Can different centres have different reservation levels?

Yes. Each work centre and machine centre has its own setting. A bottleneck might run a 20% reservation while a flexible centre runs at 5%. Reservations can also vary by shift or by season.

How does the reservation release over time?

You set a curve by horizon — for example 80% planning capacity two weeks out, 90% one week out, 100% in the current week. As the calendar rolls forward, each future week's reservation eases off automatically. No manual release, no "unfreeze" step.

What happens to reserved hours that are not used?

They simply roll into the now-available capacity of the closer horizon as the curve advances.

How is this different from just leaving some machines unscheduled?

Leaving a machine unscheduled hides the buffer — it looks like idle capacity to the next person who opens the plan, and gets filled. A reservation is explicit, labelled and survives every replan, so the buffer stays buffer until you consume it.

Production Planning

uScheduler Production

A production plan you can actually execute.

Most production planning tools draw beautiful Gantts that nobody can act on. uScheduler Production starts from the opposite premise: every cell on the board is a decision waiting to be made. Drag an order and capacity, tooling, qualifications, sequencing and material availability all update instantly — if something does not fit, it becomes visible. Auto-Plan proposes a feasible starting point; the planner refines it; nothing changes on the floor without the planner committing. The result is a plan you can show on a screen above the line without explaining, and defend in a sales meeting when somebody asks "when can we ship it?".

Production planning board showing work centers and scheduled orders for week 19

Functionalities · 8

Advanced tier

uScheduler Production · Capacity Reservation

Leave room for the order you have not received yet.

There are always orders that arrive late and need to ship soon. A plan that fills every hour of every week has no answer when they land. uScheduler reserves capacity up front — more in the distant weeks, less as the week approaches — so the urgent order has somewhere to go and the rest of the plan does not collapse around it.

A buffer per work or machine centre

Set a percentage or a fixed number of hours per shift, per day or per week, on any work centre or machine centre. Auto-plan and feasibility checks treat the buffer as unavailable until you release it.

Fully adjustable

Different reservation levels per centre, per shift pattern, per season. Crank it up before peak season; relax it during quieter weeks. Changes take effect immediately.

Releases automatically as the week approaches

Reservation tapers by horizon. Two weeks out you might run at 80% planning capacity, one week out at 90%, the current week fully open. As each week rolls forward, the next horizon's reservation eases off automatically — no manual release.

What you see

You cannot plan to the max every week.

The instinct is to fill the schedule — every machine, every hour. But the week that runs at 100% utilisation is the week with no headroom for the rush order, the breakdown, the supplier slip. Reserved capacity is a planning choice, not a planning failure: a deliberate, visible buffer that turns "we cannot take that order" into "we have room".

Percentage or absolute reservation per work centre or machine centre
Per-shift, per-day or per-week granularity
Different levels per season, per centre, per shift pattern
Horizon-based tapering — e.g. 80% capacity two weeks out, 90% one week out, 100% in the current week
Reserved hours visible on the capacity view in their own colour
Reservation curve auto-rolls forward each week — no manual release

Auto-plan menu: fill idle times, move to earliest possible date, move to just-in-time

When this matters

Signals you'd reach for this.

Every rush order causes a replan

When the plan has zero slack, a single urgent order rewrites the week. Reserved capacity absorbs the shock.

"We cannot take that"

Sales is told no because the schedule looks full. Often it is full of low-priority work that should have moved aside.

Overtime is the buffer

A plant that runs at 100% planned and absorbs surprises with weekend work is using its people as the reservation system.

Utilisation theatre

100% planned utilisation looks great in the meeting and ships late in reality. Honest planning leaves room.

FAQ

The questions everyone asks first.

Still wondering? Ask us directly →

Auto-plan and the feasibility check treat reserved hours as zero capacity. The planner sees them as a distinct band on the board — they cannot be filled accidentally, only consumed deliberately.

See uScheduler Production in a 30-minute demo.

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