Assessment of Production Planning and Scheduling Work Using Ergonomic Work Analysis

Production scheduling is an important and complex activity in manufacturing enterprises. Increasing market demands concerning service has to be managed, often within reduced time space and decision latitude. This paper reports findings from studying scheduling in a Swedish sawmill with the twofold aim to describe and analyze scheduling work and to assess ergonomic work analysis as a method for this. The conclusions drawn were that sawmill scheduling work was complex and that the scheduler was exposed to a high degree of uncertainty. The scheduling in practice was performed by a group of people, relating to different parts of the entire business processes in the company. The scheduling tools, developed by the individual schedulers, were efficient and flexible complements to the MPC-system. Finally, ergonomic work analysis proved to be a useful method for analyzing scheduling work, although there may be difficulties in distinguishing between the prescribed work and work as it is actually carried out.