Lessons from My Dad: Packing the Family Truckster (and why scheduling things “left-to-right” is sometimes wrong)

As a kid, I watched my Dad pack the trunk of the car for a vacation. His golf shoes were not a priority item–at least from the perspective of the rest of the family. However, they were the only item … Continued

Scheduling by Any Other Name is…

If you looked up “scheduling” in my thesaurus, you might find an interesting list of alternate terms: Resource Allocation Resource Management Capacity Planning Order Management Promise Date Determination Operations Management Materials Resource Planning …and many, many more. Call it what … Continued

The Search for a Common Format: Why “Generic” is a Good Thing

A generic scheduling format is the way to go. Here’s why: A domain scheduler is designed and implemented for a particular application area.  Here are a few examples : Service schedulers have trucks, technicians, test equipment, and “calls.” Medical schedulers … Continued

Scheduling Is Not Your Problem–Rescheduling Is!

What takes longer: building a schedule or revising a schedule?? Most operations analysts believe revising a schedule takes more time..   But why? The answer is that things seldom go as planned.  Feeding the actual circumstances back into the planning process … Continued