Resource capacity planning is the process of determining the amount of working hours a resource or a resource group can contribute with at a given time (or time period). The capacity information is used to plan and meet current and future work demands. Resource capacity for an individual resource (person, tool/equipment, machine) is defined by the individuals' schedule, while the capacity for a Resource Group depends on how capacity is defined to be calculated (based on the each connected individual or defined on the group level). More details in the following sections.
Resource capacity calculation is done as part of the process of generating resource schedules and capacity. This can run as a re-occurring scheduled task, or manually using the Generate Resource Schedules and Capacity dialog. In this process, resource schedules are created for individual resources based on the connected base schedule (HR Schedule/Work Time Calendar) or shift pattern template, the capacity is then calculated based on these resource schedules and rolled up to resource groups depending on the capacity basis settings, as described in the coming sections. The resource schedule consists of resource shifts that can be modified. If a resource shift is modified, it will directly update the capacity of the resource.
Settings relevant to capacity calculation can be found in the Resource Schedules and Capacity section in the Resource Basic Data page.
The time span for which the calculation is made is determined by from- and to offset values. If the parameters From Offset and To Offset have no value, the default values are taken from the offset values defined for Resource Schedules and Capacity in the Resource Basic Data page. If the From Offset is defined as “0” then it is considered as the system date and 00:00:00 time component.
If the Automatic Calculation option is enabled, capacity calculation automatically calculates changes to capacity of the resource group. More Information about the trigger points of the automatic calculation can be found under the Calculation for Resource Groups section.
Note: the automatic calculation is made live and can be performance-heavy and time-consuming if the resource groups contain much underlying data. It is advised to disable this setting and instead use the scheduled task if you experience performance issues.
The calculation part for individuals is done in the following cases:
For all the individual resources found from the parameters given, the following is done:
When calculating capacity for individual resources like Persons and Tool/Equipment's, the Calendar ID from the General tab on the individual resources is used. For Machines the Calendar ID on the site connection for the Machine Group is used.
Utilization on Details tab for individual Persons and Tool/Equipment's is used when calculating capacity for individual PERSON and EQUIPMENT resources.
Efficiency on Capacity Basis tab for Machine individuals is used when calculating capacity for individual Machines.
If the resource selected in the Generate Resource Schedules and Capacity dialog is of type Crew, Person, Tool/Equipment or Machine, the Capacity is also updated for all resource groups where the individual resource is a child having “% in Group” larger than “0” and the Capacity Calculation Base for the resource group is set to “Individuals”.
The calculation part for resource groups is done in the following cases:
For all the resource groups found from the parameters given, the following is done:
If there is a Calendar ID registered both on the Site connection and on the Company connection for the resource group, both the Calendar ID from the Site Connection and the Company connection are used. The calculation is the same for all different resource group types.
The Group Utilization on the Capacity Basis tab for a resource group is used when calculating capacity for resource groups for all different resource types.
Trigger points
If Automatic Calculation for capacity is selected in the Resource Basic Data page, the capacity calculation for a resource is automatically started triggered by certain activities:
When an existing Calendar in Application Base Setup/Work Time Calendar has been changed.
Resource Capacity is first calculated for individual resources, e g persons and tools/equipment. Then capacity for groups are calculated, either based on capacity definitions on the group level, or by rolling up the capacity for the individuals in the group:
| Resource Type | Use HR Schedule | Capacity Calculation |
| Crew | N/A | Capacity is based on the resource schedule
generated for each period defined on the crew using the calendar or
connected shift pattern template(s) if the Use Shift Pattern Template indicator has been selected. |
| Machine | N/A | Capacity is based on the resource schedule generated for the defined calendar on the site connection for the machine group. |
| Person | Yes | Capacity is based on the resource schedule generated
from the person's employee schedule(s) or connected shift pattern template(s) if the Use Shift Pattern Template indicator has been selected. |
| Person | No | Capacity is based on the resource schedule generated
from the calendar defined for the person or connected shift pattern template(s) if the Use Shift Pattern Template indicator has been selected. |
| Tool/Equipment | N/A | Capacity is based on the resource schedule generated from the calendar defined for the tool/equipment. |
For groups, the type of group is not important:
| Resource Type | Capacity Calculation Base | Capacity Calculation |
| All groups | Individuals | Rolled-up individual capacity |
| All groups | Group | Based on the defined quantity of individuals in the resource group as well as on the calendar defined on the resource group. |
Capacity records are kept on the same detail level as calendars and schedules, with exact start and end times. Then they are summarized to day, week, month, quarter and year levels. Since this may result in a lot of data, there are system settings to control how far into the future capacity is calculated, and for how long you want to keep past due capacity records.