Glossary · System coordination, integration and orchestration
Job scheduling
Also known as: production scheduling, order scheduling
German: Auftragsplanung
In production and computing, job scheduling is the planning of when and on which resources a set of jobs or orders will be processed, taking into account capacities, due dates, setup times, priorities and constraints.
- System integration
In one sentence
Job scheduling plans when and on which resources jobs or orders are processed, considering capacity, due dates, setups and priorities.
Example
The MES schedules the week's injection molding orders across six machines so that color changes are grouped and all orders meet their due dates.
How it applies
- Planning: Detailed scheduling typically happens in MES or advanced planning systems, based on orders from the ERP. Schedules must be revised when machines fail or orders change.
- Engineering: Scheduling quality depends on data: realistic cycle times, setup matrices and availability. Outdated master data produces schedules the shop floor cannot follow.
- Documentation: Document the scheduling rules and the data they use in the MES configuration documentation. User documentation for planners should explain how to handle rush orders and how manual changes interact with automatic rescheduling.
Job scheduling vs. dispatching
Scheduling plans ahead for a horizon of hours to weeks. Dispatching, guided by a Dispatch rule, decides at the moment a resource becomes free which job runs next.