Dedicated job shop scheduling systems are not found under every rock, and usually come with a hefty price tag. It is possible to use CS Project Professional to coordinate the scheduling of jobs within the resource limitations of a workshop, provided a few simple rules are adhered to.

The orders in a job shop can be treated as a number of projects which are scheduled at the same time sharing the labour and equipment in the workshop. We have found that the best solution in CS Project is to set up the workshop schedule in one project file. Set the project window to have a bar chart in the top pane and the assign bar chart in the lower pane.

Use the outline structure to enter jobs as summary tasks with all the required processes as detail tasks indented underneath each job. For each process enter the job number into the Text1 field, and enter a custom colour (the same for the entire job) in the Custom Colour field.

Link the processes of a job into the sequence in which they can be executed. Enter the due date for the job in the Target Finish of the summary task representing the job.

In the Assign Bar Chart list the work centres in the workshop. Use the rollup function to ensure that all assignments (processes) will be listed on the same line. Assign the work centers to the relevant processes. The Assign Bar Chart will show the processes assigned to each work centre per line.

Use the Level function to reschedule the processes with the resource constraints.

Update the % complete on the processes work as they are completed. Make backup copies of the workshop plan a daily/weekly basis as required. Delete completed work out of the project, and enter new orders into the project.

It is quite often possible to build up a template project, with all the possible types of job that can be performed in the job shop. This allows you to copy a generic job from the template file whenever such an order is placed.