Scheduling & Work Planning
Know what’s coming up.
See what needs doing, when it needs doing, and where the team needs to be.
Overview
Give the week a plan.
There’s always more work than what’s happening right now.
Jobs starting tomorrow. Work that should have finished yesterday. Something waiting on parts. A rush job that just landed. Two jobs that both need the same person.
WorkGuru gives you one place to see what’s coming up and work out what needs to happen next.
And when the plan changes, change the schedule with it.
What’s inside
Everything in Scheduling
Work Areas
See what’s happening in different parts of the shop.
Resource Scheduling
See where people are needed and where you’ve got clashes.
Workshop Scheduling
Plan what needs to move through the workshop and when.
The reality
Why you need it
Three jobs need the same person.
You don’t want to find out when all three are ready to start.
Something urgent lands in the middle of the week.
Now you need to work out what moves.
A job isn’t ready when you thought it would be.
Material hasn’t arrived. A drawing isn’t approved. The customer changed the date.
The schedule looks fine until you ask the workshop.
They know about the thing that hasn’t made it onto the plan yet.
A job gets moved, but not everyone knows.
Now half the team is working from yesterday’s plan.
The whiteboard works.
Until someone isn’t standing in front of it.
How it works
How it works
01
Add the jobs and tasks
02
Work out when it needs to happen
03
See what’s coming up
04
Move things when the week changes
05
Keep the schedule tied to the job
What you get out of it
What changes
See what’s coming.
Know what needs attention before it lands on the floor.
Spot clashes earlier.
See when too much work needs the same people or time.
Move things when priorities change.
The first plan doesn’t have to be the final plan.
Use the time you’ve actually got.
If one job isn’t ready, get something else moving.
Give the team a clearer picture.
People know what’s coming instead of relying on the morning conversation.
Spend less time re-planning from scratch.
When something changes, move the schedule instead of rebuilding it.
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Discovered their contract work wasn’t profitable.
We didn’t wanna pay 100 grand upfront for a program – but then we found WorkGuru.
Nick Mazzella, Administrator, Frontline Trays & Trailers
Fit
Will it work the way we do things?
“There’s no point scheduling because something always changes.”
That’s exactly why you need a schedule you can change. The plan doesn’t have to stay fixed to be useful.
“We’ve always used a whiteboard.”
Plenty of businesses do. The problem starts when the plan needs to be seen by people who aren’t standing in front of it, or when it changes faster than the board gets updated.
“We have too many rush jobs.”
Then the useful part is seeing what has to move when the rush job goes in.
“Our jobs take different amounts of time.”
That’s fine. The schedule is there to plan the work you’ve actually got, not force every job into the same box.
“Some jobs aren’t ready when they’re booked in.”
That happens. Move them and use the space for work that can actually start.
“Our workshop manager already knows the schedule.”
They probably do. The question is whether everyone else who needs that information can see it too.
By trade
Where this gets used
FAQs
Scheduling questions
Can we move jobs when the schedule changes?
Yes. The plan can change as priorities, dates and availability change.
Can we schedule tasks as well as whole jobs?
Yes. Use task-level detail when the job needs it.
Can scheduling work across different parts of the workshop?
Yes. Work Areas help organise work around the different parts of the shop.
Can we plan work around different people?
Yes. Resource scheduling helps show where people are needed and where work is competing for the same team.
What happens if a job is delayed?
Move the work and update the plan rather than leaving the rest of the week working around an old date.
Does scheduling replace the project itself?
No. The schedule helps plan when the work happens. The project still holds the information about the job.
See what the next week looks like.
Bring us the jobs you’re trying to line up.