How to do Capacity Planning in Business Central?
If you want to do a nice capacity planning with your Business Central Solution, you might want to take some other apps into account as well. But in this video, I will show you shortly how it works with the standard functionality. So the data set for doing good capacity planning is actually here.
This is what happens in the video
If you run production in Business Central, you can do capacity planning with the standard functionality. The data you need is already there. This article explains how the work center load report works, where the numbers come from, and what you need to plan capacity in practice.
The work center load report shows how much each of your work centers is loaded per week. It compares the available capacity, the needed capacity that is already booked, and what remains available in the period.
Business Central uses infinite capacity by default. A work center can show a load above 100%. If you place many production orders in the same period, the load percentage keeps increasing. A machine department booked at 219% means you have allocated more than the available capacity.
The load numbers come from allocated capacity entries. When you create a production order, Business Central automatically generates routing lines and allocated capacity entries for each line. These entries are what the report sums up.
When you move a production order to another date, Business Central recalculates the routing and the allocated capacities automatically. To plan capacity well, you need an overview tool that shows when work centers are overloaded, so you can move orders manually or with a Gantt chart.
How the work center load report works in Business Central
The work center load report is the starting point for capacity planning. It shows how much your capacities are loaded over a chosen period.
You set a date and a number of weeks. For example, you can start from 1 June and view eight weeks ahead. The report then gives you an overview of all your capacities per week, based on the capacities you have set up on each work center.
For each line you can see three things:
- The capacity that is actually available.
- The needed capacity, meaning what is already booked.
- What is available in the period.
If the first line is booked at 9.4% in a period, you have plenty of room left. As you scroll down, you might see that your machine department is booked at 219% in the period from 13 to 19 July.
Why a work center can be loaded above 100%
Business Central plans with infinite capacity by default. This means a work center can show a load above 100%.
If you place many production orders in the same period, the capacity load just keeps increasing. The system does not stop you at 100%. A load of 219% tells you the work center is heavily overloaded and you need to act on it.
Where the capacity numbers come from
The numbers in the report come from allocated capacity entries on your production orders. This applies whether the order is planned, firm planned, or released.
When you create a production order, Business Central automatically creates routing lines related to the production order line. For each routing line, it creates allocated capacity entries. These entries sum up and feed into the work center load report.
You can have more than one shift, and the allocated capacity entries show the allocated time in minutes per shift. These are the same entries you can use with other tools to analyse your capacity setup.
Moving production orders to balance the load
You can move a production order to a different date to spread the load. If you want an order to start a week later, you change the date on the production order.
Business Central recalculates the production order automatically. When you open the routing and the allocated capacities, you can see the dates have moved accordingly.
What you need to plan capacity in practice
The standard report gives you the data, but for real capacity planning you need an overview tool. You need to see clearly when your work centers are overloaded.
Once you can spot the overloaded work centers, you can rebalance the load. You can move production orders manually, or use a Gantt chart to drag orders to periods with free capacity. If you want stronger planning, it can be worth looking at additional apps on top of the standard functionality.
Q&A
Can you do capacity planning with standard Business Central?
Yes. The standard functionality gives you the data you need, including the work center load report and allocated capacity entries. For a better overview you usually want an additional tool, but the core data is already there.
Why does a work center show a load above 100%?
Business Central plans with infinite capacity by default. It does not cap the load at 100%. If you place many production orders in the same period, the load percentage keeps increasing, so a work center can show, for example, 219%.
Where do the numbers in the work center load report come from?
They come from allocated capacity entries. When you create a production order, Business Central creates routing lines and allocated capacity entries for each line. The report sums up these entries.
What happens when you move a production order to another date?
Business Central recalculates the production order automatically. The routing and the allocated capacities are updated, and the dates move to the new period.
What do you need to plan capacity effectively?
You need an overview tool that shows when work centers are overloaded. Then you can move production orders, either manually or with a Gantt chart, to balance the load across periods.