Manage job schedules, shop production, delivery and installation, all with one, easy to use system.

What kind of scheduling do fabricators need?

The most obvious list might include:

More advanced functions might include:

• Track employee time against hours budgeted.
• Analyze actual vs. budgeted production by type of project and other factors.
• Determine throughput and factors for process improvement.
• Integrate data with other production systems.

Why haven’t these needs been met?

• Manufacturing-type schedules don’t work:
  • Feed info in, spits out a schedule: designed for machines making the same parts over and over.
  • Do not work because you need more flexibility: dealing with custom jobs and customers both pre and post production.
• Construction, Gantt chart-type schedules don’t work:
  • Designed for big, long running jobs with many steps.
  • Assume the tasks will run basically continuously: one finishes and then the next one starts. 
  • These systems are often complex and take many weeks to learn and use.
• Dispatching systems don’t work:
  • Existing dispatch boards may work OK for assigning work to crews, on a daily or weekly basis, but these are generally limited in function and do not have the depth to really do the job.
    • Do not have the flexibility and filtering of views.
    • Do not have long timelines available.
  • Do not work well for fabrication/installation jobs with multiple activities linked together in groups: such as production tasks.

What is possible now with zScheduler?

• Know exactly what project tasks will need to be accomplished and the timing for each.
• Easily dispatch and assign not only crews, but also equipment, delivery and sub-contractors.
• Be confident that you can take on more work without getting into a bind with overbooking.
• Learn more and more about your company’s productivity by tracking budgeted vs. actual time for different crews and different types of jobs, so you can adjust future jobs for more profitability.

zScheduler: The best system available for fabricators

• Developed specifically for sub-contractor and fabricator industries. 

• Created from many years of experience of the fabrication industry and with the help of leading fabricators.

Only zScheduler can do all of this….

• It has both job and resource schedules and provides flexible scheduling in multiple formats. 
• See your future capacity, at a glance, for sales planning.
• Plan all activities for a job in minutes, saving a lot of time over manual systems.
• Schedule some activities to be done immediately and leave some activities in the “project plan” for future dispatching.
• View schedules from any computer on your network.
• Dispatch activities the way you need to.
• Many types or groups of resources can be scheduled:
  • Shop and installation crews
  • Equipment
  • Delivery
  • Other contractors
• You can also use categories within each group, such as:
  • Layout
  • Template
  • Lead installer
  • Helper, etc.
• See activity durations to get a true picture of your busi­ness production, by:
  • Hour
  • Day
  • Week
  • Month
• Provides flexible scheduling in multiple formats to give you different views.
• See reports about planned vs. actual production, “actionable information” you can use to eliminate bottlenecks and improve your processes and productivity in the future.
• Tightly integrated with zEstimator, QuickBooks and Sage Master Builder for sharing of information:
  • Customers and jobs
  • Cost codes and tasks
  • Employees
  • Equipment

Improve Productivity and Control in Three Easy Steps

1. Choose a job and create a plan

Here is an example of a simple template named “Basic” for a countertop fabrication and installation job. 

2. Schedule activities

• Put your “To Do” items into action.
• Keep some activities in the “Planned Activity” list for later scheduling.
• Schedule activities whenever you want them to be available to the dispatch board.
• Assign one activity several times if needed, such as “install tops.”

3. Assign activities to resources

• When you are ready, just drag the activity onto the dispatch grid create an activity bar and assign it to a crew, an individual or some other resource.
• You can move, resize or modify an activity bar at any time.

      zScheduler: the easiest scheduler to set-up, learn and use

      Set-up

• Unlike other systems, which might take weeks or even months to master, zScheduler can be com­pletely set-up in a few hours.
• Load your resources, enter your customers and jobs and get started.
• Use the activity list templates supplied as-is, mod­ify them or create your own.
• Refine your system with added details and func­tions. You can do this yourself or take advantage of the help offered by one of our industry expert consultants.
• Easy to customize to get the look and feel you want.
  • Control the look and feel to suit your needs.
  • Cus­tomize field labels, bar styles, colors and more to represent different statuses and types of activities.
   

   Learn and use

• How do you keep your schedules up to date?
  • You can manually update or have schedules automatically update from a time data collection system.

Manage

• Use this system, not only to get your scheduling and dispatching done faster and easier, but also as a process improvement tool.

“We have incorporated a throughput report, which has helped us managing the bubble. What can a person get through their department in a day? Can you move people around? Will paying overtime in one area make the other areas more productive? We used to take 60 days to com­plete orders. Now, we are under 20 days from start to fin­ish.” ~ Patrick Beck, McDermott Top Shop

There is simply nothing else like it available anywhere else.

What should you do now?

Call for a demo

Buy it

No risk guarantee. 

• Try zScheduler risk free for 30 days.
• We are confident that you will be amazed at how much easier it is use compared to manual or other traditional Gantt chart type scheduling systems.  
• Your biggest risk is doing nothing and using less efficient systems, wasting countless hours and a lot of money. 

Guaranteed ease of use. 

• Schedulers can learn how to do complete, multi-activity jobs in a couple of hours.
• Absolutely the fastest and easiest scheduling tool you can use for the type of multi-job, multi-task schedules you need to do.