-Jones and Johnston, 2013) and in golf external factors such as the weather. Machines have different capacity and staff different skills when compounded with the possible number of activities and processes this can lead to millions of possible schedules for even relatively small tasks. In practice scheduling rarely attempts to provide optimal solutions but rather acceptable feasible ones. There are some mathematical techniques incorporated into commercially available software but, again, in practice, most scheduling problems are solved using heuristics (Slack, Brandon-Jones and Johnston, 2013) and there is no evidence of their use in golf course management. A simple and common method used for scheduling is the use of the Gantt chart (Brown et al, 2001; Slack, Brandon-Jones and Johnston, 2013). Gantt charts show start and finish times for activities and usually actual progress is also indicated. They can also be used to ‘test out’ alternative schedules but are not optimizing tools they merely facilitate the development of alternative schedules and communicate them effectively. Their simple visual representation of and ease of use in communicating schedules are seen as the key advantages of Gantt charts in scheduling operations (Brown et al, 2001; Slack, Brandon-Jones and Johnston, 2013). In turfgrass management operations scheduling can be used to determine the allocation of resources and supports decision making by managers. Shortages of resources, people,

54 equipment and time, are the norm in managing turfgrass surfaces and this inevitably places a heavy demand for their efficient use (Cockerham and Van Dam ,1992).

Once a plan for loading, sequencing and scheduling operations has been created it is necessary for managers to monitor and control what is going on and that planned activities are actually happening. An effective planning and control system should be able to detect deviations from planned activities in a timescale which allows an appropriate response (Slack, Brandon-Jones and Johnston, 2013). Deviations from the plan will require re-planning and interventions to be made to operations to achieve desired outputs. Operations control is relatively straightforward where objectives are unambiguous, effects of interventions are known and activities are repetitive. In golf green culture, whilst activities are repetitive the effect of interventions are not wholly known and there is a need for a framework for management. Operations discipline is needed to ensure that control procedures are systematically implemented (Slack, Brandon-Jones and Johnston, 2013). Cost control is significant in all operations management and Parker and Bryan (1989) describe the typical situation that occurs in managing sports fields. For a single sports field complex or golf course, grounds maintenance costs are fairly straightforward given a properly prepared budget and appropriate staffing and machinery levels. Typically, there will be few major changes in costs, except perhaps, major machine breakdowns, and so costs can be monitored against budget at three-monthly intervals. The seasonal nature of landscape maintenance means, however, that costs and income do not increase regularly from month to month in a straight line. Frequently neither costs nor income will have achieved 50% of budget in the first six months. Such factors as machinery costs may be low at the mid-year point as most major servicing will be conducted in winter when such resource is not in full use. These factors need to be considered when reviewing operations and their costs. Parker and Bryan (1989) state that the most useful indicators are: total income received against budget and totals of main cost items against budget in any given quarter or time frame. In golf most managers have responsibility only for a devolved maintenance budget and do not see income so only maintenance costs can be included in the management framework.