A hand writing on a whiteboard calendar with a marker

For job shops that schedule by hand

The schedule lives on a whiteboard, and due dates slip

If your machine shop scheduling happens on a whiteboard or in a spreadsheet, you know how fast it goes stale. A hot job comes in, a machine goes down, and the board is wrong by lunch.

Book a call about scheduling

Sound familiar?

You have a handful of machines and just want a simple way to see what runs where.
The real schedule is in one person's head. The whiteboard is a rough copy.
A rush order bumps other jobs, and nobody updates the dates you already promised.
You find out a job is late when the customer calls to ask.

What it costs you

Late shipments cost you trust with customers who planned around your date.
Machines sit idle while the next job waits on material, a program or a fixture.
Your lead spends the day reshuffling instead of running parts.
Every promised date turns into a guess, so you pad it, and padded dates can cost you work.

Why it keeps happening

The board can't keep up with rush jobs, rev changes and machines going down.
Material, programs and fixtures aren't on the board, so a job looks ready when it isn't.
Only one person knows how all the pieces fit, and they're on the floor too.
Nobody has time to update the board while the work is running.

Common questions

Why do due dates slip in a job shop?

Because the schedule changes all day and the board doesn't. Rush jobs, late material and machine trouble stack up faster than one person can rework the plan.

Is a whiteboard good enough for scheduling?

For some shops it is. The trouble starts when only one person can read it, or when it's wrong more often than it's right. We can talk through yours on the call.

What does a slipping schedule cost a small shop?

Late shipments, idle machines and a lead who spends the day reshuffling. It also shows up as rush freight, overtime and customers who stop trusting your dates.

What exactly do you build?

It depends on how you work today; we figure that out on the call.

Tell me how your schedule holds up

Keeping a schedule current takes a lot of updating and chasing, and some of that busywork can now come off your lead's plate. The right fit depends on how your shop runs, so it starts with a call.

When you book, you get me, Kevin Kirchner. Tell me where the schedule lives today and what knocked it off track last week.

Book a call about your schedule