Does anyone use a production schedule?

I'm in the middle of designing a production schedule using Excel.
The idea is to be able to type in the date the uke was started in the first step and have Excel populate all the rest of the steps with the date that each step should be finished by.
Do any of you have any examples of production schedules?
I'm just curious if my target dates are drastically different from how everyone else builds.

~Fred

Take a look at Mya Moe's uke tracker feature on their website. It's a production schedule with photos.

Wouldn't that add cost to the uke build

Timbuck said:

Wouldn't that add cost to the uke build

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It doesn't when you run your shop like a production shop. Arguably it lowers costs.

The ability to achieve strict scheduling depends if you have anyone else to help you take calls, reply to emailS, keep on top of ordering bit n pieces, and if you are doing repairs. Doing repairs alone makes building to a specific date next to impossible I have found.

Of course you could always 'insert' a new line/day into the excel program which move all dates back as you receive new repairs or you sand through a finish or other life things take hold, but then you haven't kept your promise of a definite single finish date. If you have a clause to finish within a week of such and such a date, it kinda isn't worth doing it, computer program wise, for the same reason.

However, it would be a great asset to be able to estimate finish dates (to within a few months) if you have a lot of back orders to fill.

If you write it, ill try and use it!

When you say production what does that mean to you? I used to have a low volume production shop where we would accept a blanket order for 1200 pieces with a release of 100 per month. We were scheduling tasks such as cutting 400 sides for 100 boxes. It would also involve scheduling the machinery so that someone wasn't sitting around waiting for someone else to finish up with a saw. So, are you building large lots of instruments or are you just wanting to create a time line on how long it should take you to build an instrument? The thing with production scheduled is that they don't account for custom work only repetitive tasks.

Hey Fred: Also, the shop tracker and stringing calendar might be useful to you:
http://www.myamoeukuleles.com/shoptracker.php
http://www.myamoeukuleles.com/stringingCalendar.php

All of this is driven by filemaker data base programming.

Wow, thanks for all the replies!
Ha! No, I'm not doing large numbers of builds at all. If someone ordered 1200 ukes, I think my heart would simply stop!
I'm just putting together a schedule for myself to keep eveything organized. I have 5 ukes on the bench right now and I feel like I'm going mad.
I am in the middle of creating a scheduling program for Excel so I can keep myself on task with each uke and not get too distracted. That's all.
I looked at the calendar on the myamoeukulele site and it was very helpful. However, their timeline is way to fast for me. A uke gets done there in a little over 3 weeks, but if mine get done in 3 months I would call myself lucky!
I'm just grouping everything into about a dozen or so steps and estimating how long each one of those steps would take me.
Then I type in my starting date and let Excel fill in the rest of the dates based on my calendar.
So, I was just curious if anyone else used such a schedule.

I used to have a breakdown of the entire building process task by task with estimated times to complete them. I would keep the sheet with each build so I would know how to plan on spending my time when I went in to the shop as well as where I was at on the instrument. I'd also have a list of the materials on it and would check off what I had so I could keep track of what I needed to order. I put everything that goes in to one instrument in a plastic tote so I don't have to track it down later. Since, I don't take orders any longer I don't use the sheet. I build at my own pace and I generally order materials in bulk so that I have them ready to go. On items like bridges, fretboards etc. I will make a bunch at one time. Sometimes, I'll glue up a bunch of top and back sets then sticker them until I am ready to use them. Same with neck blanks. Its just as easy to cut five as it is one once you're setup to do it.

I have used .XLS for many projects, however, from initial discussions, design, material logistics, labor, costs, budgets, pricing, all manufacturing steps, etc. etc., through delivery, I recommend Microsoft Project. I used it for hundreds of custom projects. I can't imagine managing costs, tasks, timelines, and profit goals without using a complete Project Plan...

It's very difficult to plan when you do a lot of different things. If you consistently make one model with one level of trim, it's easy...but that certainly is not the case for me.

I spend my days working to other people's completely unrealistic planning schedules. When I get home and on the weekends I just want to build ukes, not marketing, not planning.............

I do all mine in my head. After managing between 10 and 20 employees in busy shops for the last 30 years, what I do in my own shop is a walk in the park.

Customer orders instrument and there is a spec list I work from but no dates to get anything done by. I just hook in and do things in the order that they need to get done and move on to the next task. I promise to be done in 3 months from time I start. Gives me lots of time and it's always better to under promise and then over deliver.

I use production planning and sheduling software. They are good and reliable.
production planning software

Allen said:

I do all mine in my head. After managing between 10 and 20 employees in busy shops for the last 30 years, what I do in my own shop is a walk in the park.

Customer orders instrument and there is a spec list I work from but no dates to get anything done by. I just hook in and do things in the order that they need to get done and move on to the next task. I promise to be done in 3 months from time I start. Gives me lots of time and it's always better to under promise and then over deliver.

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:agree: +1

finkdaddy said:

Wow, thanks for all the replies!
Ha! No, I'm not doing large numbers of builds at all. If someone ordered 1200 ukes, I think my heart would simply stop!
I'm just putting together a schedule for myself to keep eveything organized. I have 5 ukes on the bench right now and I feel like I'm going mad.
I am in the middle of creating a scheduling program for Excel so I can keep myself on task with each uke and not get too distracted. That's all.
I looked at the calendar on the myamoeukulele site and it was very helpful. However, their timeline is way to fast for me. A uke gets done there in a little over 3 weeks, but if mine get done in 3 months I would call myself lucky!
I'm just grouping everything into about a dozen or so steps and estimating how long each one of those steps would take me.
Then I type in my starting date and let Excel fill in the rest of the dates based on my calendar.
So, I was just curious if anyone else used such a schedule.

Click to expand...

I don't understand why you need a computer program to figure this stuff out. This doesn't sound like you are making a living at building ukes, just trying to figure out how long things take. Why do you need to know this? If you are building in batches of 5 or more ukes, that is going very different then building one at a time using different woods and sizes each time. Working in batches only makes sense once you have figured out all the steps and are confident in you abilities, not trying to invent things as you go. Once you have your chops down, you aren't going to need a computer, it will be intuitive. If I were you, I would get more experience under my belt before trying to build under a self imposed building schedule. What is you goal?

Are you trying to make money or is this just a hobby? If so, then you have to work out all the details like, how much do I need to live on, pay all the bills, have insurance, buy materials, etc., etc. Then of course you have to know the market and selling your wares within that market. Markets change fast, do you have a back up plan? This is not an easy way to make a living. If its just a hobby, it is what it is, just do the best you can when you can.

My schedule is like this. I need to make X amount of dollars to live, Get to work!