Introduction
Capacity Planning is, at the highest level, one of the two main functions of APS, the other being Material Planning. Because there are only so many hours in the day and only so many days in the week, Finite Capacity Planning is of great concern to every manufacturer. APS provides the tools both to schedule capacity and then to analyze capacity usage to reveal bottleneck issues in the schedule before they actually occur. Thus, every manufacturer must pay close attention to their capacity in order to maximize profit and minimize cost.
Key Concept
Some things to consider when planning Capacity would be what type of capacity you are planning and how it will be measured. For example:
- For labor resources, is capacity planned for each individual (skilled laborers)? Is it planned as a more interchangeable labor pool?
- Man hours vs. Shift times
- Will Capacity be measured in hours per week? Per month?
- Is Capacity measured in terms of units produced per time bucket?