Book excerpt: While other books describe production control from an idealistic perspective, this book explains the real process of successful production control. This soup-to- nuts practical guide helps the reader learn: how the scheduling task can be decomposed and organized; how the production control department can be structured; how to hire and train schedulers; and how software tools can be used to augment the scheduler's skill. Author, Kenneth N. McKay is a professor in the Department of Management Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo. Vincent C. S. Wiers holds a MSc and a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from the Eindhoven University of Technology.