Visibility and Predictability with Odyssey ERP Capacity Planning
By DJ Medlin, Senior Business Consultant
Capacity planning involves determining the production capacity needed by a metalcasting operation to meet demands for its products. This planning includes analyzing labor hours, machine availability, weights, and forecasting requirements. When set up and used effectively, capacity planning helps shops reduce bottlenecks, make better resource decisions, and consistently meet customer demand.
Capacity Planning Elements
Effective capacity planning relies on four key elements that give operations teams a clear view of what the plant can realistically deliver:
- Calendar → Schedule around downtime for smoother production
- Capacity → Know your machine and labor limits to avoid bottlenecks
- Standard Run and Processing Time → Estimate workloads accurately for better scheduling
- Demand and Forecast → Plan production to meet customer needs reliably
These elements together give operations teams a clear view of what the plant can realistically deliver.
Calendar
What days are workdays for the plant? Set up the plant calendar for the holidays, weekends, and any planned shutdown days. The shop calendar in Odyssey ERP can be set up by company, work center, and shift. Maintenance has its own calendar for planning preventative maintenance (PM) and work orders.
Capacity can vary week by week. The calendar can be set up for multiple years for long-term planning. If you’re not planning multiple years in advance, be sure to include the next year’s calendar setup in your year-end processing steps.
A well-configured calendar allows production teams to anticipate downtime, avoid conflicts, and schedule work efficiently, resulting in a smoother production flow.
Capacity
What is available each day for the individual operations in the plant? This needs to be set up by the operation/machine team and is a per-day capacity. A start and stop time can be determined, either by a global setting or for each operation.
Do you plan by the hours available for the operation or by the number of laborers it takes to run it? For example, it may be one machine for 12 hours, but it takes 2 laborers to run, so labor will be 24 while the machine capacity is 12. Some operations are weight-based, such as how much metal can be poured or how much weight can fit in the heat treat furnace. These parameters should be set up for those types of operations to ensure orders are completed efficiently and on schedule. In the Odyssey ERP operation master table, all of these capacity fields can be filled in, but the scheduling of the operation happens according to the scheduling method.
Understanding machine and labor capacity allows operations leaders to identify bottlenecks early and allocate resources effectively. Without an accurate picture of capacity, metalcasting could face costly emergency orders or delayed shipments.
Standard Run and Processing Time
When this part, or one similar, is made, how long at each processing step does it take to complete the task? This is set up in the product master routing. Each step of the processing, or at least the one you are tracking, is listed in the routing. For each operation, labor hours and/or machine hours are entered. If your operation is scheduled by labor, a labor rate will need to be in the labor rate field; the same for machining.
Accurate run times provide visibility into workload, allowing managers to forecast capacity needs, prevent delays, and improve scheduling accuracy.
Demand and Forecast
Demand represents current customer orders—what, how many, and when they are needed. Forecasts can be created from current customer orders, historical sales data, or manual “what-if” options. Odyssey ERP tracks these separately so shops can compare current versus forecasted demand.
Current demand requires that a shop order be created for the required quantity, including make-to-stock products. Once the shop order is created, detailed load information is generated for the operations based on the setup of the items above.
Integrating demand with forecasts helps operations teams move away from guesswork and plan proactively, prioritize work, and reduce emergency scheduling. This improves delivery reliability and operational efficiency.
Reviewing Load vs. Capacity
Once the calendar, capacity, run times, and demand and forecast are set up, you can review your load versus capacity in the scheduling area. This can be done by work center, group of operations, or by individual operations. Forecast planning is based on forecasted demand but uses the capacity and routing data. Load versus capacity views for scheduling and forecasting are separate in Odyssey ERP.
Regularly reviewing load vs. capacity allows teams to balance workloads, identify potential bottlenecks early, and make informed production decisions.
Capacity Planning in Odyssey ERP
By configuring capacity planning in Odyssey ERP, metalcasters gain visibility and predictability in production. This leads to fewer last-minute emergencies, more efficient use of labor and machines, and increased confidence in meeting both current and future customer demand.
Reach out to our team today to learn more about Capacity Planning in Odyssey ERP.