Capacity Planning
Capacity Planning in ERPNext helps manufacturers schedule and track production jobs across available workstations. It ensures that manufacturing operations are assigned based on workstation availability and working hours, allowing businesses to utilize production resources efficiently while avoiding scheduling conflicts.
By integrating Operations, Workstations, Bills of Materials (BOMs), and Production Orders, Capacity Planning provides better visibility into production workloads and helps optimize manufacturing efficiency.
How Capacity Planning Works
Capacity Planning schedules manufacturing operations on workstations during the production process. When a Production Order is submitted, ERPNext allocates the operations defined in the Bill of Materials to the appropriate workstations based on their configured working hours and availability.
System Behavior
ERPNext automatically allocates manufacturing operations to the assigned workstations when a Production Order is submitted. The system checks workstation availability and schedules operations within the defined working hours.
Operations
Operations represent the individual manufacturing activities required to produce an item.
Before using Capacity Planning, create the required manufacturing operations by navigating to:
Manufacturing > Bill of Materials > Operations
These operations are later added to the Bill of Materials and scheduled on the appropriate workstations during production.
Workstations
Workstations represent the machines, equipment, or production areas where manufacturing operations are performed.
Create and configure each workstation by navigating to:
Manufacturing > Bill of Materials > Workstation
Each Workstation can store important production information, including:
- Supported manufacturing operations.
- Operating costs associated with production.
- Working hours used for scheduling.
This information enables ERPNext to allocate production jobs accurately.
Bill of Materials (BOM)
The Bill of Materials defines not only the raw materials required for manufacturing but also the operations and workstations involved in the production process.
When Capacity Planning is enabled, ERPNext uses the operational details stored in the BOM to schedule manufacturing activities during Production Order creation.
Production Order
When a Production Order is submitted, ERPNext allocates the manufacturing operations defined in the BOM to their respective workstations.
The system also creates operational time records, allowing users to track the actual time spent on each manufacturing operation.
This helps manufacturers:
- Allocate production jobs across workstations.
- Track actual production time.
- Compare planned and actual manufacturing durations.
Scheduling Validation
During Production Order submission, ERPNext validates whether each operation can be completed within the configured working hours of the assigned workstation.
If scheduling is not possible, the system prevents the Production Order from being submitted and displays a validation message.
Common Causes
- No working hours have been configured for the assigned Workstation.
- An operation requires more time than the workstation can accommodate within a single working day.
Troubleshooting
If you receive a scheduling error while submitting a Production Order, first verify that the assigned Workstation has working hours configured. If working hours are already defined, review the operation duration. Long operations should be divided into smaller operations so they can be scheduled and completed within the available working hours.
Operation Scheduling Rules
ERPNext expects each manufacturing operation to start and finish within the same working day based on the workstation’s configured schedule.
If an operation exceeds the available working hours, the system requests users to split the operation into smaller tasks. This allows ERPNext to schedule production more effectively and maintain realistic manufacturing timelines.
Business Benefits
- Improves workstation utilization.
- Schedules manufacturing jobs based on available capacity.
- Tracks planned and actual production time.
- Reduces scheduling conflicts between manufacturing operations.
- Helps identify operations that require excessive production time.
- Improves overall production planning and resource allocation.
Key Summary
Capacity Planning in ERPNext helps manufacturers efficiently allocate production jobs across workstations by considering operations, workstation availability, working hours, and production schedules. Through automated scheduling during Production Order submission, the system improves resource utilization, tracks manufacturing time, and ensures production activities are planned within the available workstation capacity.
