Development of a Production Schedule Application

Despite having world-class print technology, our current method for scheduling production jobs remains largely manual, using spreadsheets, verbal communication, and siloed documentation. This leads to inefficiencies in forecasting, lack of visibility across teams, missed opportunities for optimization, and inconsistent job tracking. With increasing job volumes and the complexity of multi-machine workflows, Marketing Kitchen needs a smarter, centralized production scheduling system.

The challenge is to digitize a previously manual, experience-based scheduling process and introduce intelligent controls that work across a diverse range of equipment, print modes, and variable production scenarios. This requires translating real-world, floor-level knowledge into configurable and scalable logic structures, while also ensuring the system is intuitive, secure, and extensible.

The proposed initiative is the first phase in developing a full-stack digital application—built with Next.js/React frontend and Node.js backend—to streamline scheduling, improve visibility, and introduce logic-based estimation and automation into our production environment. This project is crucial not only for operational efficiency but also for preparing the groundwork for future integrations with downstream automation and analytics systems.

Faculty Supervisor:

Judene Pretti

Student:

Partner:

Marketing Kitchen Inc.

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Waterloo

Program: