AAOM Handbook

MS.02 Specify Activities for Scheduling Model

Context

The underlying theory for the Operating Model design is that future process performance will be delivered if the right Production and Service work is completed at the right time and in the right way – and that this will be achieved more consistently, and at lower cost, if the work is planned, scheduled and resourced in advance of its execution. Through the process of developing the Production and Service Strategies for a process we specified what the right work is and what is the appropriate trigger event that will initiate that work. The Operating Master Schedule lays out the sequence and timing of the Production and Service Activities that must be executed in order to deliver the process performance targets. Performance targets are broken down into a structure reflecting both the elements of the process that significantly define the performance outcomes and the management accountabilities for these. Consequently, the Operating Master Schedule should be broken down in a parallel structure. The full list of Production and Service Work packages for a process could comprise hundreds or thousands of items. Trying to construct an Operating Master Schedule that includes each of these individually would generally be impractical. A manageable Schedule needs to provide sufficient detail to enable confirmation of progress to schedule, without providing so much detail that it becomes difficult and slow to track progress. The 20% of the Production and Service work packages that will have the greatest impact on process output and costs should each be individually identified as an Activity in the Operating Master Schedule. Note - Activities may be classified in the top 20% because of a single high impact work package, or because of the frequent recurrence of a work package that produces a high cumulative impact. The remaining 80% of the Production and Service work packages must also be included in the Operating Master Schedule. However, the objective is to group this component of the work into a smaller number of Activities based on characteristics shared by many work packages. This will make the overall number of Activities in the Schedule easy to manage, but provide sufficient detail to allow significant variation between the forecast and actual frequency or timing of Activities to be easily identified. A practical number of activities to represent the grouping of minor Production and Service Work would result when each of these activities has an annual total output impact or cost of the same order as the lowest ranked of the top 20% of activities. The characteristics that may be used to summarise this minor Production and Service Work include; • the accountability for the work (typically a First Line Manager),

© McAlear Management Consultants 2006

Operational Planning: Set Operating Master Schedule

Updated: August 2018

Page 9