What Is Capacity Type in a Work Center?

Capacity type sets how a work center's capacity is measured: in hours per shift, in pieces per shift, or both. It tells the scheduling engine which unit constrains the machine, so the plan loads it the way the machine actually behaves. A time-bound machine is measured in hours; an output-bound line is measured in pieces; a machine that can be limited by either is measured in both. EDGEBIC by User Solutions reads capacity type on every work center so a schedule respects the real limit rather than a one-size-fits-all clock.

How it works

There are three settings. Hours measures capacity in time per shift, which suits any machine whose constraint is run time: a CNC cell with eight hours a shift, a welding station, a mill. Pieces measures capacity in units per shift, which suits an output-constrained line: a packaging line rated at 5,000 bags a shift, a filling line, a stamping press thought of in parts. Both carries a time limit and a piece limit together, and the schedule stops loading the machine at whichever ceiling it reaches first.

The setting changes what "full" means. On an hours machine, a shift is full when its hours are booked. On a pieces machine, a shift is full when its unit count is met. On a both machine, a shift is full the moment either limit is reached, so a press rated at eight hours or 1,000 pieces stops at whichever comes first.

Capacity type sits alongside the routing step's own requirement, which can also be stated in hours or pieces. The two work together so the machine's constraint and the operation's demand are expressed in compatible terms.

A concrete example

Think about how you would describe the ceiling of two different services. A consultant is measured in hours: the day is full when the billable hours are gone, no matter how many documents were produced. That is an hours work center.

A print shop's high-speed folder is measured in output: the shift is full at, say, 40,000 folded sheets, regardless of the exact minutes. That is a pieces work center. And a bindery machine might hit two ceilings, a run-time limit on complex jobs and a sheet-count limit on simple ones, so it is described by both, and it stops at whichever it reaches first.

In the plant, a CNC mill is an hours work center running eight hours a shift. A packaging line is a pieces work center at 5,000 bags a shift. A press with both a cycle-time limit and a tonnage limit is a both work center: on long runs time binds first, on heavy parts the piece limit binds first.

How EDGEBIC uses it

Capacity type is a property of each work center, set when you configure the machine. The practical trade-off between the two measurements is laid out in hours-based vs piece-based capacity modeling and its shop-floor companion pieces-based vs hours-based capacity. How the chosen unit flows into the day-by-day capacity number is covered in how EDGEBIC calculates work center capacity.

Because capacity type defines the ceiling, it feeds every capacity view and the utilization that follows from it. A pieces line reads as busy when its unit count fills, not when a clock does. That is why choosing the right type up front keeps the whole schedule honest: the wrong unit makes a line look empty when it is actually full, or full when it is actually empty.

The banded read on top of that ceiling, low, medium, or high load, is the companion term capacity level. For the wider vocabulary, see the manufacturing glossary, and to see capacity type inside a live plan, explore EDGEBIC.