Interactive Excel-Based Gantt Chart Schedule Builder

Many scheduling dispatching rules are intuitive processes used in every day life. For example, when faced with a variety of tasks due at different times one often implements the earliest due date scheduling rule: The next task worked on is the one with the earliest due date. Other common scheduling dispatching rules are easily understood, thereby enabling one to devise the rule when given the opportunity to experiment via trial and error. In this paper, we present an interactive Excel-based Gantt Chart Schedule builder that enables students to experiment with building schedules for different single and parallel machine problem examples. Instead of explicitly telling students these common scheduling rules, the schedule builder enables students to gain intuition about the rules on their own. Herein we describe the interactive schedule builder we created, explain how instructors and students can use this tool, perform a small preliminary assessment on the student perception metric, and provide supplemental teaching materials enabling use of the schedule builder in a variety of classroom environments.