Use the planning board
Get oriented on the Scheduling planning board, where you drag job steps onto machines across a multi-day timeline, and learn to open, read, and use it.
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The planning board is the main screen of the Scheduling module. It is a drag-and-drop board where you decide which machine runs each step of a job, and when. Unplanned work waits in a list on the left; each machine has its own timeline on the right; and you place work by dragging a row from the list onto a machine's timeline.
Use the planning board when you need to turn a pile of open jobs into a concrete, time-ordered plan per machine: for example at the start of a shift, when a rush order arrives, or when a machine goes down and its work has to move elsewhere. A few terms used throughout this guide:
- A job is the work Bulk tracks for one order line. A job is made of ordered steps (also called operations): for example cut, then weld, then finish.
- A resource is a work centre: the kind of work a step needs (such as "Laser cutting" or "Welding"). Each step is tied to one resource.
- An asset is a physical machine. A machine can host a step only when its asset type is set up to allow that step's resource.
- A run is a step once you have placed it on a machine at a specific time. Planning a step creates its run; unplanning it returns the step to the list.
Ranking which step a machine should run next, without placing a time on this timeline, is not done here. Use Prioritisation. It is a second module. In the sidebar, select Prioritisation. It opens at /prioritisation/home. It is not a rename of this board.
Before you start
To open the board you need the View job planning permission; to place or change anything you also need the Plan jobs permission. Both are scoped to the site (entity) you have selected. If you can see the board but cannot drag rows or open the right-click menu on a block, your role has view access only: ask an administrator to grant Plan jobs.
The board also needs data to plan against:
- At least one active machine with a resource allowed on its asset type. Without this the board shows an empty state (see Troubleshooting).
- Open jobs with steps in a plannable state. Steps whose job item is
pending,loadedorin_progresscan be planned. Running steps can still move; completed steps cannot be re-planned.
Open the planning board
In the left sidebar, select Scheduling. The entry opens this board directly. It has no Beta badge, and there is no Planning item under it.
The board opens full-screen at /scheduling/home with its own header, so it can use the whole width. The browser tab title starts with "Planning".
How the board is laid out
The board has three regions: the Work queue on the left, the machine timelines in the centre and right, and a keyboard-shortcut strip along the bottom.
Work queue
The Work queue lists unplanned steps under expandable Order rows. The order table shows Order, Customer and Jobs; its nested step table identifies each Job and Step. Large queues load automatically in batches: the panel first reads Loading work queue…, then keeps the rows already available while Loading more jobs… appears below them. There are no page buttons. Each order shows its job count, and your scroll position stays on the same job while earlier groups fill in.
Press /, or select Find job or step in the header, to search the whole site rather than only the rows that have loaded into the panel. Search shows up to six matching jobs and twelve matching steps at a time. Choosing an unplanned result opens the queue, scrolls to it, and briefly highlights it; if that job is beyond the queue's display limit, Bulk temporarily shows it at the top so you can still act on it. Choose a more specific search phrase when the result you need is not among those first matches. You can also collapse the whole panel to a thin Work queue rail with the double-arrow button and expand it again later.
Each step is a draggable row showing the job number, step name, operation number (OP), resource in Detail, and quantity in pieces (pcs). The available columns can be changed in Display.
Click a row to select it. Ctrl-click (⌘-click on a Mac) adds or removes one row, and Shift-click selects a range: the same gestures as a file list. Space toggles the focused row, Ctrl/⌘ + A selects the loaded rows for that work centre, and Esc clears the selection. A selection stays selected when you scroll it out of view. If a range crosses rows that are still loading, Bulk skips those rows and tells you how many were skipped. Selected rows are outlined; rows belonging to a different resource dim, because a selection can only hold steps that share one work centre.
When the queue is empty it reads Queue is clear. Every step is planned. If a filter matches nothing, it reads No matching work in the queue.
Filter the Work queue
Select Work queue filters (the funnel beside Work queue). The panel title is Filter. The heading reads Where and the field name, for example Where customer.
The fields are Due date, Priority, Customer, Part, Routing, Process, and Ready now, then each job custom field and each order custom field under its own name. For every field except Ready now, choose Is or Is not.
Is keeps jobs that match the values you tick. Is not hides jobs that have one of those values. Jobs with an empty value for that field stay in the queue. With Is not selected, the panel says Hides jobs with the selected values. For every field except Priority, it then says Jobs with no customer are kept, using that field's name in lowercase, such as Jobs with no part are kept or Jobs with no due date are kept. Priority shows only Hides jobs with the selected values. Every job has a priority, so there is no blank priority to keep.
Due date offers Overdue, Due today, and Due this week. Pick one. Priority offers urgent, high, medium, normal, and low. Customer, Part, Routing, Process, and custom fields include Search values.
Ready now is not an Is or Is not choice. The word Is is fixed beside the switch Only steps that are ready to start. The note under it says Hides steps still waiting on an earlier step in the job's routing.
You can set more than one field. Apply changes keeps a job only when it passes every field you set. Apply changes stays off until the filter has a value, and it lasts for this visit only. Clear all removes it. To keep it for next time, open Filter templates (the bookmark beside the funnel) and save a template. Scheduling shares those templates with Prioritisation. Under Generated you can choose Overdue, Due today, Due this week, High priority, or This resource. This resource stays disabled until a selected step gives you a work centre, and the hint is Select a resource first. Under Saved, an empty list reads No saved filters on this site. With Plan jobs, and after you have applied a filter, type a Template name and select Save template.
The box under the Work queue heading is separate. Its label is Filter work queue and its placeholder is Filter queue…. It narrows rows by the words you type. Clear queue filter removes that text. It does not clear a Work queue filters rule.
Machine timelines
To the right of the queue, each active machine gets one row. The row label shows the machine's name, its type, a small load bar with the day's load percentage, and its status: a machine set to maintenance or offline reads Unavailable, and a machine that is switched off reads Inactive. Colour codes on the right edge of each machine label show which resources that machine can accept.
The timeline itself spans several days (three by default). A vertical line marks the current time ("now"). When you start dragging a step, machines that can accept its resource highlight as drop targets and machines that cannot are dimmed: so you can only drop work where it can actually run.
Planned blocks
Each placed run appears as a block on its machine's timeline. A block shows the job number, the step, and its planned time range, and its appearance reflects the real state of the work:
- a normal planned block;
- an in-progress block, which shows how far it has run (for example "running 40%");
- a done block, once the step is completed;
- a conflict block, labelled "overlaps", when two blocks share time on the same machine.
You can resize a block from its right edge to change its duration, remove it with the × button to return the step to the queue, or right-click it for more actions: Split into two runs, Merge all … runs back, Reset to estimate, Find job in queue, Move to time…, Return to queue, and Move to machine. Move to machine shows the machine the block is on now (labelled current), then a short list of other compatible machines with their load. When there are many destinations, a search field appears so you can filter by machine name instead of scrolling a long list.
When several jobs share the same machine and time, the board groups them into a batch: a single block labelled with the number of jobs it holds, which then moves, resizes and unplans as one. A batch cannot be split by quantity, so its menu offers Split apart instead: the jobs keep the machine and run back-to-back from the batch's start time, each at its own duration. They are laid out in sequence rather than left on top of each other, because jobs sharing a machine and a start time outside a batch would be flagged as conflicts.
Header and footer controls
The board header carries the controls that change your view without changing the plan:
- Zoom in and Zoom out stretch or compress the timeline.
- Previous day, the current date label and Next day move the window. The Today button returns to the current time; it is disabled when the navigator is on today.
- Find job or step (keyboard shortcut
/) searches across the whole board and jumps to a match.
Display settings controls the visible asset types and columns. The current header has no Auto-plan button.
The strip along the bottom lists the board's keyboard shortcuts: search, plan, select, add to a selection, select a range, select all, clear, back-to-back drop, and resize: shedding the less-used hints as the window narrows. If the board is showing more work than it can render, a "board truncated: not all runs shown" warning also appears here.
Plan several steps at once
Select several queue rows and drag any one of them: the whole selection travels together, and the drag preview shows how many steps you are carrying.
Where they land depends on one key:
- Drop normally and the steps land as one batch: all at the same time on that machine, as a single block.
- Hold Alt (Option on a Mac) as you drop and they are laid out back-to-back instead, each starting when the previous one ends.
The drag preview states which of the two you are about to get, in words, so you are never guessing from the cursor. Every step in the selection must share one work centre, since a single machine has to be able to run all of them.
Selecting more than one row also reveals an action bar with Plan together…, which opens the same choice in a dialog. That is the route to use without a mouse, since drag-and-drop has no keyboard equivalent.
Choose what the board shows
The gear icon in the header opens Display, which tailors the board to how you work:
- Block title: show the job number, part, step name or routing.
- Block details: choose step name, time range, duration, quantity, job number, part or resource code.
- Queue columns: the job number stays visible; choose step name, operation, resource, quantity, part, resource code and process columns.
- Asset types: choose which kinds of machine appear as lanes. Hiding types you are not planning shortens the board.
These are your own preferences, saved per site, and they persist between sessions. The asset-type choice also filters the Work queue to steps that can run on at least one visible machine type. While Bulk applies a changed filter, the queue shows its loading state instead of leaving old rows visible. These settings change only what you see: never the plan itself.
Planning at Gotham
At Gotham Applied Sciences, a planner expands a customer order and reads its Assembly and Machining steps in the Work queue. The job number, operation, resource and quantity help identify the work before placing it.
The planner can review the owned 2026-4PFP Assembly slot on Gotham Fit Bench from 20:15 to 22:15. Its native menu marks the bench as current and lists Gotham Assembly Cell as another compatible destination. Opening that menu does not move the run.
To plan matching work together, select two Assembly rows. The Machining rows dim, and Plan together… becomes available. Clear the selection to leave the plan unchanged.
What planning does and doesn't change
Planning on this board is a scheduling overlay. It records your intended machine and time for each step; it does not change the machine actually assigned to a job elsewhere in Bulk, and it does not block overlaps. Overlapping placements are allowed and simply flagged as conflicts for you to resolve. Because planning is separate from execution, a plan you build here is a proposal for the shop floor rather than a committed production loading. For how planned work reaches the floor, see the related guide on handing work to production.
Feature state and limitations
Scheduling has no Beta badge in the sidebar. Note the following in this release:
- Auto-plan is not available in the current header. Place work manually.
- The queue can display up to 30,000 jobs. It loads them automatically as one scrollable list. If there are more, the queue reads Showing the first … jobs: search to reach the rest. Search still reaches jobs beyond that display limit.
- The timeline has separate limits. It draws up to 5,000 planned runs across a window of up to 60 days. When the run limit is reached, the footer reads board truncated: not all runs shown; narrow or move the date window to see the rest.
- A selection is limited to one work centre and 25 steps per drop. Larger batches need more than one drag.
- Completed steps cannot be re-planned. Running steps can still move. A completed step is read-only, and its existing block can remain as Done until cleanup.
- Planning is view-only without the Plan jobs permission. Users with only View job planning can read the board but cannot drag, resize, split, merge, or unplan.
Troubleshooting
"No machines to plan on." The board shows this empty state when the selected site has no active machine that accepts any resource. Follow its Open asset settings action, then in Settings → Assets add machines and allow resources on their asset types. Steps can only be planned onto machines whose asset type accepts the step's resource.
A step never appears in the queue. The queue lists unplanned steps on open jobs whose items are pending, loaded or in progress. If a step is missing, check whether its job is closed, the step is completed or it already has a plan.
The queue says "Loading more jobs…". Keep working with the rows already shown; Bulk is adding the next part of the queue automatically. If the message is replaced by Showing the first … jobs: search to reach the rest, use Find job or step for work beyond the 30,000-job display limit.
Search is recovering or unavailable. A temporary search interruption shows Search recovering and retries automatically. For another search error, change the search text to try again, using a specific job number, order number, customer, or step name. Queue scrolling continues separately.
The planning board says "Something went wrong". Select Try again. The page keeps the failure inside Job planning rather than taking down the rest of Bulk.
"board truncated: not all runs shown." The board hit its run limit and some planned work is hidden. Reduce the number of days in view or move the window so fewer runs fall inside it.
You can't drag or edit blocks. Either your role lacks Plan jobs, or the block you are trying to change is completed and locked.
Related guides
- Scheduling overview: where the planning board fits in the module.
- Prioritise work on the board ranks which step each machine runs next, at
/prioritisation/home. Prioritisation is a second module, not a rename of this board. - Place or move a job: step-by-step for dragging, moving, splitting, and batching runs.
- Set a planning time window: zoom, day navigation, and choosing how much time to show.
- Review capacity and resource context: reading machine load, resource compatibility, and conflicts.
- Hand planned work to production: how the plan relates to what runs on the floor.
Scheduling
Plan production job steps onto machine timelines in the Scheduling planning board, then move, resize, split, and balance work before it hits the floor.
Place or move a job
Put an unplanned job step onto a machine at a chosen time, and move or reschedule placed work, on the Scheduling planning board.