How do you calculate dispatch priority score?

Multiply each factor by its weight and add them: due-date urgency × 0.40 + bottleneck impact × 0.35 + customer importance × 0.25. Scoring 9, 8, and 7 gives 8.15.

Why is the due date weighted highest?

In a job shop, missing ship dates is the most visible failure, so due-date urgency carries 40% — the largest single weight. A late job damages the customer relationship directly, ahead of internal flow or margin.

What does the bottleneck impact score capture?

It rates how much a job loads or unblocks your constraint and downstream operations. A job feeding a starved bottleneck scores high because delaying it idles capacity the whole shop depends on.

What is a good dispatch priority score?

Scores are relative — you rank jobs against each other, not against a fixed threshold. On a 0-10 scale, an 8.15 like the example is high priority and should jump the queue ahead of lower-scoring work.

How is this different from first-in-first-out dispatching?

FIFO ignores urgency, the constraint, and customer value, so it routinely runs the wrong job next. Weighted scoring sequences by what protects ship dates and flow, which is why high-mix shops outperform FIFO with it.

Can I change the weights?

The defaults (40/35/25) suit most job shops, but a margin-driven shop might raise customer importance, or a heavily constrained plant might raise bottleneck weight. Keep weights summing to 100%.

ERP & MRP Planning calculator

Job Shop Dispatch Priority Calculator

Job shop dispatch priority turns the messy art of 'what do we run next' into a single weighted score from three factors: how urgent the due date is, how much the job affects the bottleneck and downstream work, and how important the customer or margin is. Lead hands, dispatchers, and schedulers use it to sequence competing work orders objectively instead of by whoever shouts loudest. The weighting (40% due date, 35% bottleneck, 25% customer) reflects what actually protects flow and ship dates in a high-mix job shop. A higher score means run it sooner.

What this calculator does

Score job dispatch priority from due-date urgency, bottleneck impact, and customer or margin importance.
a shop-floor supervisor needs to decide which job should run next
It computes a weighted dispatch priority score by combining due-date urgency (40%), bottleneck impact (35%), and customer importance (25%).

Formula used

Dispatch priority score = due-date urgency × 0.40 + bottleneck impact × 0.35 + customer importance × 0.25

Inputs explained

Due-date urgency score:
Bottleneck or downstream impact score:
Customer or margin importance score:

How to use the result

Use it when sequencing competing jobs at a work center or releasing the next order to the floor.
Scores are relative judgments — they're only as good as the consistency of how you rate each factor across jobs.

Current U.S. benchmarks

Manufacturing hourly earnings average $30.27 (BLS, Jun 2026), up 4.4% from a year earlier. Median machinist pay is $28.24/hr (OEWS 2025), with state medians on each state page. Manufacturers have 529k open positions nationally (BLS JOLTS).
U.S. manufacturing runs at 75.6% of capacity (Federal Reserve, May 2026). New factory orders are up 2.3% year over year (Census).

Common questions

How do you calculate dispatch priority score? Multiply each factor by its weight and add them: due-date urgency × 0.40 + bottleneck impact × 0.35 + customer importance × 0.25. Scoring 9, 8, and 7 gives 8.15.
Why is the due date weighted highest? In a job shop, missing ship dates is the most visible failure, so due-date urgency carries 40% — the largest single weight. A late job damages the customer relationship directly, ahead of internal flow or margin.
What does the bottleneck impact score capture? It rates how much a job loads or unblocks your constraint and downstream operations. A job feeding a starved bottleneck scores high because delaying it idles capacity the whole shop depends on.
What is a good dispatch priority score? Scores are relative — you rank jobs against each other, not against a fixed threshold. On a 0-10 scale, an 8.15 like the example is high priority and should jump the queue ahead of lower-scoring work.
How is this different from first-in-first-out dispatching? FIFO ignores urgency, the constraint, and customer value, so it routinely runs the wrong job next. Weighted scoring sequences by what protects ship dates and flow, which is why high-mix shops outperform FIFO with it.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.