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How Manual Scheduling Works
Manual scheduling means that you will manually assign all scheduling dates, including work order dates (Start Date, Finish Date, Due Date) and routing sequence dates (Start Date, Finish Date).
Work order dates are first established when the work order is created. Thereafter they can easily be changed through WO-A Enter Work Orders, SH-A, Edit WO Start/Finish/Due Dates, or SH-B, Manually Schedule Work Orders.
Entering dates on routing sequences is optional. Most companies that use manual scheduling have simple routings. If you do not enter dates on routing sequences, the work order Start Date and Finish Date are used as the sequence Start Date and Finish Date. Therefore, if you run SH-H, Print Work Center Status, you are actually looking at overall work order dates rather than specific sequence dates. For most companies using manual scheduling, this is sufficient.
If you wish to enter sequence dates, this can be done through either SH-B, Manually Schedule Work Orders, or SH-C, Manually Schedule Work Centers. If manually entering sequence dates proves too tedious, you should consider using SH-F, Infinite Scheduling, which assigns these dates automatically. See How Infinite Scheduling Works for more details.
Programs Used with Manual Scheduling
The following are the programs that are most commonly used in conjunction with manual scheduling.
Use this program to mark weekends and holidays as non-workdays so that entry of those dates will not be permitted in any of the manual scheduling programs (SH-A through SH-D).
Use this program to initially set up your work centers and to change the Total Hours/Day field whenever the work center capacity changes.
You can use this program to change the work order Quantity to Make, scheduled Start Date, scheduled Finish Date, or Due Date.
SH-A Edit WO Start/Finish/Due Dates
Use this program to make changes to work orders' scheduled Start Date, Finish Date, or Due Date. This is an alternative to using WO-A, Enter Work Orders, for the same purpose.
SH-B Manually Schedule Work Orders
Much like SH-A (see above), you can use this program to make changes to work orders' scheduled Start Date, Finished Date, or Due Date. This is another alternative to using WO-A, Enter Work Orders, for the same purpose. This program also serves as an inquiry into the status of work order routing sequences.
SH-C Manually Schedule Work Centers
This program is used to change sequence start and finish dates within a work center. Unlike SH-B, Manually Schedule Work Orders, where you enter sequence dates within one work order at a time, with SH-C you enter sequence dates for all open work orders within that work center. You can also use this program to change work center parameters such as Total Hours/Day.
SH-D Manually Schedule Machines
If you have work centers comprised of interchangeable machines and wish to manually assign work order sequences to specific machines, you can so through this program. Machines are entered in RO-D, Enter Machines.
SH-G Print Work Order Schedule
This report provides a listing of all your open work orders sorted either by scheduled Start Date or scheduled Finish Date.
This report can be used to see the status of each work order, broken out by its routing sequences. You can see which sequences are late and how many days late they are.
SH-I Print Work Center Schedule
This report is most typically used as a daily dispatch report by the shop foreman as guide to which work orders are to be worked on next within each work center.
If you've assigned routing sequences to specific machines (see SH-D, Manually Schedule Machines, above), you can use this report as a daily dispatch report for the shop.
This is the graphical representation of the work center load by work order in a Gantt Chart type display
MR-F Generate Material Requirements
This program takes the current work order schedule and produces various EXPEDITE and DELAY messages to advise you of situations where material won't arrive when needed or arrives too early due to scheduling changes you've made. The program also suggests new work orders and purchase orders that may be needed.
MR-H Print Order Action Report
This report can be used to get listings of the EXPEDITE and DELAY recommendations made by MR-F, Generate Material Requirements, that you can use to change work order start and finish dates accordingly.