Production Dispatch Board

This topic is part of the SG Systems Global regulatory & operations guide library.

Updated January 2026 • production dispatch board, job queue visibility, real-time dispatch, readiness gating, exception states, OEE/OTIF • Dietary Supplements (USA)

Production dispatch board is the real-time, shop-floor control surface that tells a line or work center what to run next, what is running now, and what is blocked—with the reasons. In an MES, this is not a “pretty TV dashboard.” It’s an operational interface tied to execution states, gating rules, and governed overrides, so the board reflects what can be executed—not what someone hopes can be executed.

Plants that rely on manual dispatch have a predictable failure pattern: the schedule becomes a suggestion, the job queue becomes a battleground, and “expedite culture” slowly destroys compliance. Work starts without full readiness, exceptions get handled as notes, and QA ends up doing forensic review instead of targeted verification. The dispatch board is where you stop that drift by making the next action clear, constrained, and auditable.

In dietary supplements, dispatch boards matter because packaging changeovers are frequent, SKU similarity is high, and lot status can change fast. If your board can’t surface holds, training gates, calibration gates, and blocked steps in real time, supervisors will work around the system to keep output moving. That’s not a people problem. It’s a control design problem. A production dispatch board fixes that by turning “tribal knowledge” into a governed, visible, execution-ready queue.

“If the board says ‘start it’ but the system lets you start the wrong thing, the board is decoration.”

1) What buyers mean by production dispatch board

Buyers mean: “give me one place where the floor can see the truth and act on it.” Specifically, they want a board that:

• shows what work is released and eligible to run, not everything in the plan
• shows what is blocked and why (material hold, training gate, calibration gate, missing verification)
• supports controlled actions (start, re-sequence, assign resources) without creating bypass paths
• is aligned to real-time execution so the board updates as reality changes

In short: a production dispatch board is the “single operational truth” for dispatching. If the floor is using three systems and two spreadsheets to figure out what to run next, you do not have dispatch control—you have coordination debt.

When the board is done correctly, it becomes the practical bridge between operations and quality. Operations gets speed because the board prevents starts that will inevitably be stopped later. QA gets speed because the record becomes more trustworthy, enabling downstream review models like batch review by exception (BRBE).

2) Dispatch board vs schedule vs “TV dashboard”

A lot of vendors blur these terms. Don’t. The differences are operationally critical.

A dispatch board is closer to a Kanban board than a report: it’s visual work control that must reflect constraints and enforce flow. But unlike generic Kanban, regulated dispatch requires explicit gating rules tied to training, calibration, lot status, and quality holds.

3) Non-negotiables: the “Ready–Visible–Governed” test

To evaluate any production dispatch board, run these three tests. If any fail, the board will be ignored or abused within weeks.

In regulated manufacturing, “governed” also means the board actions must not create bypass paths around execution control. If you can start work from the board without triggering step-level enforcement and context locking, you’ve created a compliance hole.

4) Architecture: queue, states, constraints, and actions

A production dispatch board is typically built from four layers:

• Queue layer: the job queue for the work center, filtered by job release.
• State layer: real-time execution states driven by a state machine and controlled by state transition management.
• Constraint layer: readiness checks for materials, people, equipment, and quality status.
• Action layer: controlled actions the floor can take (start, pause, changeover, re-sequence) with permissions and audit trails.

In a strong MES design, the dispatch board is not “another data view.” It is a first-class execution component connected to manufacturing order execution control and work order execution. That’s how you prevent “board drift” where the board says one thing and execution reality is somewhere else.

Dispatch boards also benefit from pairing with asset-state-aware scheduling. If planning ignores asset readiness, the board becomes a constant list of blocked work, and supervisors will try to override. Good planning reduces blocked candidates; good dispatch boards make the remaining constraints visible and enforceable.

5) Board states: running, ready, blocked, hold, exception

The board must reflect execution reality in a small set of states that everyone understands. If you need training to interpret the board, the board will be ignored.

Two “anti-patterns” to avoid:

• Invisible blocks. If the board simply hides non-ready jobs, supervisors will assume the system is missing work and will override.
• Ambiguous blocks. If “blocked” doesn’t show the reason (hold vs training vs calibration), you force manual investigation and waste time.

6) Readiness gates the board must respect

A production dispatch board is only as good as the readiness logic behind it. In regulated environments, “readiness” must include compliance gates, not just material availability.

At minimum, the board must reflect and enforce these gates:

• Material status gates: lots on hold/quarantine are non-startable; substitutions require governed processes.
• Equipment readiness gates: equipment must pass execution eligibility and measurement steps must pass calibration-gated execution.
• People readiness gates: critical steps require training-gated execution and appropriate authority boundaries.
• Process sequence gates: steps must follow operation sequencing under step enforcement.
• Quality gates: open exceptions (deviation/NC) must drive holds and block starts where required (see automated hold trigger logic).

Dispatch boards that ignore these gates create predictable “compliance whiplash”: operations starts work to keep the line running, then quality blocks release later, then leadership pressures QA, then the plant loosens controls, then issues recur. The dispatch board is where you break that cycle by enforcing readiness at the front end.

7) Board actions: start, pause, changeover, re-sequence

A good dispatch board is interactive, but interaction must be controlled. Typical board actions include:

• Start next job: begin execution from the queue, respecting context locking and operator action validation.
• Pause / hold: shift a job into a blocked/hold state with governed reasons and links to quality objects when required.
• Re-sequence queue: reorder within allowed bounds (e.g., priority changes, changeover minimization), controlled by RBAC and logged.
• Assign resource: set equipment/line assignment for an operation if your process allows flexible routing.

Re-sequencing is where many dispatch boards fail compliance. If supervisors can reorder the queue without rules and without audit trails, you create a hidden decision history. That matters for investigations: “why did we run Lot B before Lot A?” becomes a political argument instead of a traceable fact.

That’s why board actions must be:

• Permissioned via RBAC and maintained through disciplined access provisioning / user access management.
• Separated by SoD and, where risk requires, dual control.
• Logged in audit trails so the decision history is defensible.

8) Event-driven updates: why real-time matters

Dispatch boards live or die on freshness. If the board is stale, the floor stops trusting it. This is why dispatch boards pair naturally with event-driven manufacturing execution.

Events that must update the board immediately include:

• material status changes (release, hold, quarantine)
• equipment state changes affecting eligibility or calibration compliance
• operator availability changes affecting training gates
• step completion or rejection under step enforcement
• exceptions detected via execution-time deviation detection and captured via deviation capture

Real-time matters because dispatch is a control function, not a report. If the board refreshes every 15 minutes, you’re creating execution latency risk: operators will start work based on outdated readiness assumptions.

9) KPIs that prove the board is improving execution

Dispatch boards should create measurable improvements. If they don’t, they’ll be ignored. These KPIs show whether the board is driving better flow and better compliance.

Two KPI interpretations matter:

• High blocked work is useful data. It reveals readiness failures upstream (training, calibration, inventory status discipline). The solution is fixing the system, not bypassing it.
• Low dispatch adherence is a warning flare. It means the board is wrong often enough that the floor stopped believing it.

10) Copy/paste demo script and selection scorecard

A vendor can fake dashboards. They can’t fake controlled dispatch if you test the right conditions. Use this script.

11) Selection pitfalls: how dispatch boards get faked

• Read-only “TV board.” If it can’t control actions, it can’t control execution.
• False readiness. Jobs shown as ready that fail holds/training/calibration destroy trust.
• Hidden re-sequencing. If queue changes aren’t logged, your decision history is gone.
• Bypass start paths. If someone can start work outside the board without gates, dispatch control is fake.
• Reasonless blocks. “Blocked” without a specific reason forces manual investigation and wastes time.
• Manual typing as normal. If core execution evidence can be typed freely, you’ll get “plausible fiction.”
• No linkage to quality objects. If exceptions don’t link to deviation/NC controls, holds become informal.

12) How this maps across MES, WMS, and QMS controls

Dispatch boards are cross-domain by nature because readiness depends on multiple systems of record:

• MES execution: MES controls steps, states, and real-time execution truth.
• Inventory & status: WMS drives lot/location availability and enforces hold/quarantine status in movement.
• Quality governance: eQMS governs deviations, nonconformance, investigations, and release decisions.

A strong dispatch board does not replace those systems. It respects them and makes their constraints operational. That’s why dispatch boards are a compliance lever: they prevent the common failure mode where policies exist in QA documents but are not enforced during busy shifts.

13) Extended FAQ

Q1. What is a production dispatch board?
A production dispatch board is the real-time execution-ready queue for a line or work center, showing what to run next and what is blocked, with governed actions.

Q2. How is this different from production scheduling?
Scheduling is a plan. A dispatch board is the real-time decision surface that reflects what can actually run now based on readiness gates.

Q3. What makes a dispatch board “regulated”?
It must respect training, calibration, hold/quarantine, and step sequencing gates, and it must log queue changes in an audit trail with controlled access.

Q4. Should operators be able to reorder the queue?
Usually no. Re-sequencing should be permissioned via RBAC and protected by SoD, with reason codes and audit logging.

Q5. What is the biggest red flag?
If the board says “Ready” while the job is blocked by holds, training, or calibration—or if the board allows starts that bypass enforcement gates.

Related Reading
• Dispatch Foundations: Job Queue | Job Release | Production Scheduling | Real-Time Shop Floor Execution
• Execution Control: Execution State Machine | Batch State Transitions | Step-Level Enforcement | Context Locking
• Readiness Gates: Hold/Quarantine Status | Equipment Eligibility | Calibration-Gated Execution | Training-Gated Execution
• Governance & Metrics: Role-Based Access | Segregation of Duties | Audit Trail | OEE | OTIF