Trial versus Production Job Tree Work Orders Calendar Skills Matrix Dept. Precedence Running the Scheduler Scheduling Results Gantt Charts Reports

ShopPAK Scheduler is specially designed for the dynamic job shop with constantly changing priorities that impact scheduling. The Scheduler doesn't guess when a job will finish. It knows! It takes into account previous scheduling runs and employee "bookings", department precedence, estimated department hours, employee calendars, and a number of user defined "Scheduling Options". You can "nail" previously scheduled work orders that successfully meet ship dates so they are not re-scheduled. This reduces resource availability for "un-scheduled" jobs, pushing these jobs out in time (unless the user tweaks overtime which increases resource capacity). You can quickly test various overtime options for a single employee or group of employees to see the scheduling impact. The Scheduler generates a very accurate schedule based on ‘real’ ShopPAK data and the scheduling directives you give it.

Trial versus Production

The Scheduler produces two schedules: Master Production and Trial. Most of the time you work in the “Trial Schedule”. This is the schedule that corresponds with the next planning / scheduling horizon. New work orders are brought into the Scheduler and you manipulate various scheduling directives as you experiment with optimizing the Trial Schedule. When the Trial Schedule looks good, you turn it into the next Master Production Schedule. The Master Production Schedule corresponds with the current production schedule that is released and being worked.

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Job Tree

The Scheduler Job Tree tab shows both scheduled jobs and un-scheduled jobs. It uses many of the same icons as ShopPAK for consistency. The Scheduler job tree differs from the ShopPAK job tree in that it also shows departments and scheduled employees. It’s easy to add a job, job item, or work order to the Scheduler. You simply open the unscheduled job and drag it (or the section of the job you wish to schedule) up to the scheduling area.

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Work Orders

You can edit work order information from both the Job Tree and Work Orders tabs. Much of the information is protected, since it automatically flows in from ShopPAK and is only maintained via ShopPAK. However, the information you’re allowed to edit is automatically kept in sync between ShopPAK and the Scheduler. For example, if you change ‘Target Finish Date’ from ShopPAK, it automatically flows into the Scheduler. However, if you change ‘Target Finish Date’ in the Scheduler, it is updated back to ShopPAK. Keeping information in sync between the two packages is important because status updates can take place from either ShopPAK or in the Scheduler.

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Calendar

The Scheduler takes resource availability into account as it schedules work, and thus, the Calendar is a critical element when scheduling jobs accurately. You’ll set up one or more calendar groups that correspond with the different shifts you run, and define the regular work week for each calendar group. Use the calendar to identify holidays and employee vacations. Another very important function of the calendar is defining and testing overtime scenarios when you can’t finish work on time using only the normal work week.

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Skills Matrix

The Scheduler automatically assigns the ‘best’ employee to a particular work order department need. For example, if you have a work order with 50 hours estimated for “Assembly”, the Scheduler finds the employee (or employees) that can finish assembly in the shortest period of time. It uses the skills matrix to decide which employees to consider for working a particular department need. It tests each employee, and combination of employees, and chooses the optimum assignments based on employee availability and scheduling directives you’ve defined.

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Department Precedence

The Scheduler needs to understand how work flows through departments in order to generate accurate schedules. In project management packages like Microsoft Project, this is a tedious job. First of all, these types of packages schedule by task... not department. Second, they have a number of relationships that the user has to choose when modeling task precedence (Start-To-Finish, Start-To-Start, Finish-To-Finish, and Finish-To-Start). We’ve simplified this by giving the user an easy way of defining if a department depends on another department(s), and how long a dependent department must wait before the Scheduler will begin assigning resource and calculating start and finish dates.

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Running the Scheduler

When you run the Scheduler, you give it the day to start scheduling from, along with optional scheduling directives. It works through each work order according to the work order sequence you’ve defined, scheduling each work order’s departments based on department estimated hours, department precedence, employee skill, and employee availability. When scheduling ‘In Progress’ items, it always takes ‘Percent Complete’ into consideration – only scheduling the remaining hours. Given the number of calculations and database reads the Scheduler needs to make, it runs incredibly fast. Our benchmarks average a second per work order.

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Scheduling Results

Given the complexity of what the Scheduler does while calculating a new trial schedule, the output is fairly straightforward. It calculates scheduled start and finish dates for every object in the Job Tree (Job, Job Item, Work Order, and Department) and it records employee ‘bookings’ as it assigns employees to each work order. Employee bookings are needed for the next scheduler run, so the Scheduler knows when employees are booked and when they are available. It can also update ‘Ship Dates’ and ‘Material Due Dates’ if you wish. While scheduling, the Scheduler writes status messages to help you pinpoint problems and bottlenecks, making it easier to correct late dates.

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Gantt Charts

The Scheduler produces three Gantt charts: Job, Department, and Employee. The Job Gantt shows a hierarchical Gantt chart broken down by Job, Job Item, Work Order, and Department.

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Reports

Several summary and detail level reports are available for analyzing scheduling runs and producing work schedules.

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