how to create an "interruption" in a schedule?

CowHorse

We are using Smartsheet as a manufacturing/production planning tool. I've created a sheet format that allows us to do exactly that, with tasks for individuals involving dependencies on other parts/processes. For example, a part is routed to engineering for design, the engineering manager for approval, purchasing to order material, machining, assembly, shipping, etc. This works fine, until there is an interruption in the process. Say R&D need a part made last minute, what would be a best practice to document this in Smartsheet so that essentially lag time can be inserted in the middle of a task?

 

 

J. Craig Williams

CowHorse,

 

Lots of choices here.

I would either:

 

1. In the simplest example, machining/ordering a new part is a new task, so it gets add to the schedule. This is not really a lag, but just an unexpected problem.

 

2. Assuming there really is a lag - the customer's funds are temporarily diverted and they request a 2 month delay on the project. Of course, they aren't will to pay for the engineers to sit on their hands and they aren't willing to pay for continued work in case they decide to not continue later so management calls a complete halt to the work.

 

Then I would add an new row for the delay and point successors this row's dates.

This likely means splitting tasks that are partially completed when the work-stoppage is called too.

 

3. If the tasks are clean (by which I mean there are no unfinished tasks to deal with, only unstarted ones), you might be able to get away with just adding a delay to any unstarted tasks (the first ones, not all of them - since shifting one will shift its successors automatically)

 

In most cases, a new row and an update of the schedule to account for it is likely in order.

 

Craig

 

Charles DESCOTES

Beside,

You may want to create a new column to keep track of the situation before adding the lag/withhold period.

Although 'View cell history...' will be there to tell you with a few clicks, the new column with pre-change data will enable you calculations to monitor your delays.

CowHorse

In a perfect world I would want it to look like this, although I'm sure there isn't a way to do that without Photoshop...

J. Craig Williams

CowHorse,

 

Smartsheet won't spilt the task like you show in the Gantt chart.

 

Craig

CowHorse

It would be nice if it could - but what I'm looking for is a way to essentially accoplish the same thing, as it is not possible currently. 

J. Craig Williams

CowHorse,

 

This just opens up a whole can of worms and depending on what you (the user) are trying to accomplish, simple is usually better than complex,

 

Craig

CowHorse

Yes, the struggle to keep our smartsheets simple is ongoing. We understand that we are using Smartsheet in a way it is not really intended to be used. It has been working well enough for those of us on the production management side of things, it's just that our management team wants more out of Smartsheet than it is capable of providing - at least at the moment.