Hello, this is an interesting project. I am a professional Chemical Engineer with over 25years industrial experience. I also have an appreciation of metal fabrication having spent a fair amount of time in workshops. I am proficient in the use of the advanced features of MS-Excel.
Considering your scheduling challenge, I was thinking of using an optimization approach to assign resources (men with certain skills) to the various jobs and thereby generate the production schedule. Some preliminary questions come to mind - I presume that each custom job would compromise of several sub-components eg. XY plasma cutting, lathework, milling, TIG welding, final assembly & finishing, etc... Would equipment availability be another resource consideration ? Are all the men skilled across all the fabrication stages.. I presume that the schedule would also need to be dynamic i.e. you may define a forward weekly plan and then receive an urgent job a day later which would require a re-run of the schedule.
Anyhow, keen to learn more of your requirements so as to confirm whether I may of assistance to your project.
Regards Andre' Hamman