The 9 Biggest Challenges Scheduling Your

The 9 Biggest Challenges Scheduling Your

The 9 Biggest Challenges Scheduling Your

And then I spent countless hours through the data. But by sharing my research with you, you will also learn a lot and maybe we can alleviate that pain somewhat.

9 Biggest Challenges …

Based on my survey (and from my clients and those I met with Dr. Eliahu Goldroot as Global Marketing Director) I

can say this … you are not alone. With the responses I received, I can categorize all of them into 9 challenges.

1. Clients change their mind

Customers often want to make changes after placing their orders. They want to change their size, change the scope,

change the design, cancel or ask you to prioritize another job.

In addition, customers often have urgent needs. And large or important customers always choose the time you book

The 9 Biggest Challenges Scheduling Your

for 3 weeks and request that you drop their job this week so that they can gain commitment to their customer.

So, we break down a setup, jump through hoops, and what we need to do to keep the customer happy.

But we are now late for another customer job. And now the schedule has expired.

And sometimes, they don’t want to make a change, but they want to check with you to make sure you get their work done promptly.

And, we hate answering the phone.

2. Sellers are not always trustworthy

Raw material suppliers, especially for less common materials, can extend or change their lead times and do not

always deliver when promised.

The 9 Biggest Challenges Scheduling Your

In addition, outside process vendors such as platers, heat-treaters, welders, and the like also find it very difficult to

reach their original commitment. And the time they take varies based on the load on their facility so you can’t even begin to estimate.

So as soon as one of our vendors loses their commitment, our schedule expires, and we may be late now. When it

finally appears, we will break down the setup and speed it up as the customer has just called.

And, it seems to be scheduled based on who these guys are screaming at, so we should call and scream daily

for any important jobs. It’s not a very productive job, but it is a necessity.

3. Our mixture may change drastically and our limit will move

The nature of the machine shop is that your mix seems to be changing and because of that your obstacle (your herb)

is moving. And, improving a moving target is difficult and improving everywhere is simply unbearable.

The 9 Biggest Challenges Scheduling Your

Machine shops are the amount of repeat work they do. And if they do a more conventional job, the mix can vary from

day to day or week to week. And sometimes “mix gods” are good for us, but sometimes they are not and we don’t ship on time.

But it is not so easy for shops to repeat or stock work in large quantities – they are trying to balance against the

unknown and ever-changing expectations. And when the forecast is wrong, we need to break down the setup and speed it up.

4. My employees do not always have the right skills and lack their discipline

Machine shops worldwide seem to lack skills in their employees. Some people have to run certain jobs. Not everyone

can set up, or not everyone can do specific setups. I have heard some employers refer to their less-skilled workers as button pushers or part changers.

The 9 Biggest Challenges Scheduling Your

This means that skilled people are always lagging at work, and we chase around and find things that button

buttons can’t scrape. And it’s hard to find time to cross the train.

And with these skill issues, people don’t always show up on time or at all. Or they appear, but if you want their

attitude to stay at home … better to buy.

5. My processes are not reliable

Recurring jobs can also have big differences in setup and run times depending on who is running or on which

The 9 Biggest Challenges Scheduling Your

machine. Although we can get the same person and the same machine every time, things happen – tools break,

fixtures do not work, machines or tools are not calibrated, etc.

And then we win a new job that we haven’t implemented before. And, of course, it does not run as we planned or

based on our price. The thing happens.

The processes before our front office or manufacturing were not so good. This means that for some time we do not

always have what we need to execute the job – the raw material, the design, the order in the system, the programming

is done, and so on.

And when stuff happens (or more accurately when variability happens) we have a late delivery.