The capacity factor is used to describe the total capacity that is shown in the loading plan. This is used as a "permanent value" when you enter the capacity. If the number of shifts should be described in calendar time (i.e. if the capacity during a certain period or as of a certain point in time will change), you can set the Capacity factor here to 1.0 and enter the Capacity factor in the production calendar instead.
For example, the capacity factor can be 2.00 for 2 fitters, 2 machines or 2 workstations. When you deduct absences, interruptions etc., the net capacity will be somewhat lower. If you want to describe the capacity as a net capacity, you can then enter the capacity factor in the example above as 1.60, if your net capacity is 80% of your gross capacity. The system does not take any capacity ceilings (upper limit) into consideration in the loading plan.
To obtain the capacity, you multiply Basic time with the number of Shifts and the Capacity factor, as well as any other factors that were entered in the calendar. Please read more under Basic Time for additional information.
You can also deactivate the setting Capacity factor for work center in lead time calculation? under Orders under the Manufacturing tab in the Settings procedure, which deactivates the use of capacity factors for work centers during lead time calculation.
The alternative is for the capacity factor < 1 to be used to define capacity during lead time calculations. The purpose of this feature is that you can define larger capacities in the lead time calculation than the capacity that is used during loading. For example, you can use 8 hours a day as the capacity for lead time calculation, but if you use a capacity factor of 0,6 there will only be 24 hours a week as the loading capacity in the loading plan. This will give you better possibilities of configuring capacity factors to add capacity for several work centers in a loading plan. However, any existing preparation exceptions are always included in the lead time calculation.