Capacity Planning for Manufacturing: Machine, Skill and Shift Worksheet

Capacity planning is the control that keeps sales promises connected to real factory time. A plan based only on quantity misses the constraints that stop orders: machine availability, operator skill, shift pattern, setup time, maintenance and material readiness.

Optiwise treats capacity as a planning record, not as a guess in a spreadsheet. You can connect production demand with BOM, routing, machine, skill and shift data so the planner sees where the load will land before releasing work.

Direct answer

Capacity planning works when every machine, skill and shift has a calendar, every job has a setup and run basis, and the planner can see load before committing dates.

Factory example

A fabrication unit receives three confirmed orders for control panels, but the same CNC and wiring team are needed for all three. The planner first loads the CNC hours, then checks wiring skill availability, then blocks preventive maintenance time. The weekly view shows that order two can ship on time only if one same-product batch is grouped and a non-critical job moves to the next shift.

Implementation path in Optiwise

1. Confirm the machine family and product group.
2. Load shift calendar, planned unavailability, setup time and run time.
3. Review overloads with production and material owners before committing a delivery date.

Worksheet for your factory

Use this as the working checklist before you change software settings, write SOPs or ask the team to follow a new report.

Record	What to capture	Why it matters
Machine or line	Which asset will run the job	Prevents every job from being loaded on the same bottleneck
Skill group	Which operator skill is required	Shows labour constraints before the shift starts
Shift calendar	Working hours, breaks and holidays	Keeps promised dates realistic
Planned unavailability	Maintenance, trial, changeover or breakdown hold	Stops invisible overbooking
Setup and run basis	Minutes per setup and per unit or batch	Separates fixed setup load from production load
Weekly load view	Available hours versus committed hours	Shows overload, spare capacity and jobs that need rescheduling

How Optiwise supports this workflow

• Create production plans from confirmed demand, stock targets or grouped requirements.
• Use BOM and routing records so capacity is tied to the real product flow.
• Split and group work orders when one order contains different products or when same-product jobs should run together.
• Use Smart Suggest to check material availability before capacity is treated as executable.
• Track output, WIP and exceptions in production dashboards so the next plan uses actual operating signals.

Explore the connected Optiwise workflows for production, inventory, purchasing, quality, IoT, and AI agents.

Checks before you use the number for decisions

• Confirm the owner of the record and the person who reviews exceptions.
• Write the unit of measure, time period and source system beside every number.
• Mark missing, stale or manually corrected data instead of hiding it inside the final score.
• Keep approval evidence for changes that affect stock, production, quality or customer commitments.

Reference source

For general manufacturing ERP and MRP context, compare this workflow with Deskera MRP resources, then adapt the records to your own factory process.

FAQs

What is the simplest way to start capacity planning?

Start with one machine family, one weekly calendar and the five largest repeat products. Add setup time, run time and planned unavailability before adding more detail.

Should capacity planning happen before MRP?

Capacity and material planning should be checked together. A job with capacity but no material is not ready, and material for a job with no machine slot creates excess WIP.