Common Roadblocks When Implementing The Scheduling Module In JobBOSS²

Learn to use scheduling and avoid traps

One of the most common reasons a manufacturing company implements the JobBOSS² system is to utilize the advanced scheduling capabilities. Often, companies use a combination of spreadsheets and standalone accounting software to manage their business. The result is an inefficient system that requires duplication of effort and a greater risk of human error. Here is where JobBOSS² comes into play to help bring all this data into one place where one module, say Order Entry, interacts directly with another, like Purchasing.

In addition to centralizing the data needed to maintain a manufacturing business, the JobBOSS² system can take all pertinent information from Estimating, Order Entry, Purchasing, and Data Collection and use it to build a Schedule that gives insight into capacity, load and how they are affected by the manufacturing demand from customer orders.

You might be asking yourself, if JobBOSS² Scheduling is so great, why is there an article talking about people's problems? Well, since the Scheduling module uses data from throughout the rest of the system, the schedule is at a disadvantage if the supporting data is inaccurate or incomplete. The result is that people often get frustrated with what was a key reason for implementing JobBOSS² in the first place. The following sections will address some common issues to get what you need from the schedule.

Back to basics

Just like a house can’t be built from the top down, you can’t get a helpful schedule without first ensuring the foundations of the system are used correctly. So, what does that mean for how you set up and use JobBOSS²? Regardless of how long your company has been using JobBOSS², it is important to ensure that the foundations are well-suited to the scheduling module.

The first step is to review the shifts set up in Company Maintenance. Though individual Work Centers can have unique shift settings, the system must be given a good baseline. Next comes one of the most critical tables in the system: Work Centers. JobBOSS² builds the schedule by looking at how jobs interact with one another at each work center, so ensuring that the list is genuinely reflective of the workflow is important. Work Centers can be any number of things: machines, groups of machines, work cells, people, etc. Essentially, they need to represent the areas you want to track labor through, whatever they may be.

The next step is to ensure that all parts have accurate routers and bills of material. This information can be entered in the Estimating module or directly on a Job through Order Entry. For the system to understand how to load a work center, it needs to know an estimated time for each step a part goes through. Similarly, all raw materials and outside services need realistic lead times.

Two other key areas to address are due dates and data collection. All jobs, whether built for inventory or direct shipment to a customer, need to have the correct due date entered. This is relatively easy for the customer demand but is often overlooked regarding stock jobs. To have the most up-to-date schedule, the shop employees need to utilize data collection to report times and completed pieces. The schedule is updated in real-time as that information is entered. Without first using the system properly, scheduling is bound to fail.

Expectations

You are now well-positioned to start getting meaningful data from the Scheduling module. JobBOSS² is a computer program that uses math to look at hard data when determining how the shop should be loaded. It cannot replace the experience and real-world knowledge of the person doing the scheduling. The Schedule is a tool to help you run your shop; it will not run it for you. The schedule will give you start and end times to the minute, but making your shop drive to them is unrealistic.

Instead, look at what day or week the system has determined the job needs to be done and use that to help your production team manage the shop floor. Some users want the system to build the schedule and use that information to make decisions and move on. Others may wish to manipulate the schedule to reorder the jobs in a work center to have greater control. Neither method is better, and there are many other ways to look at it. However, it can be definitively stated that if you try to make the schedule fully mirror the shop floor, it is a full-time job and leads to being reactive rather than proactive.

Many factors not covered in this article will affect how you use the schedule. Those things can be dealt with as you start to utilize the schedule. The foundations above, though, need to be in place before you can even hope to get meaningful information from the scheduling module. Without considering these important building blocks, you are on a path to frustration.

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