Set priority rules for the combined order book
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Two local schedules can both be reasonable until they compete for the same people and equipment. Agree who can settle the conflict before the combined operation begins. Otherwise, the person receiving the latest urgent call may become the scheduler by default.
Start from the actual customer commitments and the work already under way. A preferred internal sequence does not itself change a delivery agreement. Where a promise needs to change, give that conversation to the person authorised to handle the customer relationship.
A scheduling meeting with an unresolved conflict
In a fictional combined workshop, Team A expects a repair to take the first available inspection slot because its customer has stopped production. Team B has already promised that slot to a completed order awaiting dispatch. Neither team has spare inspection capacity confirmed.
A useful meeting records four things:
- What each customer has actually been told, including the source and date.
- What work remains before either job can use the slot.
- Which alternatives have been checked and which are only suggestions.
- Who decides the internal sequence and who contacts each affected customer.
Calling one order "urgent" does not settle the decision. Both may have serious consequences. The point is to make the conflict visible to someone with enough authority and information to resolve it.
This is different from finding the combined process bottleneck. A bottleneck shows where the work is constrained; a priority rule explains how the business makes choices when demand exceeds that constraint.
Write a rule people can actually use
Avoid a long list in which every category has first priority. Choose a short set of factors the scheduler must check, and specify the escalation route when they point in different directions. The factors might include confirmed commitments, work readiness, customer impact and the cost of interrupting an operation. Their relative importance belongs to your business.
Record exceptions alongside the reason and the approving person. That makes a deliberate commercial choice distinguishable from a job that slipped ahead because someone walked across the office.
Give the shared inspection service the same decision record. A schedule held in the office is of little use if the inspection team receives a different verbal instruction at the bench.
Protect the smaller operation from unrecorded promises
After consolidation, the old sites may continue accepting work in their former ways. Make the available capacity and the new acceptance route visible to everyone who can promise a date. A request for a quotation should not quietly become a booked production slot.
Review repeated exceptions through the first-month workload check. If the same class of work always needs intervention, the standard plan may be wrong. Repeatedly changing the queue will not create the missing capacity.
Keep equipment needed for unresolved work out of a confirmed disposal instruction. Once the operation has released it, discuss the surplus and its timing with UK Auction Group. The sale conversation should reflect the agreed schedule, including any remaining conditions.
Sources
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