Scheduling
Delays and busy blocks
Days run late. Say so once, and every waiting customer finds out without asking.
The four tools
Announces that you are running late by a number of minutes. Every waiting customer’s estimate moves and they see why.
Reserves time you are not available — lunch, a meeting, a long procedure. Nothing is scheduled into it.
Adds time at the end of a day that overran, without disturbing anything already scheduled.
Closes a lane for the day. Anyone still with that member of staff is dealt with rather than stranded.
Delay everyone, or delay one lane
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Whole-queue delay | Applies to everybody waiting. For something affecting the entire operation — a system outage, a late opening, a fire drill. |
| Single-lane delayMax | Applies to one member of staff. For one person running behind while everyone else is on time. |
Whole-queue delay
Applies to everybody waiting. For something affecting the entire operation — a system outage, a late opening, a fire drill.Single-lane delayMax
Applies to one member of staff. For one person running behind while everyone else is on time.
A delay is honesty, not an admission
How a delay behaves
A delay shifts what customers are shown; it does not shuffle anybody's place in the queue. The order you built stays exactly as it was. Anyone already overdue moves along with everyone else, so a lane running late does not leave its earliest customers showing a time that has already passed. Clearing the delay puts every estimate back.