The tutorial is aimed at spreadsheet literate people who are involved in planning and scheduling production activities. The techniques and formulas set out in this tutorial are being used by manufacturing companies daily; this is a practical, not an academic, exercise.

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Download Excel

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Excel.zip	145kB	.zip file	Download the free tutorial in a .zip format. Size is 145kB You will need to have pkUnZip or WinZip to open this compressed file.
Excel.xls	505kb	.xls file	In that case you may download the raw Excel file here. If it loads in your browser then you will have the opportunity on exiting to save it to your local drive.

Download Lotus

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lotus.zip	181kB	.zip file	Download the free tutorial in a .zip format. You will need to have pkUnZip or WinZip to open this compressed file.
lotus.wk4	710kb	.wk4 file	You may not have pkZip or WinZip installed. In that case you may download the raw Lotus file. If it loads in your browser then you will have the opportunity on exiting to save it to your local drive.

Download Quattro

Download	Size	Type	Info
Quattro.zip	133kB	.zip file	Download the free tutorial in a .zip format. You will need to have pkUnZip or WinZip to open this compressed file.
Quattro.wb3	831kb	.wb3 file	You may not have pkZip or WinZip installed. In that case you may download the raw Quattro (.wb3) file. If it loads in your browser then you will have the opportunity on exiting to save it to your local drive.

The tutorial sets out a series of templates in such a way that the logic may be followed by the average, spreadsheet literate, person. The templates may also be copied and used to create a live scheduling system. Although the formulas in the templates are applied to only a few records, you simply copy them down to apply them to up to many thousands of rows of data.

THERE ARE NO MACRO'S, AND NOTHING IS HIDDEN

The tutorial takes a step-by-step approach, starting with simple scheduling concepts and techniques, and building slowly to more complex solutions. You will learn how to:

1. Understand the essential difference between capacity planning and finite scheduling
2. Set up and re-sequence a simple finite schedule
3. Display a schedule as a Gantt chart
4. Calculate job stop times through a calendar
5. Schedule jobs through multiple machines or work centers
6. Schedule repetitive production through multiple machines or work centers
7. Calculate set-up or change-over times that are dependant on the sequence of jobs
8. Evaluate the effect of transfer batch size on lead time
9. Set up a pull schedule for just-in-time environments
10. Apply a "3 pass" algorithm to optimize due date performance with just-in-time
11. Do critical path analysis within a project environment
12. Build an integrated master production schedule (MPS) and finite schedule for a make-to-stock environment
13. React to non-linear sales forecasts

The tutorial is continually being enhanced - so there is more to come, including:

• 3 pass algorithm for a make-to-stock schedule, to suggest the timing of inventory builds to cope with seasonal demand
• Material requirements planning with dynamic allocation of materials to jobs

If you have a scheduling problem, which is not addressed by the tutorial, don't hesitate to e-mail us, as we may already have a template that does the job.