Investigating the Work of Industrial Schedulers through Field Study

Abstract:

The study of planning and scheduling from a human factors perspective has re-emerged as an important area for research in contemporary manufacturing enterprises. Improved decision support systems are needed that optimally integrate people with computer-based systems in order to increase productivity and responsiveness. However, there is a dearth of knowledge on the reality of the human factors of planning and scheduling practice across manufacturing industry. This paper reviews previous studies of scheduling practice and demonstrates the lack of clearly reported and justified methods to study scheduling behaviour and to interpret and represent the findings. Field study is proposed as the most appropriate approach for carrying out studies of scheduling in practice and various methods used in scheduling field studies are specified. Particular emphasis is given to the investigation of the nature of planning and scheduling practice in the context of a functionally, spatially and temporally complex environment.