The operations manager has a planning team that focuses on managing the resources (labor, machines, etc.) and must find creative ways to balance the priorities and capacity or what should be done first and who should do it of the operation. Planners must work closely with manufacturing, customer service, shipping, and engineering to ensure the operation makes the right product, for the right customer without exceeding production capacity and still meeting the delivery dates of the customers. 

Discuss some of the challenges and solutions planners deal with to keep resource costs (labor, machines) and deliveries balanced and still meet the customer delivery expectations. Contrast some strategies operations managers use to manage scheduling.