Schedule padding

In transportation, schedule padding, sometimes just called padding, is some amount of 'extra' time added to a schedule that allows it to be resilient to unpredictable delays. Schedule padding is, naturally enough, only required for transportation that operates on a fixed, published schedule, including public transport and airlines, or where timed connections are important, such as in many areas of passenger and freight transportation, where the things being carried need to be transferred to another vehicle. It is not right, therefore, to think of something like a taxi as operating with schedule padding.

For simple trips, schedule padding may be relatively negligible. If a vehicle encounters little delay, it may simply arrive at its destination early and either transact its business or wait until the scheduled time for some rendezvous. In public transport however, a number of timed stops may be strung together into a route and some amount of schedule padding may be needed for each part of the trip. A transit vehicle must not pass a timed stop before it is scheduled to do so, meaning that a conservatively padded schedule (one that has much padding) can substantially reduce overall speeds and increase travel times beyond what might have been necessary. It's important, therefore, to think about the probability and distribution of certain types of delay events, and the desired degree of on-time performance when establishing padding in public transport timetables.

Schedule

A schedule or a timetable, as a basic time-management tool, consists of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place, or of a sequence of events in the chronological order in which such things are intended to take place. The process of creating a schedule - deciding how to order these tasks and how to commit resources between the variety of possible tasks - is called scheduling, and a person responsible for making a particular schedule may be called a scheduler. Making and following schedules is an ancient human activity.

Some scenarios associate "this kind of planning" with learning "life skills". Schedules are necessary, or at least useful, in situations where individuals need to know what time they must be at a specific location to receive a specific service, and where people need to accomplish a set of goals within a set time period.

Schedules can usefully span both short periods, such as a daily or weekly schedule, and long-term planning with respect to periods of several months or years. They are often made using a calendar, where the person making the schedule can note the dates and times at which various events are planned to occur. Schedules that do not set forth specific times for events to occur may instead list algorithmically an expected order in which events either can or must take place.

Microsoft Schedule Plus

Microsoft Schedule+ is a discontinued time management app developed by Microsoft. After discontinuation, most of its functionality was incorporated into Outlook 97. It was originally intended as a companion to Microsoft Mail, but was later shipped with Exchange Server 5.0, Microsoft Office 95, Exchange Client and Windows Messaging. The "Outlook Calendar" that was part of Outlook for Windows 3.1 and Macintosh versions before 9.0 was actually a new version of Schedule+. After discontinuation, it was with all versions of Microsoft Office up to Microsoft Office 2003, although it is just to support conversion from Schedule+ 1.x.

The first version of Schedule+ was released in 1992 for Windows 3.1 and Mac OS. Versions 2 through 6 were skipped, and the next version became version 7, released in 1995 for Windows 95 and Mac OS. Version 7.5 was included with Microsoft Office 97 and later.

See also

References

Schedule (workplace)

A schedule, often called a rota or roster, is a list of employees, and associated information e.g. location, working times, responsibilities for a given time period e.g. week, month or sports season.

A schedule is necessary for the day-to-day operation of many businesses e.g. retail store, manufacturing facility and some offices. The process of creating a schedule is called scheduling. An effective workplace schedule balances the needs of stakeholders such as management, employees and customers.

A daily schedule is usually ordered chronologically, which means the first employees working that day are listed at the top, followed by the employee who comes in next, etc. A weekly or monthly schedule is usually ordered alphabetically, employees being listed on the left hand side of a grid, with the days of the week on the top of the grid. In shift work, a schedule usually employs a recurring shift plan.

A schedule is most often created by a manager. In larger operations, a human resources manager or scheduling specialist may be solely dedicated to creating and maintaining the schedule. A schedule by this definition is sometimes referred to as workflow.