Orders are accepted by sales and made by lines that have a fixed number of hours. Capacity planning is checking the two against each other before the week starts, not after an order is late.
Capacity planning in production compares the load that open orders put on each line, machine and team with the hours actually available, day by day, so bottlenecks are seen in advance and the plan can be changed while there is still time.
| Input | Example from a bakery |
|---|---|
| Firm demand by SKU and due date | Sponge cake, cookies and rusk orders for the next two weeks |
| Line and machine rates | Units or kilograms per hour on the cake line, ovens and packing |
| Working calendar | Shifts, holidays and planned maintenance per line |
| Manpower | Operators needed per line per shift, and who is available |
| Priorities | Which orders or channels go first when hours run short |
For movement of finished goods after the line, see the supply chain digital twin guide.
Production & Procurement rebuilds the plant’s planning workbook as one live system. Firm orders, read from the plant’s own records, become a suggested plan: each working day, due SKUs take line capacity in priority order and pull-ahead fills the hours left. Planners can override any cell and freeze days already committed. The plan flows into a three-month projection, a raw-material plan net of stock and in-transit, a packaging plan from the packaging BOM, and a procurement list with what to order, how much and by when. Machine load and manpower are checked against the plan, red above 100% and amber above 85%. A digital twin of the site shows bins, lines and gates live, through the past month and seven days ahead, and says “not recorded” where data is missing. Every screen downloads to Excel, and plant systems are read, never written.
Comparing the hours that open orders need on each line, machine and team with the hours available each day, so bottlenecks are found before orders are late.
Add up the planned load per machine and team for each day and compare it with available hours; the first resource above 100% is the bottleneck. Packing is often the one missed.
Many plants treat anything above 100% as a breach and above roughly 85% as tight; set the thresholds that suit your lines.
See it on your own data. Production & Procurement — Plan the line, buy on time. Book a 30-minute working session with an engineer.
