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Embroidery Machine Schedule

Purpose: To allocate production time in an effort to complete jobs on time.

File Name: SCHEDULE

Format: Single Page, 1 Part

This simple form is used to create scheduling information for multiple machines in embroidery shops.

schedexampl.bmp (143694 bytes)Use: In every company, one person should be responsible for scheduling, and that person  should take exclusive control of creating these forms. To use the form, you will probably want to start by creating a 3-ring binder for scheduling, and place a number of these forms in the binder. Date the forms from today's date to a point where production is open.

In most business-acceptable pricing systems, an estimate of total job time is produced.(The Pricelist software products on this CD-ROM give this information) You will want to make certain to retain that figure for for each order so the person responsible for scheduling will not have to re-compute that figure for each job. Each day, or as orders come in, go to the scheduler and look for an open area in the schedule where there is an adequate amount of time on the proper type of machine to accommodate the order. Denote the order in as in the example shown, showing the anticipated time used from the start time to anticipated end time.

Tips: You will want to fit times as closely as possible. If a six-hour slot is available on one day, and a 3 hour slot is available the next, and you have a 2 3/4 hour job to schedule, fit it into the three hour slot instead of breaking up the six hour slot. You may be thankful to have that six hour slot later. However, if a large empty time slot is only a day or two away, you will probably want to look for ways to fill it instead of letting a machine sit idle.

No scheduling system is perfect, and paper-based systems are tedious. Because scheduling can change quickly, most people who use a paper-based system use pencil so the system can change when conflicts arise. Also, unless you have overtime hours freely available, leave some "slack time" in each days' schedule to accommodate problems. If you schedule 6 hours in a 7 hour work day (typical 8 hour work days only have 7 hours because of breaks and lunch) you usually won't find more than 15 minutes of unused time in a shift, and that time is easily used for cleaning and maintenance.

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