SAP PP Work Center Capacity

The capacity is defined as capability to do a particular work. In an SAP system, it is related to work centers that means the capability of a work center or a machine to perform the various operations. Generally, the capacity is measured in time unit and other measuring units based on production business processes.

Role of Capacity in SAP PP –

The Capacity data in work center is used for calculating the –

  • Required capacity for an order or operation
  • Available capacity of a work center

Integration with Other Business Functions –

The SAP work centers are integrated with the other business functions such as –

  • Human Resources –
    • Assigning an HR object to a work center to help in determining an employee qualification.
    • For example, to perform some operations it is required to have some special skills like CNC Operator or Programmer.
  • Plant Maintenance –
    • If a machine or a work center is scheduled with production management order for maintaining activities then its capacity is locked to the production uses.

SAP Capacity Category –

The capacity category is useful to differentiate various capacities in a work center. To maintain different capacities for labor and machine in a work center, it can be defined according to capacity categories –

  • Machine Capacity
  • Labor Capacity

For example, a packing machine is considered that needs 2 labor units to perform operations and it is available for 8 hours per day. In this case, it have the following capacities –

Capacity category Available hours Capacity Total Hours
Machine 8 1 8
Labor 8 2 16

SAP Work Center Capacity –

  • Available capacity –
    Generally, the SAP work center capacity indicates the available hours of machine or labor resource. These available hours do not include the break or halt hours. For example, assume a machine available for production in plant from 10 am to 6 pm and break is 1hr.
    Then the available capacity is equal to Total available hours - break hours.
    Available capacity = 8 hrs – 1 hr.
    Available capacity = 7 hrs.
  • Required capacity –
    The require capacity means the time taken in order to produce a specified quantity of product. For calculating it, SAP consider the operation time and capacity formula.
    For example, in a manufacturing unit, the usage of a machine maintains the things like labor time, machine and setup time.
    • Labor time= 60 mins
    • Machine time = 60 mins
    • Machine set up time = 30 mins
    • Base Quantity = 100
    • Production order quantity = 300
    So the capacity calculation for that machine is as follows -
    Required capacity = machine time * production order quantity / base quantity.
    Required capacity = 60 mins * 300/100
    Required capacity = 60 mins * 2
    Required capacity = 180 mins.
    Increasing the capacity is possible by assigning the several similar machines, for this SAP has a field Number of Individual Capacity. This is availability of number of individual machines with similar capacity. When it calculates the required capacity, it divides number of individual capacities in a formula. When it calculates the available capacity, it multiplies number of individual capacities.

    The formula defined as follows –
    Machine time * Production order quantity / Base Quantity * No of splits.
    So, the required capacity is calculated as –
    Required capacity = machine time * production order quantity / base quantity * 2.
    Required capacity = 60 * 300/100 * 2.
    Required capacity = 18000 /200.
    Required capacity = 90 mins.

Pooled Capacity –

The work centers with same capacity type are assigned with a pooled capacity. It is defined globally and assigned to all work centers.

  • CREATION OF POOLED CAPACITY – A pooled capacity is created in SAP using the transaction code CR11.
  • ASSIGNMENT OF POOLED CAPACITY - After creating a pooled capacity, it is assigned to work center using transaction codes CR01 or CR02 and in Capacity tab.

Interval of Available Capacity -

In case the standard available capacity of a machine is required to replace for some periods, the interval available capacity is used. An interval of available capacity is created using the transaction code CR11 and then go to the header part of a capacity.

Shift Definitions, Shift Sequences, and Breaks –

The capacity and planning calculations also consider into account shifts and are defined as follows –

  • Shift Definition –
    The parameters maintained in a Shift Definition is –
    • Validity period of a shift i.e., start date and end date.
    • Start time and end time.
    It is a part of customizing activity that is performed using transaction code OP4A.
  • Shift Sequences –
    • After shift definition, the shift sequences are also defined in the transaction OP4A.
  • Break definition –
    • The Break definition defines assigning break times for each shift in shift definition.

Use of Shift Sequences in Work Center –

The shift timings and the breaks is used during capacity and scheduling calculations. An SAP system will schedules the break time to be equally distributed among working hours by default. If it is need to use exact break times which are defined in shift then the indicator Scheduling with Break is required to maintained in production order type.

Individual Capacity –

The individual capacity is used for detailed capacity requirement planning. While creating a production order it is required to assign the individual capacity which is going to use to perform the operation.

Capacity in Different Unit of Measure –

Generally, the capacity is defined in hour unit but sometimes a different unit of measure is also maintained. The UOM may be KG or Ton or cubic meter etc.

For example, the casting is formed from molten metal from furnace. Here the furnace capacity is defined in Ton but relation between Tons and hours is definitely maintained in work center capacity. It is used to evaluate the capacity in Tons.

Capacity and Work Center Hierarchy –

The capacity is cumulated according to work center hierarchy. A Hierarchy of work center allows the cumulation of available capacities from child work centers to its superior work center.

There are two types of cumulation –

  • Dynamic Cumulation
  • Static Cumulation

A Dynamic cumulation is useful to cumulate available capacity and required capacity where the static cumulation cumulates the available capacity of a hierarchy of work centers.

Static Cumulation and Period Pattern Key –

In static cumulation, the available capacity cumulation is calculated by period pattern key. The period pattern key is used for –

  • Cumulating available capacity
  • Displaying available capacity

In static cumulation, the cumulated available capacity of a superior node is not changed automatically if there is a change in available capacity of a subordinate work center. So, it is need to cumulate available capacity periodically.

The definition of period pattern key is a part of customizing activity done by the transaction code OP11.

Dynamic Cumulation –

A dynamic cumulation cumulates the available capacities and the capacity requirements for all capacity categories of work center that are specified in a hierachy.

It is defined in option profile a part of customizing activity for the case of available capacity cumulation using the transaction code OPA3.

It is also defined in evaluation profile a part of customizing activity for the case of required capacity cumulation using the transaction code OPD0.

Indicators Influencing Capacity Planning –

The important checkboxes in work center capacity master data that is defined using the transaction code CR11 is –

  • Relevant to finite scheduling indicator –
    If it is activated, the SAP system considers existing capacity load when calculating available capacity.
    For example, Machine X that has available capacity of 9 hours was scheduled for an order on 15 June for 5 hours. If a new order is created for the same machine on this date then the system will assign only remaining time i.e., 4 hours.
  • Can be used by several operations indicator –
    If it is activated, that specific work center capacity is used by more than one operation. It enables SAP system to get available capacity for other production orders.
    For example, a storage tank is defined as a work center in a pharma factory. If two production orders are tried to use the tank to fill finished compound then the SAP system only enable this only if the indicator is activated.
  • Long term planning –
    If it is activated, then the current work center capacity is also used to calculate capacity requirement of long term planning.