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Capacity Planning Screen

Updated

Summary 

The Capacity Planning screen lets a planner find which production lines are over capacity soon, rebalance them automatically, test what-if capacity, and save the result with a lock that keeps the balance in place. The screen shows one resource at a time in two panels: a Resource Summary of its capacity periods, and a Resource Load Detail grid of the item-sites loading the selected period.

 

Key Definitions

  • Target % Capacity is a fraction: 0.90 means 90%. A stored 0 means "not configured" and is treated as 100%. A value of 85 (instead of 0.85) would read as 8,500% and never flag anything over target.
  • Over target: a period's load exceeds capacity × target. The screen also shows capacity remaining against true (100%) capacity, which answers whether the line can physically take more.
  • Firm vs planned load: firm load is open supply orders already in the ERP. Planned load is StockIQ's suggestions. Only unlocked planned load can be moved.
  • Periods with no capacity are never over target and never receive moved production.

Typical Planning Session

  1. Open Display Options, set Over Capacity Within to Next 4 weeks, and pick the resource at the top of the list.
  2. Read the Chart tab: where is the overload, and is there slack in front of it?
  3. Optional: Simulate Capacity... to test a higher capacity, then Level Load... against it to see how much of the extra capacity is needed. Undo Simulation when done.
  4. On the real plan, run Level Load..., review Changes and Could Not Fit, and Apply Changes.
  5. Adjust individual lines with Edit Production... if needed.
  6. Save Resource Load Plan with "Every line in the periods I changed" so the next Calculate keeps the balance.

 

Display Options

Display Options lists every resource with its Target % and over-capacity figures, and highlights the whole row of any resource over capacity.

The label shows a count, for example "(1 over capacity)". The day count behind the horizon is worked out on the server from StockIQ's system date, so it is right on databases with a pinned date. A resource whose timing is unknown (no Calculate run yet) is shown rather than hidden.

 

Resource Summary Grid and Chart

  • Grid lists every capacity period with its capacity, firm and planned load, capacity remaining, % capacity used, and the resource's Target %. A period over target is shown by a red highlight on % Capacity Used, measured against the target rather than 100%. The columns are described below.
  • Chart is a capacity histogram over the same periods. Firm load (open supply orders) and planned load are stacked per period. Capacity is drawn as a solid line and target utilization as a dashed line. Only the planned segment turns red when a period is over target, because firm load is not something the planner can move.
  • Periods are evenly spaced on the chart, one slot each, because capacity periods can be different lengths (weekly on one line, monthly on another).

The chart makes the level-loading opportunity visible before anyone runs it: an overload three periods out with slack in front of it.  

Each row in the Resource Summary grid is one capacity period for the selected resource. The columns are:

  • Start Date - The first day of the capacity period, as set in the resource's capacity data from your ERP. Periods can be any length and can start on any day of the week.
  • End Date - The last day of the capacity period. Production counts toward this period if its ship date falls between the Start Date and End Date.
  • Capacity - How much capacity the resource has in this period, in its capacity unit of measure (for example, minutes or hours). When a capacity simulation is applied, this is the simulated capacity, and any period you changed is highlighted in amber. A period with no configured capacity is never counted as over target, and Level Load never moves production into it.

 Quantity (in Stocking UoM)

  • Firm Qty - Units already on open supply orders in your ERP that ship in this period. Firm quantities can't be moved by level loading.
  • Planned Qty - Units StockIQ suggests producing in this period. Planned quantities can be edited by hand or moved by Level Load, unless they are locked.
  • Total Qty - Firm Qty plus Planned Qty.

Consumption in capacity unit - this heading shows the resource's own unit, for example "Consumption in Minutes".

  • Firm Consumption - The capacity used by firm quantities. For each item, this is its quantity multiplied by its usage rate on this resource.
  • Planned Consumption - The capacity used by planned quantities, calculated the same way.
  • Total Consumption - Firm Consumption plus Planned Consumption. This is the period's total load.

Remaining columns

  • Capacity Remaining - Capacity minus Total Consumption. This is measured against the full 100% of capacity, so it tells you whether the line can physically take on more work. A negative value is highlighted in red.
  • % Capacity Used - Total Consumption divided by Capacity. It is highlighted in red when the period is over target, meaning usage is above the resource's Target %, not just above 100%.
  • Target % - The share of capacity this resource should be loaded to, for example 90%. It comes from the resource's Target % Capacity setting. A target of 0 is treated as 100%. Level Load uses this percentage when it decides which periods need relief.

 

Resource Load Detail Grid Columns

Each row is one item-site producing on the resource in the capacity period selected in the Resource Summary grid.

  • Edited? - Checked when the row has un-saved changes, from a hand edit or an applied level load. This clears once the plan is saved or reverted.
  • Locked (padlock) - A padlock appears when this line's production is locked for the period, so the next Calculate will not re-plan it. Right-click and choose Show Lock Info... to see the lock details.
  • ABC - The item-site's ABC class. Level Load moves C items before B items, and B items before A items.
  • On Demand Qty - The quantity currently on open demand for this item-site: open sales orders plus open dependent demand from other production.
  • Days Cycle Stock - Days of cycle stock expected when this production arrives: the projected available quantity minus safety stock, divided by daily usage. Blank when the item has no usage. Level Load moves the items with the most days of cover first.
  • Period Start - The first day of the capacity period this row falls in. Hidden by default; you can add it from the column chooser.
  • Period End - The last day of the capacity period this row falls in. Hidden by default.

 Quantity (in Stocking UoM)

  • Firm - Units on open supply orders that ship in this period. Click the value to open the Inventory Snapshot showing open supply for the period. Firm quantities cannot be moved by level loading.
  • Planned - Units StockIQ suggests producing in this period. They can be edited by hand or moved by Level Load, unless locked.
  • Total - Firm plus Planned units.

Consumption in capacity unit - this heading shows the resource's own unit, for example "Consumption in Minutes".

  • Usage Rate (per Unit) - Capacity consumed per unit produced, for example 0.055 minutes per each.
  • Units per Capacity Unit - The same rate inverted, for example 18.18 each per minute. Blank when the usage rate is zero.
  • Firm - Capacity used by the firm quantity: Firm units multiplied by the Usage Rate.
  • Planned - Capacity used by the planned quantity: Planned units multiplied by the Usage Rate.
  • Total - Firm plus Planned consumption. This is the item's share of the period's load.

 Remaining column

  • % Capacity Used - This item's Total consumption divided by the period's capacity. Added up across all rows, it gives the period's % Capacity Used.

 

The Firm, Planned and Total unit columns sit under a Quantity (in Stocking UoM) heading. The rate and consumption columns sit under a heading naming the resource's unit, for example (Consumption in Minutes). The grid shows totals for the quantity, consumption and % Capacity Used columns, and exports as "Resource Load Detail".

 

Edit > Level Load Wizard

Step 1, Level Loading Parameters:

Step 2, Level Loading Results, has three tabs, each with a count:

  • Changes: what moved, from and to which period, and why that item was picked (ABC class, usage, days of cycle stock on arrival). A delayed build is flagged red.
  • Could Not Fit: excess load that would not place, with the reason in a sentence, measured in capacity units.
  • Before / After: each period's load and utilization before and after the run.

Apply Changes copies the result back to the screen as un-saved changes. It is disabled when nothing moved. Nothing is saved or locked until the planner saves.

 

How Level Load chooses what to move

  1. Periods are relieved earliest first, because the earliest problem has the least room to solve later.
  2. Within a period it moves the least important items first: C before B before A, then the slowest movers, then items with the deepest cycle stock on arrival. Items with missing information move last.
  3. A destination period only takes its own headroom, so relieving a late period never creates a new earlier problem.
  4. A move must be reachable within the supplier's lead time and calendar, release on or after today, and not land inside a schedule lock.
  5. Moves become ordinary production edits, the same as a hand edit, and stay un-saved until the planner saves.

Level Load and Simulate Capacity always recheck capacity and targets on the server, so the result reflects the real line (or the simulated one) and not stale browser data.

Moving production to an alternate line is not supported yet.

 

Edit > Simulate Capacity Dialog

Step 1 picks periods and states their new capacity:

  • Periods To Simulate: a checkbox grid with an editable Simulated Capacity column per period, so a ramp (for example 100,000 a month, then 130,000 in December) is one run.
  • Set Several At Once / Capacity Per Period: fills every ticked period with the same amount. Ticking a period fills it from this box unless a figure was already typed into that row. Typing into an unticked row ticks it.
  • Moving on requires at least one ticked period whose figure differs from today's capacity.

Step 2, Before And After, compares each period and says plainly if the server declined to simulate any. Apply Simulation shows the what-if on the screen, where:

  • the Simulation banner appears,
  • simulated capacities are marked in amber in the summary grid and in the Level Load wizard's period grid,
  • the chart adds a dotted "Capacity Today" line beside the simulated capacity,
  • Save disappears from the menu and Undo Simulation replaces Simulate Capacity.

Level Load still works while simulating, and its results warn that they were levelled against simulated capacity. A simulated plan can never be saved or locked, by any route.

 

Edit > Save Resource Load Plan Dialog

Save opens a dialog listing the Changes To Be Saved and a What To Lock choice:

Locks run to the end of the last changed period and are stamped with the Capacity Planning lock reason. Lines loaded only by a firm PO have no plan to freeze and are skipped.

 

Edit Production dialog

The per-row hand edit (Move Production). It shows planned quantity and consumption, and the usage rate both ways, for example "Minutes consumed per each" beside "each per Minute". Hand edits accumulate with level-load moves until one save commits them all.