Aggregate Planning and Demand–Capacity Consensus

Why it matters

Before individual work orders are sequenced, an aggregate plan examines whether demand and resources can meet in the same period. Quantities at product-family level are multiplied by the times of the resource that will produce that family. Adding different products by quantity alone misrepresents capacity: a small quantity of a long job can need more time than a large quantity of a short one. The purpose of consensus is not to force a sales forecast on production. Demand, available time, inventory, supply and delivery conditions are made visible in the same table. It is explained which constraint the accepted decision meets and how.

The order of the periods matters as much as their total. The idle machine of a later month cannot make the delivery of an earlier month. Pre-building is possible only if the product can be made in advance, its material is available and it can be stored under suitable conditions. The period-end inventory quantity is therefore not only an accounting result; it is the physical record showing which product the future delivery will be met from. A plan with no opening inventory that covers the first month's capacity gap with spare capacity in later months has not met the delivery condition, even if the total calculation is correct.

The time used in demand–capacity consensus must have the same scope as the chosen resource. Machine hours and labor hours do not add up to a common capacity. If the same worker supports different machines, the labor load is tested separately. If the time per product does not cover setup, the setup load is added on a separate line; if it does, it is not added again. If maintenance and planned stops have been deducted in the calendar, the same time is not deducted a second time. The aim is not to produce an optimistic-looking utilization rate but to show on which resource the decision is executable. Keeping the old average time when the product mix changes creates the same problem. If the share of products that need longer processing grows, the load rises even when the total quantity stays the same. The consensus table must therefore carry not only the total sales quantity but also the family distribution that determines the time. If a product's time can be shorter on another resource, the setup and transport needs of the transfer are verified separately. The extra work created by a resource transfer is not silently left out of the gain calculation. This option is not added to base capacity until production and planning approve the same definition of time. In this way the comparison of options keeps the same scope not only in the headline but throughout the calculation.

Consensus does not end with the approval of a single number. Extra work, pre-building, a suitable external source or a delivery change create different results. Extra hours are not counted as capacity unless the safe working limit and quality competence are met. A delivery change is a valid option only when the relevant acceptance has been obtained. Alongside the chosen plan, the starting assumptions, the remaining open risk and the condition for re-review are kept. In this way the later detailed schedule does not silently inherit a target that cannot be achieved; it knows which load will be met in which period and with which resource. For the numerical scenarios in the lesson quizzes as well: This dataset was generated synthetically for training; it does not represent a real business, employee or customer study.

Formula