Production scheduling is the process of assigning manufacturing work to specific time periods, resources, and operating sequences. It turns production requirements into a practical schedule for when jobs, batches, or work orders should run on equipment, lines, cells, or work centers.
In manufacturing systems, production scheduling commonly considers due dates, material availability, labor, tooling, equipment capacity, changeovers, routings, and priority rules. The schedule may be managed in ERP, APS, MES, or other planning and execution systems, depending on the level of detail and how close it is to shop floor execution.
Production scheduling is related to, but not the same as, production planning. Production planning defines what needs to be made and at what general volume or period. Production scheduling defines when and in what sequence that work is expected to run. It also differs from dispatching, which is the short-term release or prioritization of work at the point of execution.