Capacity Planning

The Capacity Planner tab decision screen is used to enter decisions relating to the production capacity of your factory.

Setting Plant Capacity

Factory capacity is measured in Standard Capacity Units (SCU). The theoretical capacity of a factory (in SCU) is calculated from the plant (machine) capacity and the number and effectiveness of the workers.

For example, the standard RC_Rockhopper design requires 0.5 SCU to produce one bike. Then if 500 SCU were available for production then the maximum output of this design would be 500 SCU/0.5 SCU per unit

= 1000 bikes (assuming zero idle time and wastage-see below). The column on the right indicates your firm's production capacity (in SCU) for the previous year.

Keep in mind that too much capacity relative to production/sales demand will result in greater idle time (an inefficient use of resources causing higher average manufacturing costs per bike). Also note that the

maximum capacity you are able to buy is set at the maximum amount of available cash you have for this year before spending anything on any of your other budgets (decisions).

The Capacity decision is used to enter your total factory capacity target for the coming year in terms of Standard Capacity Units (SCU).

E.g. if a bike requires 0.5 SCU to produce, then with 500 SCU your maximum capacity at full efficiency would be 500/0.5 = 1000 bikes.

If you enter a number larger than the previous year then you will be increasing capacity and buying SCUs, if you enter a smaller number then you will be decreasing capacity and selling SCUs.

Note, any capacity increase is instantaneous and the additional capacity is available to produce bikes from the beginning of the year.

Wastage

Effective capacity will prove to be less than your plant capacity because of various wastage factors (such as rework, setup time, raw material stockout, and machine downtime). A factory efficiency of about 70%-80% is very good. You can see your wastage in the Capacity Decision screen graph.