Monitoring the Workload of Resources

You can display an aggregate view of the workload of execution resources or work centers per period, and see if there are risks of overload or overcapacity.

Before you begin: Display the workload chart for the type of entity (execution resources or work centers) and the production plan you want to analyze. In the chart, the list on the left-hand side displays one row per entity of the selected type. For example, in a Work Center Workload Chart: one row per work center in the plan. You can use 3DSearch to filter that list. You can customize its columns, and change the chart time scale, for example, as you do in a Gantt chart.
See Also
Display Section
Main and Secondary View Settings Sections
  1. From the Main View Settings section of the action bar, select the type of data to monitor: workload, capacity, percentage of workload to capacity, or capacity left, which is the difference between capacity and workload.

    Note: If the workload chart is the secondary chart in the widget window, you select the type of data to monitor from the Secondary View Settings section instead.

    For each entity in the left-hand list, the values in the chart cells correspond to the data category you have selected—for example: workload percentage—as calculated for the time bucket.
  2. From the Display section of the action bar, select the chart time scale. This determines both a time frame for display, and the time buckets in that time frame. For example, when you select Week, the time frame is 7 days, and the time bucket is the day. To change time scale, you can use also Ctrl + mouse wheel on the chart grid.
    The chart displays the time frame you have selected, split into time buckets. The app recalculates the values in the cells accordingly. For example, if you have selected Week, and you are viewing the workload percentage, then for each entity, you see that percentage per day, 7 days at a time.
  3. Navigate to the periods of particular interest to you. Quick ways to do so include using the Navigate section of the action bar, or the timeline at the top of the chart. On the timeline, which is the same as in the Gantt charts, see Timeline and Time Scale.

Each row in the chart corresponds to one of the entities to monitor, and each column corresponds to a time bucket in the time frame you are viewing. Each cell shows the selected workload data for the entity on that row, for the specific moment in time in that column. Depending on how you configured the chart, this can be:

  • The total workload of that entity for that time bucket, in hours.
  • The total capacity of that entity for that time bucket, in hours.
  • The percentage of workload of that entity for that time bucket. This is the workload-to-capacity ratio.
  • The capacity left for that entity on that time bucket. This is the difference between capacity and workload, in hours.

Tip: Each cell has a tooltip that shows all the values of that entity for that time bucket, and the number of operations contributing to that workload.

Whatever the type of value in the chart, the background color of the cells reflects the workload-to-capacity ratio. A cell can be:

  • Blue when there is capacity but no workload for that entity in that time bucket.
  • White when the workload is less than 80% of capacity. This is also the color for infinite capacity resources, and whenever capacity is zero—typically, because the entity is not working in that time bucket.
  • Orange when the workload is between 80% and 100% of capacity.
  • Red when the workload exceeds 100% of capacity, but is less than 105%. This is an overload situation.
  • Dark red when the workload exceeds 105% of capacity. This is a critical overload situation.

The colors make it easy to spot the periods when there is not enough capacity to handle the planned workload.

Note: There can be also an alert in the chart data table if a resource has changed from infinite to finite capacity in the data model. In fact, the sequence of operations on that resource needs rescheduling further to that change. Until then, the resource likely appears in an overload / undercapacity situation. For more information, see Monitor Alerts on Resources and Operations.

The app recalculates the values whenever you change time scale or workload data type, or refresh the view. It updates them also whenever you reschedule or modify the plan. Suppose that your widget displays the Resource Workload Chart along with the Resource Gantt Chart. If you move an operation to a different resource, then the Resource Workload Chart updates its data accordingly for the previous resource and for the new resource.

Important: If applicable, the workload values include also the tool changeover / setup times.

The last row shows the totals for the entities in the chart, per time bucket. If you are viewing workload, capacity, or capacity left, the cells in Total display the sums of the hours in each time bucket. If you are viewing the workload-to-capacity ratio, the percentage value for each time bucket in Total is: Sum of workload / Sum of capacity.