Load and capacity planning is crucial for efficient allocation of your resources, preventing bottlenecks, maintaining service levels defined with customers, and optimizing costs. Having an accurate estimate of these values ensures that systems and processes are well-prepared to handle the expected demand.
In this article, we will look at how both values are determined in Fusion Operations.
Capacity
The capacity is calculated by considering the number of resources available and the amount of hours each of them has for the particular time interval being analyzed. To determine the number of hours available, the resource shift will be considered. The resources being considered for calculation are the workers in all scheduling views besides the machine scheduling view, where the resources considered are machines.
We'll add two examples below, one with low and another with high complexity:
Example 1: workers with different shifts
Example 2: workers with different shifts and shift changes
Example 1: workers with different shifts
In this example, the company has 3 workers:
Workers 1 and 2 have a Monday to Friday shift, 8AM - 12PM, and 1PM - 5PM
Worker 3 has a Monday to Thursday shift, 8AM - 12PM
In this case, the daily capacity is:
On Monday to Thursday: 2 workers*(4H+4H) + 1 worker*4H = 20H
On Friday: 2 workers*(4H+4H) = 16H
On weekends: 0H, since the shifts have no working time on those days.
Example 2: workers with different shifts and shift changes
In this example, the company has 3 workers:
Worker 1 has a Monday to Friday shift, 8AM - 12PM, and 1PM - 5PM
Worker 2 has a Monday to Friday shift, 8AM - 12PM, and 1PM - 5PM until February 24th. On February 25th, a shift change was added, and the shift became Monday to Thursday shift, 8AM - 12PM.
Worker 3 has a Monday to Thursday shift, 8AM - 12PM.
In this case, the daily capacity is:
Until February 24th:
On Monday to Thursday: 2 workers*(4H+4H) + 1 worker*4H = 20H
On Friday: 2 workers*(4H+4H) = 16H
On weekends: 0H, since the shifts have no working time on those days.
After February 25th:
On Monday to Thursday: 1 worker*(4H+4H) + 2 worker*4H = 16H
On Friday: 1 worker*(4H+4H) = 8H
On weekends: 0H, since the shifts have no working time on those days.
Load
The load calculation considers both the length of each operation on the production order and the shift of the workers assigned to the production order.
The operation length refers to the duration between the operation start and end time so in case an operation is set to start at 11:45AM and end at 1:15PM, its length is 1H30m. The shift is considered because in case the workers' shift has a break between 12PM and 1PM, that time interval will be deducted from the load calculation. In this scenario, the load would be 30 minutes.
We'll add three examples below, with increasing complexity. In all scenarios, the company has 3 workers: worker 1 and 2 have a Monday to Friday shift, 8AM - 12PM, and 1PM - 5PM, and worker 3 has a Monday to Thursday shift, 8AM - 12PM.
Example 1: Single production order
Example 2: Two partially-overlapping production orders
Example 3: Two partially-overlapping production orders with workers assigned at operation level
Example 1 (simple): Single production order
In this case, we must analyze how the operations within the production order are distributed over time, and the scheduling by operation is the best place to visualize that.
In addition to the way operations are distributed over time, the workers shift is also considered. We'll look at the shift of the first worker assigned to the order, which is worker 1. This worker's shift goes from Monday to Friday shift, 8AM - 12PM, and 1PM - 5PM.
Expand to see the load detailed per operation is presented:
Expand to see the load detailed per operation is presented:
For operation "Mixing", starts on Feb 19th, 12:00PM, and ends on Feb 20th, 2:00PM. Therefore, the load is:
Feb 19th: 1PM - 5PM (4 hours)
Feb 20th: 8AM - 12PM, 1PM - 2PM (5 hours)
For operation "Baking", starts on Feb 20th, 2:00PM and ends on Feb 22nd, 10:30AM. The load is:
Feb 20th: 2PM - 5PM (3 hours)
Feb 21st: 8AM - 12PM, 1PM - 5PM (8 hours)
Feb 22nd: 8AM - 10:30AM (2.5 hours)
For operation "Frosting", starts on Feb 22nd, 10:30AM and ends on the same day at 2:30PM. The load is:
Feb 22nd: 10:30AM - 12PM, 1PM - 2:30PM (3 hours)
For operation "Packaging", starts on Feb 22nd, 2:30PM and ends on Feb 23rd, at 8:30AM. The load is:
Feb 22nd: 2:30PM - 5PM (2.5 hours)
Feb 23rd: 8AM - 8:30AM (0.5 hours)
The daily total load is calculated below:
| Feb 19th | Feb 20th | Feb 21st | Feb 22nd | Feb 23rd |
PO_01, Mixing | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
PO_01, Baking | 0 | 3 | 8 | 2.5 | 0 |
PO_01, Frosting | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
PO_01, Packaging | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.5 | 0.5 |
Total | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 0.5 |
Below, you can see the results from above presented on the scheduling by Production Order.
Example 2 (intermediate): Two partially-overlapping production orders
Like in the previous example, we'll look at the scheduling by operation to understand how the operations are distributed over time.
Moreover, we should also look at the workers assigned to each order. In this example, all 3 workers are assigned to PO_02, and only worker 3 is assigned to PO_03. Therefore, Fusion Operations will consider worker 1's shift for PO_02, and worker 3's shift for PO_03. The shift for worker 1 goes from Monday to Friday shift, 8AM - 12PM, and 1PM - 5PM. The shift for worker 3 goes from Monday to Thursday shift, 8AM - 12PM.
Expand to see the load detailed per operation is presented:
Expand to see the load detailed per operation is presented:
For PO_02, operation "Mixing" starts on Feb 28th, 8:00AM and ends on Feb 28th, 3:00PM. Therefore, the load is:
Feb 28th: 8AM - 3PM (6 hours)
For PO_02, operation "Baking" starts on Feb 28th, 3:00PM and ends on Feb 29th, 4:00PM. The load is:
Feb 28th: 3PM - 5PM (2 hours)
Feb 29th: 8AM - 12PM, 1PM - 4PM (7 hours)
For PO_02, operation "Packaging" starts on Feb 29th, 4:00PM, and ends on Mar 1st, 9:00AM. The load is:
Feb 29th: 4PM - 5PM (1 hour)
Mar 1st: 8AM - 9AM (1 hour)
For PO_03, operation "Mixing" starts on Feb 29th, 8:00AM, and ends on Feb 29th at 11:00AM. The load is:
Feb 29th: 8AM - 11AM (3 hours)
For PO_03, operation "Baking" starts at Feb 29th, 11:00AM, and ends on Mar 4th, 9:20AM. The load is:
Feb 29th: 11AM - 12PM (1 hour)
Mar 1st - Mar 3rd: 0 hours (worker 3 doesn't work on these days)
Mar 4th: 8AM - 9:20AM (1.33 hours)
For PO_03, operation "Packaging" starts on Mar 4th, 9:20AM, and ends on Mar 4th, 10:00AM.
Mar 4th: 9:20AM - 10AM (0.67 hours)
The daily total load is calculated below:
| Feb 28th | Feb29th | Mar 1st | Mar 2-3rd | Mar 4th |
PO_02, Mixing | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
PO_02, Baking | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
PO_02, Packaging | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
PO_03, Mixing | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
PO_03, Baking | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.3 |
PO_03, Packaging | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.7 |
Total | 8 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Below, you can see the results from above presented on the scheduling by Production Order.
Example 3 (complex): Two partially-overlapping production orders with workers assigned at the operation level
Like before, analyzing the scheduling by operation is crucial to understand how operations are scheduled over time.
These two production orders have now advanced scheduling options: some operations have specific workers allocated to them.
PO_04 is assigned to all workers (1, 2, and 3)
Operation "Mixing" has no workers assigned to it
Operation "Baking" is assigned to worker 3
Operation "Packaging" is assigned to worker 2
PO_05 is assigned to workers 2 and 3
Operation "Mixing" is assigned to workers 2 and 3
Operation "Baking" is assigned to worker 2 and 3
Operation "Frosting" is assigned to workers 1, 2, and 3
Operation "Packaging" has no workers assigned to it
When operations are assigned to multiple workers, that means that the load will be allocated to all of them during the time interval for which the operation is scheduled to happen.
Expand to see the load detailed per operation is presented:
Expand to see the load detailed per operation is presented:
For PO_04, operation "Mixing" starts on Mar 20th, 8:00AM, and ends on the same day at 11:00AM. The load is:
Mar 20th: 8AM - 11AM (3 hours)
For PO_04, operation "Baking" starts on Mar 20th, 11:00AM, and ends on Mar 21st at 11:30AM. This operation is only assigned to worker 13, so the load is:
Mar 20th: 11AM - 12PM (1 hour)
Mar 21st: 8AM - 11:30AM (3.5 hours)
For PO_04, operation "Packaging" starts on Mar 21st, 11:30AM, and ends on Mar 22nd at 10:30AM. This operation is only assigned to worker 12, so the load is:
Mar 21st: 11:30AM - 12PM, 1PM - 5PM (4.5 hours)
Mar 22nd: 8AM - 10:30 AM (2.5 hours)
For PO_05, operation "Mixing" starts on Mar 20th, 8:00AM, and ends on Mar 20th at 10:15AM. This operation is assigned to both workers 2 and 3, so the load is:
Mar 20th:
For worker 2, 8AM - 10:15AM (2.25 hours)
For worker 3, 8AM - 10:15AM (2.25 hours)
For PO_05, operation "Baking" starts on Mar 20th, 10:15AM, and ends at Mar 21st at 9:37AM. This operation is assigned to both workers 2 and 3, so the load is:
Mar 20th:
For worker 2, 10:15AM - 12PM, 1PM - 5PM (5.75 hours)
For worker 3, 10:15AM - 12PM (1.75 hours)
Mar 21st:
For worker 2, 8AM - 9:37AM (1.62 hours)
For worker 3, 8AM - 9:37AM (1.62 hours)
For PO_05, operation "Frosting" starts on Mar 21st, 9:37AM, and ends on the same day at 1:20PM. This operation is assigned to both workers 1, 2 and 3, so the load is:
Mar 21st:
For worker 1, 9:37AM - 12PM, 1PM - 1:20PM (2.72 hours)
For worker 2, 9:37AM - 12PM, 1PM - 1:20PM (2.72 hours)
For worker 3, 9:37AM - 12PM (2.38 hours)
For PO_05, operation "Packaging" starts on Mar 21st, 1:20PM, and ends on Mar 22nd at 4:30PM. This operation has no workers assigned to it. The load is:
Mar 21st: 1:20PM - 5PM (3.67 hours)
Mar 22nd: 8AM - 12PM, 1PM - 4:30PM (7.5 hours)
The daily total load is calculated below:
| Mar 20th | Mar 21st | Mar 22nd |
PO_04, Mixing | 3 | 0 | 0 |
PO_04, Baking | 1 | 3.5 | 0 |
PO_04, Packaging | 0 | 4.5 | 2.5 |
PO_05, Mixing | 2.25*2=4.5 | 0 | 0 |
PO_05, Baking | 5.75+1.75=7.5 | 1.62*2=3.2 | 0 |
PO_05, Frosting | 0 | 2.72*2+2.38=7.8 | 0 |
PO_05, Packaging | 0 | 3.7 | 7.5 |
Total | 16 | 22.7 | 10 |
Below, you can see the results from above presented on the scheduling by Production Order.
If after reading this article you still have some doubts, feel free to reach out to us through our Live-chat feature, or directly to your CSM.