Automating scheduling tasks; experience of a real case

The fit between the off-the-shelf scheduling systems and the real life scheduling task has been pointed out as one of the important reasons behind the implementation challenge of advanced scheduling solutions in practice. Recent studies indicate the need for scheduling tools that focus on the actual work routine, characteristics of the scheduling environment, and cognitive tasks of the schedulers. This paper represents results of an action research conducted in a dairy facility in Norway to evaluate functionality and effectiveness of a developed solution for scheduling routines of a case company. A scheduling tool is developed and uses aheuristic approach to address all routine scheduling needs at the case company. The research team went through the tool execution phase. Based on this experience it is concluded that automating scheduling tasks reduces the needed resources and human error, so custom automation of those tasks can be sufficient.