The Schedule shows every job on every machine in your shop, from the platesetter to packing, on one board. Jobs you impose arrive by themselves. You decide the order on each machine; the app works out every start and finish from your shop hours, makeready and what each job is waiting for, so two jobs can never overlap on one machine.
What the Schedule does#
- Jobs from Imposition. When you choose a layout for an imposition job, the job lands in the tray with its steps (plates, print, cut, finishing) already worked out. Put on the schedule in the imposition job's Export menu adds it at once (or finds it) and opens it on the board.
- Times from your equipment. A press, printer, guillotine or cutting table you set up in Equipment times its step exactly as the imposition report does. Other machines use a setup time and a speed. See Machines and capabilities.
- One click to plan. Place all ready puts every ready job on the board without moving anything already planned, and shows you the result before it applies. See Placing and re-planning.
- Ready checks. A step can't start before its proof is approved, its preflight passes or its stock arrives. See Ready checks.
- The floor keeps it true. Operators start, pause and finish steps on a tablet at the machine. The board follows within seconds. See The station.
- Late risk. Every job shows whether it will make its due date, and how much time it has to spare. See Late risk and alerts.
Words the Schedule uses#
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Machine | A row on the board: a press, a guillotine, a bench, a department desk or an outside vendor. |
| Route | The steps a kind of job goes through, such as Plates › Print › Cut › Pack. |
| Job | One piece of work to schedule, normally one imposition job. It shows the imposition job's name and number. |
| Step | One job's work on one machine: a bar on the board. |
| Ready check | Something that must be done before a step may start, such as the proof or the stock. |
| Tray | Jobs that aren't on the board yet. |
| Pin | Keep a step on its machine, and not before a time you choose. |
| Hold | A planner parks a job: it stays off the board until someone releases it. |
| Problem | An operator reports that a step can't go on. |
A job keeps the imposition job's number ("Job 42"); the Schedule never invents a second one. A job's status tells you where it is; steps have statuses of their own.
| Job status | What it means |
|---|---|
| In the tray | Not on the board yet: it waits in the tray until you place it. |
| Scheduled | Its steps are on machines, with planned times. Nothing has started. |
| Running | At least one step has started on the floor. |
| Done | Every step is done or skipped. |
| On hold | A planner put it on hold. It waits in the tray's On hold section until someone releases it. |
| Cancelled | Removed from the schedule, or its imposition job was deleted before anything started. |
Set it up once#
Open Schedule under Production in the sidebar, or press g s. The first time a team admin opens it, Set up the schedule in four steps gets you going; it is also on Setup › Machines & hours.
The four steps:
- Machines. Import … from Equipment adds every press, printer, guillotine and cutting table in one click. See Machines and capabilities.
- Working hours. Pick a preset such as 8–5 weekdays, or set your own times. The step says which time zone they are in, and offers your browser's zone while your team has none. See Shop hours and downtime and Shop hours and downtime.
- Add finishing. Pick the die cutters, folders, laminators, packing and outside vendors you use, then Add these. Each starts with a sensible setup time and speed that you can change. See Machines and capabilities.
- Schedule your jobs. Jobs that already have a selected layout are waiting. Schedule them adds them to the tray and opens the placing preview. See Placing and re-planning.
Routes for offset and digital sheets, rolls and any other job come ready-made. You only change them if your shop works differently (see Routes). Only team admins can change machines, hours, routes, ready checks and settings.
A day with the Schedule#
- Morning. Open the board. The chips at the top count the jobs that are late, at risk and ready to place. Click a chip to show just those jobs.
- Place new work. Press Auto-schedule (or Place all ready at the top), check the preview (how many jobs, what moves, late before and after) and Apply.
- Adjust. Click a bar to open the job. Move a step to another machine, put a job on hold, or tick a ready check.
- Run. Operators work from My queue on the station at their machine: Start, Pause, Done, or Problem. A machine that goes down takes its time off the board, and its work moves later.
- Watch. The board refreshes by itself every few seconds. Jobs that slip show up in the late and at-risk chips.
What it doesn't do#
The Schedule plans machines, not people: it has no crews, skills or shifts per operator. It doesn't track inventory, split one form across two presses, overlap two steps of one job (cutting the first sheets while the press is still running), plan more than one site, or send customers delivery dates. Quotes in Estimating keep their own turnaround and don't reserve machine time.
Planned: Later
Shared shop-floor kiosks with operator badges, printed job tickets with a scan code, a wallboard for the shop floor, a daily summary email, and reserving machine time for won estimates.