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We are using the Advanced Planning Board to schedule resources within [certain] work centers. (The resource represents employees/workers rather than machines in our setup.) The APB tool is not loading the resource with its maximum capacity each day. Rather than loading a resource at the full 8 hours it can handle, we are seeing 4-6 hours being allocated per resource per day. Is there a setting or configuration needed per resources to achieve this?

Because the resources are not scheduling to their full “potential”/capacity, the work center is also showing less 100% capacity each day (generally we are seeing around 60% capacity for the work center).

We would like the APB tool to schedule these resources at their full capacity, resulting in work centers at sor close to] 100% capacity each day.

This can not be happening. Could you elaborate with an example?

One thing to note is, APB does not schedule based on labor , it schedules based on work center capacities. BUT, It will not overload finite labor resources ( employees). 

Thanks and regards

Saman

Great news — we're focused on Work Center capacity (not Labor Class), which aligns perfectly with our approach. Below are the use cases we're aiming to fulfill:

Use Cases

  1. Finite Capacity Configuration
    Only two Work Centers are to be set as finite capacity, as these represent our key bottleneck areas.
  2. Rescheduling via APB
    Our goal is to use the Advanced Planning Board (APB) as a tool to reschedule activities for these finite Work Centers based on their actual capacity.
  3. Rescheduling Criteria in APB
    When using the APB, we aim to reschedule according to the following priority:
    • a. Shop Order Need Dates
    • b. Pull orders in as early as possible, up to 100% of Work Center capacity

Configuration Summary

Data Setup

  • Labor Classes
    • Created a group of 50 and calculated total capacity
    • All labor classes are designated as Infinite Capacity
    • Note: This setup was required — without configuring labor classes, APB treated all orders as “unscheduled”.
  • Work Centers
    • Added Resources and calculated their capacities
    • Marked Work Centers as Finite Capacity

APB Scheduling Process

To Reschedule Based on Need Dates:

  1. Load the APB with a query filtered by:
    • Work Center IDs (the two bottlenecks)
    • Need Date range: June 2–30, 2025
  2. Drag all applicable orders to the Gantt chart
  3. Right-click on the Gantt header → Select “Scheduling…”
  4. Enable all four scheduling actions:
    • Schedule selected unscheduled objects
    • Reschedule selected scheduled objects
    • Reschedule selected released objects
    • Schedule selected infinite scheduled objects
  5. Set parameters:
    • Dispatch Rule: None
    • Operation Schedule Mode: As Late As Possible
    • Operation Resource Assignments: Re-assign Resource
  6. Click Schedule

Result: Shop orders were successfully pushed to their respective need dates.

To Reschedule as Early As Possible Within Capacity:

  1. Load the APB with a query filtered by:
    • Work Center IDs (the two bottlenecks)
    • Need Date range: June 2–30, 2025
  2. Drag all applicable orders to the Gantt chart
  3. Right-click on the Gantt header → Select “Scheduling…”
  4. Enable all four scheduling actions (same as above)
  5. Set parameters:
    • Dispatch Rule: None
    • Operation Schedule Mode: As Soon As Possible
    • Operation Resource Assignments: Re-assign Resource
  6. Click Schedule

Result: Orders were rescheduled accordingly. However, after saving the schedule to the database and reviewing the Machine Load per Work Center screen in IFS, we observed that the work centers were only loaded to 50–60% capacity. Resource load percentages also appeared uneven and inconsistent. Additionally, operations were often split and scheduled across multiple days – rather than from start to completion.

From the description I get few questions. 

  1. If you want to schedule orders according to their need dates , then why you don't have any dispatch rule? shouldn't it be “ Earliest due date “ ? 
  2. According to the description, there shouldn't be any gaps in forward loading. Since you said other work centers are infinite. Try scheduling “again” on scheduled dataset , until you see no changes. If this happens, then the scheduling logic has not found most efficient solution. Else I don't see any work flow problem. May be report a ticket to your support organization to get expert help.

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