The schedule that lives on a whiteboard
The real plan is on the wall. The system has an old copy.
The real schedule is on a whiteboard or in one person's head, and the system has a copy that is often a day or more behind.
Not every business has this problem, and some should leave it alone.
Most of these can be handled better. Whether it's worth doing is a separate question. What follows is one common form of the problem, described in general terms, because your version will differ. These are possible challenges, not a description of your business, and some should be left exactly as they are. If it sounds like your week, that's worth a conversation.
Sound familiar?
- The whiteboard is the real schedule.
- Somebody copies it into the system at the end of the day.
- Crews call the office to find out where they are going.
- Only one person can say who is where tomorrow.
What it looks like
Somebody plans the day on a whiteboard, a paper calendar, or a spreadsheet, because it is quick to change. The system that tracks jobs gets the schedule later, typed in at the end of the day or the week.
The wall is right. The system is behind. Everybody who needs the schedule has to ask the person who keeps the wall.
What it costs
Everything downstream is late. Billing, job costing, and customer questions all work from the system, which is behind.
Changes happen twice. Once on the wall, and again when somebody types them in.
It stops when the scheduler stops. The plan lives in the head of whoever keeps it.
Where it goes wrong
- The quick tool and the record are separate. The wall is easy to change; the system is not.
- Copying is a daily task. It is the first thing skipped on a busy day.
- The copy drifts. Last-minute changes on the wall never reach the system.
- Nobody else can plan. The knowledge of who can do what stays with the scheduler.
What a better version looks like
The schedule is kept in one place that is as quick to change as the wall, and everybody reads from it. Changes are made once. The office, the crews, and billing see the same plan. The scheduler keeps planning; they stop copying.
What still needs a person
The scheduler decides who goes where, weighing the job, the crew, and the customer. A person handles the changes that come up during the day.
Questions worth asking about your own operation
- Where does the real schedule live?
- How does it get into the system, and how late?
- Who else could build tomorrow's schedule?
- How do crews find out about a change?
If this sounds familiar
Bring me the version you actually have. I'll learn how the process really works before I suggest anything. If it isn't worth changing, or isn't a fit for me, I'll say so. Talk through a problem