There are two different scheduling problems contained in this video. The first is the problem of scheduling enough employees to handle the incoming orders. The number of employees needed each day and even each hour depends on the number of incoming orders and the number of orders that can be processed by each employee. Other considerations may also come into play since jobs may require different skills, employees will possess different skills, and issues like personalities and reliability will affect performance. Scheduling amidst all of these variables is difficult. While it can be accomplished through trial and error over time, managers can speed up the process by employing some specialized scheduling heuristics that suggest "pretty good" initial solutions for scheduling situations.

The second scheduling problem is how to schedule the orders to be filled. Normally, the orders are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis, but this is not necessarily the most efficient way to schedule the work. When we are scheduling people rather than jobs, for example in a grocery store, we are restricted to using a first-come, first-serve rule, but in scheduling of jobs we can use other methods. If there is no compelling need to process orders as received, CanGo may find it can accomplish more by scheduling a series of easy and/or similar orders together. In the Introductory Video, for example, Warren alludes to a shortest processing time rule that might better fit weekend circumstances when CanGo wants as many orders as possible ready for Monday morning pickup.

 
 
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