The four stages of scheduling, and why we're not there yet

By Geoffrey De Smet - CTO at Timefold

Let’s talk about the elephant in the optimization room: enterprise planning is stuck in the past.

Despite the billions poured into digital transformation, most companies still schedule the same way they did in the '90s. I’ve seen manufacturers, governments, hospitals… with mission-critical operations still relying on Excel. Or worse: paper.

Really, I am not exaggerating. I’ve witnessed it firsthand multiple times. When I looked into the production scheduling of three different enterprises, they:

• Handed me a stack of paper.
• Showed me several Excel files, none of which actually visualize the schedule in a Gantt or timeline chart.
• Introduced me to their chief planner, who spends 12 hours a day manually moving around post-its on a giant piece of paper until a feasible schedule magically appeared. This was the prime reason they couldn’t scale operations.

Madness.

And every time it gets to me: Automation is not a given, let alone optimization. Not even close. We have the technology to explore space, while some still haven’t reached the Cape of Good Hope. But in order to catch up, we need to understand the complete timeline.

I broke it down in 4 stages.

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Expect the unexpected: How to adapt schedules in real-time

by Tom Cools - DevRel at Timefold

Employee scheduling or rostering is rarely smooth sailing, especially when life throws curveballs like sudden absences. These unexpected events are stressful and costly, at least without PlanningAI.

In this video, Tom explores how to handle last-minute changes without chaos, using the Recommendations features.

Optimization4All

by Tom Cools - DevRel at Timefold

Our goal at Timefold is simple: free the world from wasteful scheduling. In order to reach that goal, more people first need to see the problem and understand the power of optimization to solve it.

That’s why we’re big fans of what the folks at Optimization4All are doing. They’re on a mission to make mathematical optimization not just understandable, but approachable for anyone. It’s a project built by passionated experts who share their expertise through learning paths and practical tools.

If more people discover the untapped potential of operations research, we get one step closer to a world that runs a whole lot smarter and a lot less wasteful. Great initiative!

Something's cooking...

The beautiful scheduling UI components of Bryntum meet the powerful PlanningAI optimization engine of Timefold. More information soon!

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