Forward scheduling and backward scheduling are key concepts in production planning. What are the differences between the two approaches and which one should you choose for your manufacturing business?

1. FORWARD SCHEDULING VS.
BACKWARD SCHEDULING IN
PRODUCTION PLANNING

2. Forward scheduling and backward scheduling are key concepts in
production planning. What are the differences between the two approaches
and which one should you choose for your manufacturing business?

3. It is hard to overestimate the role production scheduling plays in the proper functioning
of a manufacturing company.
Every business has to ensure that it uses its resources reasonably while completing
orders in time. Material assets, workers’ time, and production equipment have to be
well managed to ensure that costs do not eat away the profits and that customer
expectations are met.
Production schedules are created to detail when specific workers should use specific
equipment and materials to make a specific product. Companies can use either
forward or backward scheduling to allocate resources, plan production, and make the
necessary purchases that go into fulfilling customer orders.
Why is production scheduling important?

4. Forward scheduling means fulfilling production orders as soon as possible, according to
the availability of the necessary resources. In a forward production schedule, tasks are
scheduled in a row, in the order that they come in. The manufacturer provides the
customer with a possible delivery time as a prediction that accounts for resource
availability.
Basically, forward scheduling answers the question “When, at the earliest, can
production start?”
What is Forward Scheduling?

5. Forward scheduling makes perfect sense, especially in serial production. When an
order comes in, add it on top of the pile. It is easy to make sure that your workstations
are loaded airtight. This is a simple approach to planning: the customer tells you what
they need, and you tell them when the possible delivery time is.
However straightforward this approach is, it might not work very effectively if you make
to order or produce according to a sales forecast. It might happen that a lot of orders
are filled long before they need to be shipped – they take up storage and keep assets
standing –, and other orders go overdue because the requested delivery date was not
considered while planning.

6. The clear-cut and simple premise of forward scheduling offers some convincing benefits,
but it may also become a disadvantage in some environments.
The benefits of forward scheduling are:
• Easy to schedule manually.
• High rate of labor and machinery utilization as jobs are piled on top of each other.
Benefits of Forward Scheduling

7. The disadvantages of forward scheduling are:
• Higher inventory holding costs due to jobs being completed earlier than necessary,
with finished products requiring handling and storage space.
• Longer lead times as production is always scheduled to capacity which cannot be
increased when new orders come in.
• Risk of material stock-outs due to materials being consumed in advance. When an
unexpected high-priority order comes in, there might not be enough of the
necessary materials available to fulfill the order.
• There is little room for rush orders – a rush order could derail the current
production, procurement, and delivery schedule.

8. Backward scheduling, also referred to as reverse scheduling or just-in-time
manufacturing, means that production orders are scheduled according to the clients’
requested delivery dates. When a customer puts in an order and requests a specific
deadline, production is scheduled so that the order is fulfilled precisely by its due time.
Simply put, backward scheduling answers the question “When, at the latest, can
production start in order to fulfill the order in time?”
What is Backward Scheduling?

9. Manually done, it is a cumbersome task to make sure that every single operation gets
planned correctly – considering workstation loading, planned maintenances, holidays, and
much more. That is why companies that want to employ this scheduling approach need to
make use of a manufacturing ERP system that makes sure that all orders are scheduled so
that they are filled just in time. When a requested delivery date is not attainable, i.e. when
resources are not available in the necessary quantity in the timeframe the customer
provides, the software will notify you instantly.

10. Although backward scheduling is much more complex than forward scheduling due to
accounting for many moving parts, there are some substantial advantages to using it.
These include:
• Lower inventory levels thanks to orders being completed just in time, resulting in
lower inventory holding costs.
• Increased production efficiency thanks to optimal use of capacity.
• Shorter lead times.
• More flexible delivery time from the customer’s perspective, which increases
customer satisfaction.
Benefits of Backward Scheduling

11. Some of the disadvantages are:
• Little buffer time when something unexpected occurs, which may result in missed deadlines.
• Bottlenecking when suppliers are unavailable (yet the JIT method has dictated there should be
minimal safety stock). Production cannot resume until there are materials available.

12. Both scheduling methods have their benefits. But which one should you choose? Well,
that depends entirely on what and how you manufacture. Generally, make-to-stock
manufacturers use forward scheduling while make-to-order manufacturers (but also
those that make to stock according to a sales forecast) can opt for backward
scheduling.
Which method should you use?

13. However, these two methods of scheduling can also be mixed. Companies can use different
methods for different situations. For example, when a large number of orders come in
unexpectedly, you can use backward scheduling to sort them out by their due dates. Then, when
orders dry up for a while, you can again turn to forward scheduling to better utilize your
production capacity and available resources.
The best way to make sense of scheduling would be to use MRP software. Using an MRP or
manufacturing ERP system allows you to use both approaches concurrently, ensuring optimal
scheduling at all times. The software accounts for all of the moving parts in the process so you
would not have to, providing you with accurate lead times and tightly woven schedules.

14. • Forward scheduling means fulfilling production orders as soon as possible,
according to the availability of the necessary resources.
• The benefits of forward scheduling are high capacity utilization and ease of use.
• Backward scheduling (also known as reverse scheduling or Just-in-Time
manufacturing) means that production orders are scheduled according to the
clients’ requested delivery dates.
• The benefits of backward scheduling are lower holding costs, increased production
efficiency, and shorter lead times.
Key takeaways

15. • Whether forward or backward scheduling is a better option, depends entirely on the
situation: when there are a lot of orders coming in, backward scheduling helps make
sense of them without stretching lead times longer than they should be; when there
are fewer orders, forward scheduling offers a straightforward way to schedule
production.
• The best way to approach scheduling is to use an ERP system that allows you to use
both methods at the same time.

17. https://manufacturing-software-blog.mrpeasy.com/backward-
scheduling/
https://www.mrpeasy.com/