Free job shop scheduling Excel template
A free, macro-free Excel template for job shop scheduling, with one row per operation and a grid that flags overbooked days. Includes how to model a multi-step routing, and where the spreadsheet stops.
Outcome
You have a job shop plan in a spreadsheet. Every workstation carries its daily capacity. Every operation is booked against one workstation. The schedule grid turns red on any overbooked day.
Download the template (.xlsx, 36 KB)
No macros, no sign-up, and no email address. It opens in Excel, LibreOffice Calc, and Google Sheets. It is free to use, copy, and modify.
This is the same workbook as the capacity-planning template. That guide describes every sheet and formula. This guide covers the part a job shop must get right: routings.
Model a routing as one row per operation
A job shop routes each order through several workstations in sequence. The Jobs sheet holds one workstation per row. Enter one row per operation, and repeat the job number on each row.
A bracket order that mills, then grinds, then goes to inspection becomes three rows:
| Job | Workstation | Start | End | Hours/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| J-1051 | WS-01 · Mill 1 | Mon 01 | Tue 02 | 6 |
| J-1051 | WS-04 · Grinder | Wed 03 | Wed 03 | 4 |
| J-1051 | WS-07 · Inspect | Thu 04 | Thu 04 | 2 |
Sort the Jobs sheet by job number. The routing then reads top to bottom.
Set each start date after the previous operation ends. The template will not enforce that order. Check it yourself whenever a date moves.
Use it
- Replace the example workstations with yours. Keep the codes short.
- Delete the example jobs. Enter one row per operation, with the job number repeated.
- Sort by job number, so each routing stays together.
- Open the Schedule sheet. Every red cell is a decision you have not made yet.
Add a Ref or Customer column if you must group rows by order. The formulas ignore extra
columns.
Where this template stops for a job shop
Be straight about this. These limits are what a spreadsheet is, not defects to fix later.
- The routing is a convention, not a rule. Nothing links the three rows of a job. Move the mill operation, and the grinder row will not follow.
- No sequence check. The file will accept an inspection booked before the milling that feeds it.
- Hours only. It catches an overbooked workstation. It does not know that the operator is on another job, or that the fixture is in use elsewhere.
- One editor. Whoever holds the file holds the plan. Everyone else reads a stale copy.
- Manual rebuild. One rush job, and you re-enter every operation it displaced.
The last two cost the most time in a job shop, because routings change often. Outgrowing the machine-shop Excel schedule covers when the file itself becomes the problem.
Bring it into Orkyo
You do not have to retype the plan. The Requests page has an Import from spreadsheet action that reads this workbook.
Workstations become bookable resources. Job rows become scheduled work. See Import and export for what carries over.
In Orkyo a job holds its own requirements. It can book a machine, a qualified person, and the tooling together, and it will report a conflict when any one of them is already taken. See job shop scheduling for how that model works.
Related
- Free capacity-planning Excel template — the full description of every sheet in this workbook.
- What is job shop scheduling? — the concept, and why it is harder than it sounds.
- How to build a production schedule — how to go from a job list to a workable plan.