You can choose to schedule operations based on either infinite or finite capacity. Infinite planning is useful for making a quick and rough planning. The available capacity and the number of hours to plan per day for the operation will be taken into account. This may result in overload, however, because each order is scheduled as if no other orders have been scheduled for the operation yet.
For each individual capacity group, you can choose to schedule operations based on infinite or finite capacity. Specify the default method to be used for each capacity group. When one of the capacity groups is added to a part calculation or production calculation, you can still change the method, if necessary.
If you choose to schedule based on infinite capacity, you also specify whether you want to use a minimum and/or a fixed lead time for each capacity group.
Minimum lead time
The minimum lead time enables you to specify the minimum number of days to be scheduled for an operation in the capacity group, regardless of the number of hours that will actually be required for the operation. If the capacity group is included in a part or production calculation, the minimum lead time will be used in the calculation. The field value can still be modified here.
Set the field to '0' if you do not want to use a minimum lead time.
The minimum lead time could be used, for example, by companies that issue a number of operations on Monday that need to be ready by Wednesday. The operations themselves could take very little time, but they all have a lead time of three days: they will not be ready before Wednesday. Another example is the drying time required after a product has been painted.
Fixed lead time
The Fixed lead time field allows you to specify a lead time that should always be used for the capacity group.
If the value of the field is '1' or higher, the fixed lead time will always be used in the planning process. Even if the cycle, setup and adjustment times of the operation were to require a longer lead time than the fixed lead time specified, the planning will still use the lead time specified. This field therefore allows the planner to use a lead time that differs from the lead time calculated by the software.
If the capacity group is included in a part or production calculation, the fixed lead time will be used in the calculation. The field value can still be modified here.
If you do not want to use a fixed lead time, set the field to '0'.