The Scheduling Challenge
Your fitting teams are your most expensive resource. Every hour a fitter isn't installing is money lost. Yet most glazing companies have significant gaps in their installation schedules — caused by cancellations, poor planning, and disconnected systems.
Common Scheduling Problems
1. Cancellation Gaps
A customer cancels their installation at short notice, leaving a two-day gap in the fitter's diary. Without a waitlist system, that gap stays empty.
2. Geographic Inefficiency
A fitter doing a one-day job in Manchester on Monday and a two-day job in Birmingham on Tuesday wastes hours in travel.
3. Material Delays
Products arrive late from the factory, but the installation is still scheduled. The fitter arrives with no materials to install.
4. Survey-to-Install Bottleneck
Sales are closed but the survey and technical check hasn't happened yet, so installation can't be scheduled.
Optimising Your Install Diary
Capacity Planning
Know your capacity: how many fitting days do you have available per week? How many are currently booked? What's your utilisation rate? Aim for 85%+ utilisation.
Geographic Clustering
Schedule installations in the same area on consecutive days. Reduce travel time between jobs and increase productive installation hours.
Buffer Scheduling
Build in small buffer days for overruns, snagging, and emergency repairs. A schedule with zero slack quickly falls apart.
Waitlist Management
Maintain a list of customers who can move their installation forward at short notice. When a cancellation creates a gap, you have customers ready to fill it.
Linking Sales to Installation
Your CRM should connect the sales pipeline to the installation diary:
- When a sale is confirmed, installation scheduling begins automatically
- Material orders are triggered by confirmed sales
- Survey scheduling happens within defined timeframes
- The installation team can see upcoming jobs and prepare accordingly