Numerical control (NC) machines in a job shop may not be cost and time effective if the assignment of cutting operations and optimisation of machining parameters are overlooked. In order to justify better utilisation and higher productivity of invested NC machine tools, it is necessary to determine the optimum machining parameters and realize effective assignment of cutting operations on machines. This paper presents two mathematical models for optimising machining parameters and effectively allocating turning operations on NC lathe machines in a job shop manufacturing system. The models are developed as non-linear programming problems and solved using a commercial LINGO software package. The results show that the decisions of machining optimisation and operation allocation on NC lathe machines can be simultaneously made while minimising both production cost and cycle time. In addition, the results indicate that production cost and cycle time can be minimised while significantly reducing or totally eliminating idle times among machines.