Abstract
The objective of this study was to characterize how schedulers spend their time interacting with external parties. Time is the most critical resource at the disposal of schedulers; however, its usage has been overlooked by prior empirical studies. Seven schedulers for a total of nineteen 8-h shifts were observed. Detailed time data about their activities and how these were interrupted were collected. Schedulers interrupt themselves significantly, and most of their activities are triggered externally. Despite this, schedulers are able to decide in most situations which activity to perform next. Schedulers spend more time on their informational role than on their decisional role, mostly at the requests of others, suggesting insufficient information system support to others in the organization. Schedulers other main role, besides making scheduling-related decisions, is to relay information. This implies that schedulers are subject to several external requests for activities. However, due to asynchronous communication that e-mails provide, they are still able to decide on their own schedule to do tasks. The methodology used can be used to evaluate an individual use of time, in particular for time critical such as scheduling. The analysis may provide insights as to how to improve the efficiency of such jobs.
Highlights
The scheduling job has traditionally been addressed in the literature from the decision-making point of view
The scheduling task is embedded in the organization (Crawford et al 1999), making it highly complex and context dependent (Akkerman and Van Donk 2009)
A survey study by de Snoo et al (2011) identified that performance metrics used in practice focus on the quality of the product, but on the process of scheduling itself, in particular to try to measure the timeliness of when the schedule is released
Summary
The scheduling job has traditionally been addressed in the literature from the decision-making point of view. Schedulers, perform a diverse array of tasks including gathering and relaying information, monitoring the state of resources among others. The scheduling task is embedded in the organization (Crawford et al 1999), making it highly complex and context dependent (Akkerman and Van Donk 2009). Traditional performance measures of schedulers have been focused on the quality of their product, i.e., the plans and schedules themselves. A survey study by de Snoo et al (2011) identified that performance metrics used in practice focus on the quality of the product, but on the process of scheduling itself, in particular to try to measure the timeliness of when the schedule is released
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