Automating capacity planning means: the order backlog from your ERP is continuously checked against available capacity, not theoretical capacity. We factor in shift models, setup times and actual staffing levels, and show the bottleneck machine that sets your pace. At order intake you get a reliable answer to the only question that matters: can you meet the date the customer wants.
Sales promises six weeks because it was six weeks last time too. Production finds out once the order is in the system, and discovers that the one machine everything has to pass through is already booked solid well into the month after next.
Five paths we build again and again in make-to-order manufacturing. Your ERP remains the system of record; we build the calculation around it.
The capacity most companies plan with does not exist: it assumes full staffing, no setup time, and no downtime. For each cost center, we calculate what is actually available from the shift calendar, vacation and sick leave, planned maintenance, and a utilization rate backed by your actual times. Only against this figure is a utilization rate meaningful at all.
Impact Utilization against real instead of theoretical capacityIn almost every plant there is a handful of workstations that everything has to pass through, and their loading determines the pace of the entire operation. We evaluate the order backlog per workstation and show where the queue is growing and where capacity is sitting idle. Plan the bottleneck at full load and everything else around it, instead of loading every machine individually: capacity ahead of the bottleneck only produces inventory, not revenue.
Impact Bottleneck backed by numbers instead of gut feelingSales enters quantity, item and desired date and gets back a traffic light: feasible, tight, not feasible. Behind it is the calculation of whether the hours needed at the bottleneck are still free within that time window, including the orders already committed to. That is the difference between a firm delivery commitment and mere wishful thinking about a date, and it is decided on the phone, not on the shop floor.
Savings No more back-and-forth queries to productionSetup consumes capacity but hardly ever shows up in rough-cut planning because it is bundled into runtime. We store setup times per item changeover and include them in the calculation, making visible what sequencing actually costs: ten small orders on one machine can generate more setup hours than production hours. After that, batch sizes and sequences can be discussed with numbers instead of opinions.
Impact Setup hours verifiable per sequenceWe build the planning so you can load an order in on a trial basis without touching the running plan. You immediately see which committed orders shift back and by how many days, and can weigh up whether the rush order is worth the trouble with a regular customer. If you decide to go ahead, the scenario becomes the plan and goes back into the ERP as an updated date, so sales sees the same truth as production.
Impact Consequences visible before commitment instead of in the reminder noticeWhich tool fits depends on your ERP and how deep the planning needs to go: rough-cut planning on a weekly grid across four cost centers is something quite different from fine-scheduling on an hourly grid. We only commit after the as-is assessment, not based on a partner program. That is exactly where we differ from firms that only have one tool in their toolbox and therefore always recommend it.
Calculation engine and data hubPulls the order backlog, routings and actual times from your ERP, calculates the capacity check, and writes dates and warnings back. Runs, on request, on a server on your own premises or in a German data center, so that order data and calculation bases never leave the plant.
Microsoft worldIf you already work in Microsoft 365, we build the planning board as a Power App and let Power Automate move the data. For an on-premises ERP, such as SQL Server or SAP ERP, the on-premises data gateway is required. Microsoft classifies this gateway as a premium feature, and it is explicitly not included in Microsoft 365 licenses. We work through the licensing side with you before implementation, so it doesn't become a surprise later.
ERP without an interfaceSome industry-specific manufacturing software only releases its order and routing data through its screens, and the vendor no longer builds an interface either. In that case, a software robot reads out the data and enters dates the same way a person would, only at night and without transposition errors. That's the bridge when an ERP switch is not on the cards right now.
We work at a fixed price instead of an open-ended timesheet. After the initial analysis, you know what it costs before we start.
In 60 minutes we walk through your path from the customer call to the delivery commitment: who plans with what today, which workstations are the bottleneck, where your standard times come from. Afterward, both sides know whether your data situation can support automated capacity calculation at all.
Together with you, we determine how fine-grained the planning should be: rough-cut planning by weeks and cost centers is enough for most companies with 20 to 100 employees, while fine-scheduling on an hourly grid requires actual-time data that many simply don't have. Less planning depth is almost always better, because it actually gets maintained day to day. You receive a quote with a fixed price and fixed scope.
We start at the workstation that sets your pace and let the calculation run in parallel with your current Excel sheet for a few weeks. Only once the calculated dates match what production actually achieves do we add the remaining cost centers.
You receive documentation, training for sales and production management, and an audit trail: for every delivery commitment it is traceable which capacity and which order backlog it was calculated with. You keep control over every commitment, and we stay on as your support contact if you wish.
If your standard times come from memory and feedback is recorded on paper routing slips, even the best planning will calculate past reality. On the page about shop floor data collection, you can see how actual times get to where planning needs them.
In the free initial analysis, we work through one of your bottlenecks together to calculate what is really free today: 60 minutes, no obligation, with an honest assessment. If your data situation is not yet sufficient for automated planning, we'll tell you so instead of selling you a planning system.
Rough-cut planning checks over weeks or months whether the order backlog even fits into the available capacity per cost center. Fine scheduling then determines which order runs on which machine, in which sequence, on which day. Companies with 20 to 100 employees almost always gain the most from rough-cut planning first, because that is where the wrong delivery commitments arise. Fine scheduling requires reliable actual times per operation, and anyone who doesn't have them builds a false precision that nobody maintains in daily practice.
In many cases your ERP can do more than it currently does, because routings, standard times and capacity master data were never maintained. That's why we first look at what your existing system can deliver, and build the calculation around it, instead of selling you an additional planning system. A genuine APS usually only pays off once you have many operations, hard sequencing constraints, and actual data of hourly quality. If you are at that point, we will tell you honestly, and then you buy an APS instead of an automation.
By checking the desired date against the free capacity at the bottleneck, including all orders already committed to. That is exactly what usually does not happen at order intake today: commitments are made based on experience, and checked later in production. We build the check into the point where the commitment is made, that is, into the hands of sales on the phone. The answer is not a guarantee, but it is based on your actual order backlog instead of the gut feeling from last time.
The rush order is not forbidden, it is priced: before committing, you see which committed orders it pushes back and by how many days. This turns a gut decision into a trade-off, because a rush order that delays three regular customers can be more costly than the revenue it brings in. We build this as a scenario that you can run through without changing the running plan. Only once you decide does it become the new plan, and the new dates go back into the ERP.
That depends on the number of cost centers, the quality of your routings, and how well your ERP can be connected, which is why we cannot honestly name a flat price without an analysis. The biggest cost driver is rarely the calculation itself, but rather catching up on standard times and capacity master data that nobody has touched in years. After the free initial analysis, you get a fixed-price quote with a fixed scope, not an open-ended timesheet. As a digitalization consultancy, our services may also be eligible for funding, for example through the BAFA consulting grant.
