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Fitting the Pieces Together: A Guide to Office Operations for the Liquid Waste, Portable Toilet & Septic Pumping Industries |
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In the last chapter we discussed Scheduling, Routing and Dispatch.
Scheduling is deciding when the work is to be done.
Routing is the order the work is to be completed.
Dispatch is who does the work
Scheduling, or deciding when work is to be completed, is a tough clerical and planning problem for all companies. The clerical part is a challenge because this type of work is highly repetitive and detailed. The planning requires the balancing of scheduled jobs so that commitments made can be kept. Let’s look at some of the tools in common use to aid in this work.
Shirt pocket
Reminder list
Work processor
Spread sheet
Scheduling program
Scheduling combined with customer records
The shirt pocket is a general purpose scheduling tool in high use. Sometimes it contains pink message notes, and the more advanced models contain a notebook with list of work to be completed. This works fine until the number of jobs grows beyond the capacity of the pocket.
The reminder list is an extension of the shirt pocket. It usually is a typed or hand written list that is in date-order and is posted on a bulletin board. As the dates approach, work is scheduled to be completed, and the list is re-written with new dates. In some companies that have repeat jobs that need to be done on short intervals, i.e., every few days or weekly, and there is another list for these jobs. The problems with the list approach are the clerical effort in re-writing the list, the list gets too long to fit on the bulletin board, and coordination of the list with dispatch to make sure the work is completed.
This is a big enhancement over the "written reminder list" in that when a job is completed, you can change the scheduled date and electronically cut and paste the list and re-print it. This saves a lot of time and the printed list is generally more legible then the written list. (Though we have seen some written lists that are neat as a pin.) Though the list created on a word processor does not address the issues associated with a list that is too long, it is a big help. This does help a little in coordination with getting the work completed, i.e., dispatch, in that it is easier to produce a printed list for only the jobs to be completed that day or week. This tool does not address the combining of the pre-scheduled jobs and those that come in at the last minute (demand-scheduling) into a single list, and requires that the list be manually ordered by the date the work is scheduled to be completed.
This works in a similar fashion as the word processor, except you can have the computer automatically sort the list by schedule date. This saves a lot of clerical effort in re-arranging and re-typing entries.
Independent scheduling programs are usually customized programs or ordering tools that are being used to schedule work. An example of this type of program is Schedule+™.
These programs are designed to:
Minimize clerical effort
Track additional information associated with the work to be completed
Print different lists of scheduled work
Automatically re-schedule repeat jobs
Organize work so new people can handle it, if required
Supply training and educational material
The difference here is that the computer has been programmed to guide you in scheduling work to be completed. It will require some training time to learn how the computer thinks you should schedule your work and to change how you do business to fit the way the program works. The plus of this tool is that it can give you new insight into the scheduling effort. In the end, however, it may not work the way you may want to run your company. One last problem with independent scheduling tools is that they are not linked to customer records management. This generally means duplicate data entry, and having to access multiple tools to get all the information required to correctly schedule the work.
The combination of a scheduling tool and customer records management offers greater details on a customer’s activity to aid in determining the proper schedule for a customer. It removes the issue of duplicate entry, i.e., re-typing site address, etc., and generally offers electronic transfer of scheduled work into dispatching tools to minimize separate databases for different activities within a business. In addition, historical activity is usually maintained. Software systems that support this level of integration are usually industry specific. The best place to find these packages are by contacting your local trade associations and industry trade papers.
You can see that the right tool depends upon number of entries, clerical stamina and personal style. In the next chpter, we will look at dispatching tools and how dispatching and scheduling are closely coupled to be able to run an efficient business operation.