Forum Discussion

JesseBerry1's avatar
JesseBerry1
Qrew Trainee
5 years ago

Queue Prioritization

What is the best way to handle this sort of manufacturing scenario in Quick Base?

  • We have jobs that come in for a manufacturing run. Each job can be anywhere from an hour to multiple days
  • We can have anywhere from 2 days worth of jobs queued at any time up to a couple of months of backlog.
  • We need a way to prioritize jobs easily based on incoming new jobs and a number of other real-time factors that happen throughout the day. This is done manually by the manager.
  • Currently, the jobs are stored in an Excel file and the user cuts and pastes rows to re-order them.
  • The user may filter the jobs first and then re-order the currently-displayed jobs.
  • What is a simple way to allow the user to re-order the jobs in Quick Base?

  • If we were to use a number field to order the jobs, anytime a job is moved, all subsequent jobs (in the current view) would need to be renumbered somehow. 
  • Ideally, this could be done through a drag and drop method or at least through gridview or any other simple method


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Jesse Berry
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reports and charts
  • MarkShnier__You's avatar
    MarkShnier__You
    Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
    5 years ago
    Try a Kanban report. Enable manual drag and drop sequencing. https://help.quickbase.com/user-assistance/kanban_manual_ordering.html

    15 columns by I think 50 cards Max per column.

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    Mark Shnier (YQC)
    Quick Base Solution Provider
    Your Quick Base Coach
    http://QuickBaseCoach.com
    mark.shnier@gmail.com
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    • MarkShnier__You's avatar
      MarkShnier__You
      Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
      5 years ago
      But there is no way to expose the sort order within a column on other reports :(

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      Mark Shnier (YQC)
      Quick Base Solution Provider
      Your Quick Base Coach
      http://QuickBaseCoach.com
      mark.shnier@gmail.com
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  • BradLemke's avatar
    BradLemke
    Qrew Assistant Captain
    5 years ago
    Are all of these jobs being entered into quickbase and an excel sheet at the same time?  What kind of manufacturing 'steps' do you have (ex: awaiting release for production, awaiting production of xyz, awaiting pickup/delivery, etc)?  What dictates the re-prioritization of jobs - and how often do those jobs get re-ordered?

    Lastly - how much leeway do you have with adding to/retooling your Quickbase app?

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    Brad Lemke
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    • JesseBerry1's avatar
      JesseBerry1
      Qrew Trainee
      5 years ago
      Mark, I also thought about a KanBan report but it doesn't display enough info for each job and new jobs coming in should be at the end of the queue. As you re-prioritize existing jobs, the new jobs should be at the end but you are limited on how many categories you can use in a KanBan. It would run out too quickly.

      Brad, right now they are entering into Excel and Quick Base. I tried to get them to make the switch to Quick Base but it was taking too much work to re-order the jobs and they reverted. I had originally to set it up so that they would change the Start Date and Time of the jobs (and sort by that ) but then they would have to change all subsequent jobs for any single change.

      For tracking in Quick Base, the steps we need to track for a job is "New", "In Progress", and "Complete". The re-prioritization can be a number of things like access to raw materials to even things like a Customer calling in an urgent order. There isn't a way to calculate the priority based on what is saved in Quick Base, it's a judgement call by a manager. The re-ordering can happen anywhere from once every couple days to multiple times a day. We occasionally get a rush order for several small jobs that all get prioritized to the front of the line.

      I am open to completely re-writing the Quick Base app if there is a good solution out there.

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      Jesse Berry
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      • BradLemke's avatar
        BradLemke
        Qrew Assistant Captain
        5 years ago
        How precise does the order need to be?  Does it need to be a literal 'do this exact one and then this exact one and then this one....' or is it more of a 'all these need to be done today, these need to be done tomorrow, these are hot and need to be done now' type of process?

        Do you have job 'classifications'?  My company uses "Hot-Shot, Commercial, Residential, and Store", and the reports are also set up to group those classes together, putting them in that order, respectively.  

        You could also add an 'on hold' status which then requires a note field be filled in with the reason for being on hold.

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        Brad Lemke
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