Capacity Planner

The Problem. . .

Every manufacturer faces the challenge of managing production capacity. Since facilities and equipment are expensive, most manufacturers are confronted with the issues of meeting excess demand with limited capacity. How creatively a company meets these challenges compared to its competitors is often a key determinant of profitability and success.

Most planners and production managers are familiar with the capacity planning capabilities provided by ERP Systems. At the master production scheduling level, ERP allows you to perform Rough-Cut Capacity Planning (RCCP), comparing anticipated demand with gross capacity on a monthly or quarterly basis. At the production planning level in which ERP actually generates production and material requirements plans, the planner can perform Capacity Requirements Planning (CRP) weekly or daily. In both cases, the system relies on the planner's knowledge, expertise and effort to compare required capacity with available capacity. The third level, on the shop floor, where production plans are executed, most companies rely solely on the experience and knowledge of their supervisors.

Our Solution. . .

Taylor Capacity Planner offers you a solution to your capacity management challenges at all three levels in a single application. Designed to work with ERP, Capacity Planner can be easily implemented at any planning level you choose. Capacity Planner takes advantage of the same finite capacity management functionality available in Taylor Scheduler. This means that you can model and manage actual capacity at every planning level.

Capacity Planner allows you to identify capacity obstacles, evaluate alternatives and then implement solutions, or if you prefer, Capacity Planner can automatically solve many of these problems without your intervention. Planners can then focus on using their expertise to address other pressing issues.

Capacity Planner gives you the power and flexibility to manage capacity the way your business demands.

Key components of Capacity Planner include the following features:

Improves the rough-cut capacity planning process by allowing the additional capacity required to be added to the current model (machine capacity, calendars, resources and so on). The current capacity model reflects, as a starting point, the reality of the production facility.
Automatically determines a feasible solution to overcapacity situations and levels the load to existing or planned capacity.
Assists the planner to develop a feasible incremental capacity model reflecting potential additional machines and resources.
Enables you to model capacity more intuitively. Capacity Planner shares many common user interfaces with Taylor Scheduler which means you have familiar and powerful production modeling capabilities at your fingertips.