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Direct Definition: Due date scheduling is a production planning strategy where manufacturing jobs are prioritized and sequenced on the shop floor according to their promised customer delivery dates, utilising forward or backward scheduling logic to minimise tardiness.
Meeting delivery promises is the lifeblood of repeat manufacturing business. Due date scheduling ensures that customer deadlines dictate machine priorities rather than arbitrary job sizes or convenience.
Forward vs Backward Due Date Scheduling
Schedulers use two primary methods when planning against delivery dates:
- Forward Scheduling: Starts production as soon as raw materials are available, determining the earliest possible completion date. This is common for rush orders and custom prototypes.
- Backward Scheduling: Works backward from the committed customer due date, scheduling each step just in time to minimise work-in-progress holding costs.
Visual Priority on the Shop Floor
Modern visual scheduling tools use automated colour coding (such as yellow warnings for approaching due dates and red alerts for overdue work) to make delivery urgency immediately apparent to operators and supervisors, ensuring high-priority jobs are never buried in machine queues.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is due date scheduling?
- It is a production planning method that sequences shop floor jobs based on committed customer delivery deadlines.
- What is the difference between forward and backward scheduling?
- Forward scheduling plans work from the start date forward to find the earliest finish. Backward scheduling plans from the due date backward to determine the latest start date.
- How do visual tools assist due date scheduling?
- They automatically highlight urgent and approaching deadlines with visual colour tags, preventing high-priority work from slipping behind.