Free Capacity Planning Excel Template
A machine-hour capacity planning workbook for manufacturers: available hours per work center against the hours your work orders need, week by week, with the bottleneck ranked and overtime tested before you pay for it.
What you get
A free .xlsx capacity planning template with no email and no macros: work centers with OEE, a demand list, load vs capacity by week in hours and %, a bottleneck ranking and an overtime what-if, filled with a three-work-center example.
capacity-planning-excel-template.xlsx · 6 sheets · No email required · No macros
Sheets: Instructions, Work Centers, Demand, Load vs Capacity, Bottlenecks, Overtime What-If
Why manufacturers still use Excel for this
Capacity planning is one of the most underrated disciplines in manufacturing. Every operations manager knows that running above 100% of capacity is a disaster, but very few have a clear, current answer to "what is our actual available capacity next month, and how does it compare with committed orders?" The result is the same in shops everywhere: due dates get committed without checking, work centers get overloaded, expedites pile up and the schedule becomes a daily firefight.
Most capacity planning templates you will find online plan people: team members, project hours and holidays. A factory needs machine hours. This template works in work-center hours, adjusted for shifts and OEE, because a laser or a press brake is limited by the hours it can really run, not by headcount.
It gives you a clear, current picture of demand against available hours per work center per week, which is the most important input to every other production decision. If you cannot see your load, you cannot find your bottleneck, and if you cannot manage the bottleneck you cannot improve throughput.
What's inside the template
Work Centers with OEE
Shifts per day, hours per shift, days per week and a realistic OEE for each machine or cell. Available hours per week are calculated, not guessed.
Demand list
One row per work order operation: work center, week number and hours. Paste it from your routings or ERP export.
Load vs Capacity by week
Loaded hours, load % and a flag for every work center across 8 weeks. Red is OVER (above 100%), amber is TIGHT (above 90%).
Bottleneck ranking
Average load over the weeks you choose, the number of OVER weeks and a rank. Rank 1 is the constraint your throughput is limited by.
Overtime What-If
Add extra hours per week to any work center and see which OVER weeks clear before you commit to the cost.
Worked example and instructions
A laser, press brake and weld example with 22 demand lines, and an Instructions sheet that explains every formula.
How to use this template
A practical walkthrough, from the sample data to a plan built on your own numbers.
- 1
List your work centers
On Work Centers, enter every resource that limits throughput. If a machine is never fully loaded, it is not a bottleneck and does not need a row.
- 2
Set realistic available hours
Enter shifts, hours per shift, days per week and OEE. Most discrete manufacturers should use 65 to 75% OEE, not 100%; the available hours every other sheet uses depend on it.
- 3
Load demand from your work orders
On Demand, list each open work order operation with its work center, week number and hours. The Load vs Capacity sheet adds them up with SUMIFS.
- 4
Find the bottleneck
Open Bottlenecks and set how many weeks to average. The work center ranked 1 is the one to protect and fix first.
- 5
Test corrective action
For each OVER week, try overtime on the Overtime What-If sheet, move hours to a quieter week on Demand, or push out a due date. Re-check until no OVER flags are left.
Worked example: laser, press brake and weld over four weeks
Available hours per week: laser 1 shift x 8 h x 5 days x 75% OEE = 30 hours; press brake 2 x 8 x 5 x 70% = 56 hours; weld 1 shift x 10 h x 4 days x 80% = 32 hours. The table shows loaded hours and load % from the Load vs Capacity sheet.
| Work center | Available h/week | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | 4-week average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laser | 30 | 28 h (93%) | 34 h (113%) | 22 h (73%) | 31 h (103%) | 96% |
| Press brake | 56 | 40 h (71%) | 44 h (79%) | 52 h (93%) | 38 h (68%) | 78% |
| Weld | 32 | 30 h (94%) | 36 h (113%) | 26 h (81%) | 33 h (103%) | 98% |
Weld is the constraint: 98% over four weeks and OVER in weeks 2 and 4. Laser is close behind at 96% and also OVER in weeks 2 and 4. The press brake has spare hours in every week except week 3.
The Overtime What-If sheet adds 4 hours a week to weld (a Saturday half shift). Weld capacity rises to 36 hours, so week 2 becomes 100% and week 4 92%: both TIGHT instead of OVER. Laser still needs its own fix, for example moving part of WO-203's 20 laser hours from week 2 into week 3, where the laser runs at 73%.
When you outgrow this template
Excel is the right answer for early-stage planning, until it isn't. These are the warning signs that you need a real production scheduling tool.
If three or more of these apply, you have outgrown spreadsheet planning. EDGEBIC, the current generation of RMDB, is User Solutions' finite capacity scheduling and production planning software. It imports the same orders, routings, work centers and stock from Excel, CSV or your ERP, schedules them against real machine, labor and material limits, and shows the result on a drag-and-drop Gantt chart. It is a one-time license: EDGEBIC APS is $25,000, and EDGEBIC Complete, which adds MRP, inventory and purchasing, is $35,000.
See EDGEBICFrequently asked questions
Is this capacity planning template really free?+
Yes. Download the .xlsx directly from this page: no email, no sign-up and no macros. It works in Excel 2016 or later, including Microsoft 365.
Is this for machine capacity or people capacity?+
Machine and work-center capacity. Available hours come from shifts, hours per shift, days and OEE for each work center, and demand is hours per work order operation. If labour is your constraint, treat a skilled operator group as a work center with its rostered hours.
What is the difference between rough-cut and finite capacity planning?+
Rough-cut capacity planning compares total load with total hours in weekly buckets and assumes the work can be fitted anywhere inside the week. Finite capacity scheduling places each operation in sequence against real shift calendars, setups and operators, so it gives a start and finish time rather than a percentage. This template is rough-cut; RMDB, now EDGEBIC, is finite capacity scheduling software.
Should I use OEE in my capacity calculation?+
Yes, and leaving it out is the most common mistake. If you assume 100% of theoretical hours are available, you will commit to schedules you cannot deliver. A realistic OEE for most discrete manufacturers is 60 to 75%; world class is around 85%.
Can I model multiple shifts?+
Yes. Set shifts per day, hours per shift and days per week for each work center; a two-shift press brake and a four-day weld cell are both in the example.
How does this differ from capacity planning in MRP or ERP?+
Most MRP and ERP systems calculate capacity requirements from routings with infinite-capacity assumptions: they tell you how many hours you need, not whether you have them in that week. This template compares need with available hours directly, and finite capacity scheduling software goes further by sequencing the work.
Start with the spreadsheet. Move to EDGEBIC when it breaks.
The template handles the math for a small plan. EDGEBIC is what manufacturers move to when orders, routings and capacity change faster than a spreadsheet can follow: published one-time pricing, and implementation measured in days.