Simplifying Production Scheduling in Business Central with Graphical Scheduler

Visual scheduling in Business Central doesn’t need to be complicated. In this episode, Ryan and Emma tackle the all-too-common challenges manufacturers face when dealing with overengineered scheduling systems—long implementation times, disconnected data, and bloated features. Instead, they introduce the Graphical Scheduler, a lightweight, drag-and-drop tool that lives natively inside Business Central. It’s built for clarity and speed—offering real-time visibility, intuitive controls, customizable views by role, and zero integration headaches. Whether you’re a production planner, shop floor supervisor, or operations manager, this episode shows how to regain control of your schedule without the need for a planning PhD.

Website: https://SchedulerForDynamics.com

Episode Transcript

(04:00):
Welcome to Inside Insight, your quick hit of

(58:41):
tips, tools and trends for manufacturing, Distribution

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and Dynamics 365 Business Central, brought

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to you by Insight Works.

Ryan (03:22:14):
Welcome to the deep dive. Okay, so today we're digging into something

(04:16:55):
I think a lot of you using Microsoft Dynamics

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365 Business Central might be bumping up against.

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It's a great system, Business Central, really

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powerful, but let's be honest, right? It sometimes

(07:55:39):
leaves these gaps.

Emma (08:16:10):
Yeah, exactly. Little operational gaps.

Ryan (08:48:50):
Right. And we're going to look at how to fill

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those gaps not with, you know, huge expensive

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projects, but with some really high impact

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things that won't actually cost you a penny.

Emma (11:20:50):
That's the key part. Because look, Business

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Central, it's a big step up for businesses,

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no doubt, but we hear it all the time. Common

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things like, you know, exporting data to Excel

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way more than you probably should be.

Ryan (14:28:10):
Oh yeah, the Excel workaround, that old chestnut.

Emma (15:17:30):
Or dealing with paper forms for things. Or

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just switching different tools constantly for

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like basic everyday tasks. It's frustrating.

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And what's really interesting is these aren't

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like super rare problems. They're daily friction

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points for a lot of teams.

Ryan (19:33:10):
Okay, let's unpack that a bit. Those friction

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points, what are we really talking about? Day

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to day things like maybe tracking safety incidents

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on a spreadsheet somewhere, or manually printing

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out shipping labels one by one.

Emma (23:35:10):
Yep, classic examples.

Ryan (24:01:50):
Or like trying to forecast inventory based

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more on gut feel than actual data. Or maybe

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not being able to easily say, scan barcodes

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with a mobile device out in the warehouse.

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I bet some of that sounds familiar to folks

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listening.

Emma (27:33:50):
Oh, absolutely. And these things, they seem

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small, right? Just little inefficiencies, but

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they really stack up.

Ryan (29:24:30):
How so?

Emma (29:36:30):
Well, they cost time. Obviously they can lead

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to errors, which costs money, maybe even impacts

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credibility if things go wrong. And maybe most

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importantly, they pull your team away from,

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you know, the actual important work, the strategic

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stuff.

Ryan (33:16:50):
We're just distractions. Busy work.

Emma (33:45:30):
Exactly. But if we look at the bigger picture

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here, the good news really is you don't have

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to just live with those limitations. There's

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actually a growing set of free apps, really

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high impact ones, built for Business Central

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and they help fix exactly these kinds of broken

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bits in the workflow. And the crucial thing

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is they integrate natively.

Ryan (39:22:10):
Natively. So what does that mean in practice?

Emma (40:02:50):
It means they're built right inside Business

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Central's own structure. It's not like bolting

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on a completely separate system. It feels like

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it was always part of BC uses your existing

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data. There's no, no Complex middleware, no

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separate databases to manage.

Ryan (44:22:50):
Oh, I see. So that's why you avoid the big

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IT project headache and the extra overhead.

Emma (45:57:30):
Precisely.

Ryan (46:07:30):
Okay, so free high impact apps that integrate

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natively. I mean, for some listeners, that

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might sound a bit, well, maybe too good to

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be true. You know, free sometimes means limited

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or actually really complicated to use.

Emma (49:28:40):
Yeah, that's a fair question. And it gets to

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the core of why these are valuable. The high

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impact part isn't just about the zero cost.

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It's about how they solve a specific painful

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problem really effectively right out of the

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box.

Ryan (52:38:40):
Okay, give me an example.

Emma (53:00:40):
Sure. Take WMS Express. It's for warehouse

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management. It's not just like basic mobile

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scanning. It gives you real time inventory

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accuracy because your team's mobile devices

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and barcode readers talk directly to Business

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Central.

Ryan (56:44:20):
Right, so less chance of picking errors, faster

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shipping.

Emma (57:44:20):
Exactly. It speeds up fulfillment, improves

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accuracy, big impact. Or think about data.

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The Import Export PowerTool.

Ryan (59:59:00):
Right.

Emma (60:04:20):
This isn't just your standard data import function.

Ryan (60:45:40):
Okay.

Emma (60:55:00):
This thing can, like, turbocharge, migrating

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data, doing mass updates, even mass deletes,

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handling thousands of records in just minutes.

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It turns something that used to be a massive

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manual chore.

Ryan (64:18:10):
Yeah, thank you.

Emma (64:30:50):
Into something super quick. Imagine deploying

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new setups or cleaning data that fast.

Ryan (65:44:50):
Wow. Okay, I can definitely see how that would

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save a ton of time and probably frustration

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too. Yeah, what about some of those other things

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you mentioned earlier, like safety or shipping?

Emma (67:54:10):
Yep, Got solutions there too, for safety and

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compliance. There's the Safety Logbook. It

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basically lets you track and report incidents

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right inside Business Central.

Ryan (70:18:10):
So ditch the spreadsheet or the clipboard.

Emma (71:02:10):
Exactly. Get it all in one system. Makes it

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easier to stay on top of safety protocols,

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you know? And then for shipping, especially

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domestic parcels, there's Order Ship Express.

Ryan (73:42:10):
Okay.

Emma (73:51:30):
It's a license free app. Makes shipping really

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hassle free. You can print your labels instantly,

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right from B.C. no switching systems.

Ryan (76:15:30):
Hmm. So these aren't just little tweaks then.

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They're actually hitting significant bottlenecks.

Emma (77:36:50):
That's the point they address real often costly

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operational roadblocks. And by doing that,

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they let your team shift focus from that kind

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of busy work to making better decisions, doing

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more valuable things. It's about enhancing

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productivity, really.

Ryan (82:30:00):
So wrapping this up then, what does this all

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mean for you? If you're listening?

Emma (83:23:20):
Well, if you're already using Business Central,

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it sounds like you're actually much closer

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than you might think to smoothing out those

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workflow headaches.

Ryan (85:06:40):
Definitely.

Emma (85:14:40):
These free apps, they integrate seamlessly

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and they're ready to go. Basically, they seem

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designed to give you real value without the

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usual hurdles, you know, the cost or the technical

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complexity. Yeah, and maybe a final thought

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to consider is this. Think about your own operations.

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What are those daily tasks that cause the most

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friction? The ones that slow things down or

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just feel inefficient?

Ryan (91:58:30):
Good question.

Emma (92:11:50):
How much time could your team actually get

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back? And maybe more importantly, what bigger

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problems, what more strategic initiatives could

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they tackle if they weren't bogged down by

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that stuff? Stuff Just by using a free Focus

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tool that plugs right into the system you already

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have.