Configure production planning

Screen reference

What you will see

What this controls

Settings > Production Planning is one workspace for the four inputs that decide what SignBas3 can plan: which job statuses count as plannable work, which department owns each catalogue task, how many hours each person offers each week, and which departments and tasks each person normally covers. The Shared planning scope notice explains that Capacity Reporting and scheduler prefill use these same staff profiles, department mappings and selected job statuses; existing scheduled commitments remain visible and excluded statuses add no unscheduled forecast demand.

Before you start

• You need the Owner or Admin role.
• Job statuses exist and are active; see Set up job statuses.
• The task catalogue is complete and obsolete tasks are inactive; see Configure reusable job tasks.
• Agree the department list: create one for each area whose hours you want to see separately.

Walkthrough

1. Open the workspace

Open Settings > Production Planning. Below the Shared planning scope notice sit three tabs: Job Statuses (Statuses on a phone), Departments and Staff.

2. Choose the statuses that count as demand

The Job statuses included in planning card lists every active, non-retired status with its semantic type underneath. Tick a status when its jobs' open tasks should add to the forecast. The note beside the button confirms that Completed, On Hold, and any other unselected statuses are excluded from new forecast and prefill demand. Select Save planning statuses; the page shows Capacity job statuses saved.

3. Add a department

Open the Departments tab. Existing departments appear collapsed under Departments and job tasks, each showing its job task items count and calculated staff hours/week. In the Add department card, enter a Department name, choose a Colour and tick the tasks it owns under Job task items. Add department stays disabled while the name is empty or already used, or while Override calculated output is ticked without valid hours; a duplicate shows "A department with this name already exists." A successful add shows Capacity department added.

4. Review and adjust existing departments

Select Edit department to expand a row, change the name, colour or task ownership and select Save; the page shows Capacity department saved. A task another department owns is greyed with Assigned to and its name; untick it there first to move it. Ticking Override calculated output enables the Manual output hours per week field and the helper text changes to "The override replaces staff-derived output in reporting." Archive asks "Archive [name]? Existing job work will retain its department history." and then shows Capacity department archived.

5. Set a person's participation

Open the Staff tab. Under People and availability each person appears collapsed with weekly hours, department order and task capability count. Select Edit profile. Participates in planning decides whether the person's hours contribute to department capacity; Show in scheduler controls their operational scheduler row. A person with either switch off shows an Excluded from planning or Hidden from scheduler badge.

6. Enter weekly availability

Enter Default hours/day and an FTE from 0 to 2, then tick each working day, Mon to Sun. Ticking a day fills its hours from the default; adjust any day in quarter-hour steps, and unticking a day sets it to zero. The profile heading shows the ticked days' total as h/week.

7. Order departments and choose capabilities

Under Department priority, add departments with the plus buttons in the order the person should serve them; capacity flows to priority 1 first, then to lower departments as demand is satisfied. Drag the handle to reorder; Remove drops a department and clears any capabilities that belonged to it. Normal task capabilities lists the tasks owned by the chosen departments (until one is chosen it reads "Assign a department to choose its task capabilities."); tick the ones the person normally does. Capabilities guide automated scheduling; manual assignment remains unrestricted.

8. Save and verify

Select Save planning profile; it enables once something has changed and no capability is mismatched, and the page shows Staff planning profile saved. Repeat for each person, then open Capacity Reporting from the Scheduling menu and confirm each lane's weekly output and mapped staff; see Read the capacity report.

What changes elsewhere

• Capacity Reporting (/capacity-planning): each department becomes a lane whose weekly output is participating staff hours flowing through priorities, or the override; open tasks on included jobs become forecast load; a note counts the tasks the status selection excludes.
• Scheduler (/staff-scheduler): a person with Show in scheduler off has no row, and the All capacity departments filter narrows the staff list by planning department.
• Prefill week (/staff-scheduler): the Weekly schedule automation panel builds a review-only draft using saved department priorities first and task capabilities for matching.
• Staff (/staff): the staff edit dialog states that Production Planning owns scheduling inputs and offers Open Production Planning.

Common problems

Check your work

1. The Job Statuses tab shows every plannable status ticked and holding states such as On Hold clear.
2. Every department row lists the right job task items and calculated staff hours above zero, or a deliberate override.

See production scheduling in SignBas3 →