The schedule lives in one person's head

Write down the rules and let the system make a proposal

Often one person makes the schedule. That person knows which engineer has a certificate, which client is only available in the morning and which van has to go to the garage. The schedule is in Excel or on a board, the knowledge behind it in one head. You see this in construction (in Dutch), transport, healthcare and hospitality.

Do you recognise any of these situations?

• If the planner is ill or on holiday, the schedule stalls or someone starts guessing.
• Changes come in by phone and by app. Only the planner knows what has already been processed.
• Every week you solve the same puzzle again.
• Colleagues keep asking the planner who is where. See everyone asks the same colleague.

How do you get the schedule out of one person's head?

1. Write down the rules. Ask the planner, for every choice: why? Who is allowed to do what, who is available when, what does the client want? Separate hard rules from preferences. See mapping processes.
2. Put the data in one place. Availability, skills and jobs, visible to your team. An API integration can pull them from your own systems.
3. Let the system make a proposal. Software applies the rules and flags what clashes. AI can read changes from email and prepare them.
4. The planner decides. They approve the proposal or adjust it.

What can software do, and what can't it?

Software works with the rules you write down. It doesn't know what nobody wrote down, such as a tough week at home. And a schedule affects people. That is why AI does the groundwork and you, or your planner, decide. Also read automating scheduling with AI.

For De Rijplaten Specialist and De Slowfeeder Specialist, two online shops from Ede, I built an automatic delivery schedule. For each Shopify order, AI chooses between DHL and their own transport, and schedules their own transport into the route. That is about parcels, not people. See the case and automating route planning.

When is it not needed?

For a small team with few changes, a shared calendar is often enough. Write down the rules anyway, so a colleague can stand in. Has it turned into a messy file? Read your Excel lists have got out of hand.

How I help you with this

In the business analysis I write down the rules with your planner and look at where the data is kept. If a standard package is enough, I tell you so. If not, you get a proposal with a fixed price and I build the automation into your own systems.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: Working Hours Act (Arbeidstijdenwet) (in Dutch) (Article 4:2, text in force from 1 July 2025) and Ondernemersplein (the Dutch government's business portal): your employee reports sick (in Dutch). Consulted on 22 October 2026.