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Planning, scheduling and dispatching tasks in production control

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Abstract

"What is the difference between planning and scheduling?" Production control encompasses many tasks performed by humans, three of which are planning, scheduling, and dispatching. In the past, the only criterion that could distinguish between the tasks was that planning is usually on a higher level than scheduling and scheduling is on a higher level than dispatching. Hence, the tasks are often ambiguous, unclear, and subject to speculation. There are few formal studies on the actual tasks of planning, scheduling, and dispatching, and there are no known studies that compare or discuss all three. In this paper it is argued that it is important to understand the differences between the tasks. An action science and ethnographic case study is presented as the empirical basis for the discussion, and the implications for decision support systems in production control tasks are presented.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been supported in part by NSERC grant OGP0121274 on Adaptive Production Control. The senior plant management and the individuals in the production control department are gratefully thanked for the support shown during the project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Kenneth N. McKay

  2. Institute for Business Engineering and Technology Application (BETA), Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, 5600 MB, Eindhoven , The Netherlands

    Vincent C. S. Wiers

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  1. Kenneth N. McKay
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  2. Vincent C. S. Wiers
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Correspondence to Kenneth N. McKay.

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McKay, K.N., Wiers, V.C.S. Planning, scheduling and dispatching tasks in production control. Cogn Tech Work 5, 82–93 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-002-0117-4

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