How to Visualize Work Center Capacity and Load in Graphical Scheduler

Graphical Scheduler from Insight Works can display Business Central work center capacity and load directly on the schedule. This provides production planners with a visual indication of which work centers have available capacity, which are approaching capacity, and which may be overloaded.

The visualization uses the work center calendar and production capacity requirements calculated by Business Central. Before configuring the visualization in Graphical Scheduler, make sure that Business Central has calculated capacity for the period that you want to display.

Understanding Work Center Capacity and Load

In Business Central:

• Capacity represents the amount of work that a work center can perform during a period.  This is in the unit of measure configured on the work center.
• Allocated Qty. represents the capacity required by production order operations during that period.
• Availability After Orders is the remaining capacity after the allocated production requirements are considered.
• Load represents the allocated capacity as a percentage of the effective capacity.

For example, a work center with 1,440 minutes of capacity and 365 minutes allocated has approximately 25.3% load and 1,075 minutes available after orders.

Business Central calculates work center capacity from information including the assigned Shop Calendar, the work center’s Capacity, and Efficiency.

Prepare Work Center Capacity in Business Central

If you are configuring a demonstration, training, or test environment, first make sure that capacity has been calculated for the dates that you intend to show.

1. Search for Work Centers in Business Central.
2. Open the required work center.
3. Verify the Shop Calendar Code, Unit of Measure Code, Capacity, and Efficiency.
4. Calculate the Work Center Calendar for the required date range.
5. If production routing operations use machine centers, also calculate the calendars for the applicable machine centers.

You can verify the results from the Work Center Card by choosing Load and setting View by to Day.

Microsoft provides additional information about calculating work center calendars here:

Set up shop calendars in Business Central

Example Capacity Setup

The following example uses CRONUS demonstration data and Work Center 100 – Assembly Department.

The example uses:

Setting	Value
Work Center	100 – Assembly Department
Unit of Measure Code	Minutes
Shop Calendar Code	1 – One shift Monday-Friday
Capacity	3
Working Hours	08:00-16:00
Working Days	Monday-Friday

The shop calendar provides eight working hours per day:

Day	Starting Time	Ending Time	Work Shift Code
Monday	08:00	16:00	1
Tuesday	08:00	16:00	1
Wednesday	08:00	16:00	1
Thursday	08:00	16:00	1
Friday	08:00	16:00	1

With a capacity of 3 and 100% efficiency, this produces:

8 hours × 60 minutes × 3 = 1,440 minutes of effective daily capacity.

After calculating the Work Center Calendar, a period with no production orders might appear as follows:

Period Start	Period Name	Capacity	Allocated Qty.	Availability After Orders	Load
2026-08-09	Sunday	0	0	0	0
2026-08-10	Monday	1,440	0	1,440	0
2026-08-11	Tuesday	1,440	0	1,440	0
2026-08-12	Wednesday	1,440	0	1,440	0
2026-08-13	Thursday	1,440	0	1,440	0
2026-08-14	Friday	1,440	0	1,440	0
2026-08-15	Saturday	0	0	0	0

Tip: If Graphical Scheduler shows no available capacity for a period that should contain working time, verify the Work Center Calendar in Business Central first. Graphical Scheduler relies on the capacity calculated by Business Central.

Add Production Load

Next, create or use production orders whose routing operations fall within the calculated calendar period.

For example, a production order for four units of CRONUS item 1000 – Bicycle could have the following routing:

Production Order No.	Operation No.	Type	No.	Description	Starting Date-Time	Ending Date-Time	Setup Time	Run Time
1011010	10	Work Center	100	Wheel assembly	2026-08-21 09:55	2026-08-21 12:33	110	12
1011010	20	Machine Center	120	Chain assembly	2026-08-21 12:33	2026-08-21 13:48	15	15
1011010	30	Machine Center	130	Final assembly	2026-08-21 13:48	2026-08-21 15:18	10	20
1011010	40	Machine Center	110	Control	2026-08-21 15:18	2026-08-21 16:00	10	8

After the production order is scheduled, return to Work Center > Load.

For this example, the load on August 21 is:

Period Start	Period Name	Capacity	Allocated Qty.	Availability After Orders	Load
2026-08-17	Monday	1,440	0	1,440	0
2026-08-18	Tuesday	1,440	0	1,440	0
2026-08-19	Wednesday	1,440	0	1,440	0
2026-08-20	Thursday	1,440	0	1,440	0
2026-08-21	Friday	1,440	365	1,075	25.3
2026-08-22	Saturday	0	0	0	0

The resulting load is approximately:

365 ÷ 1,440 × 100 = 25.3%

You can drill into Availability After Orders in Business Central to see the production capacity requirements contributing to the calculation.

For this example:

Type	No.	Starting Date-Time	Ending Date-Time	Time Type	Allocated Time
Work Center	100	09:55	11:45	Setup Time	110
Work Center	100	11:45	12:33	Run Time	48
Machine Center	120	12:33	12:48	Setup Time	15
Machine Center	120	12:48	13:48	Run Time	60
Machine Center	130	13:48	13:58	Setup Time	10
Machine Center	130	13:58	15:18	Run Time	80
Machine Center	110	15:18	15:28	Setup Time	10
Machine Center	110	15:28	16:00	Run Time	32

Microsoft provides more information about reviewing this information in Business Central here:

View load on work and machine centers

Display Work Center Load in Graphical Scheduler

Once Business Central is calculating the expected capacity and load, add the Work Center Load data source to a Graphical Scheduler view.

1. Start Graphical Scheduler.
2. Choose View.
3. Select a view that contains production data. Alternatively, create a new view using the standard PRODUCTION data source for production order routing lines.
4. Edit the view.
5. From the Graphical Scheduler View card, choose Add a Data Source.
6. Select All Work Center Load.

Graphical Scheduler adds the WRKLOAD data source to the view.

The standard Work Center Load data source includes the following data fields:

• Load
• Available
• Effective
• UOM

The default cell template is:

[Load] - [Available]/[Effective]

The default tooltip is:

Load= [Load]
Effective = [Effective] [UOM]
Available = [Available] [UOM]

These are the defaults created by the All Work Center Load configuration option.

For the previous example, Graphical Scheduler displays a cell similar to:

25.3 – 1075/1440

This corresponds directly to the Business Central load information:

• Load: 25.3%
• Available: 1,075 minutes
• Effective Capacity: 1,440 minutes

How the Time Scale Affects Load

Work Center Load is calculated for the time periods displayed by the Graphical Scheduler view.

For example, if the view uses the Next 2 weeks date preset with a Day and Week time scale, work center capacity and load are displayed in daily periods.

Changing to a larger time scale can cause capacity and load to be summarized into larger periods. This is useful when planners want to review capacity at different planning horizons rather than only by individual day.

To ensure reasonable performance:

• The tool does not display all work center load when looking at very large time horizons.
• The tool will only display work center load for the Hours, Day, Week, and Month time scales.

Work Center Load Colors

When the All Work Center Load data source is added, Graphical Scheduler also creates three default styles:

Style	Filter	Background Color
OVER	Load > 95	Light Red
UNDER	Load = 25..95	Blue Gray
UNSCHEDULED	Load < 25	Light Orange

These styles are available from Configure Styles In This View and can be modified to match your organization’s preferred capacity thresholds and colors.

Using the earlier example, a load of 25.3% matches the UNDER style, so the work center load cell is displayed with a blue-gray background.

If additional production orders are scheduled onto the same work center and period, the load percentage increases. When the load exceeds 95%, the default OVER style changes the cell to light red.

This makes it possible to identify heavily loaded work centers visually without opening the individual Work Center Load pages in Business Central.

Using the Visualization for Production Planning

Work Center Load visualization is useful for quickly identifying:

• Work centers with significant unused capacity.
• Work centers approaching their available capacity.
• Work centers that may be overloaded.
• Days or periods where moving an operation could improve the production schedule.
• Differences between the available working calendar and the production work currently allocated to it.

The visualization does not replace Business Central’s manufacturing capacity calculations. Graphical Scheduler presents the calculated capacity and production requirements visually so that planners can more easily identify periods that require attention.

Related Information

For more information, see:

• Graphical Scheduler – Setup Guide
• Set Up Shop Calendars – Microsoft Business Central
• View Load on Work and Machine Centers – Microsoft Business Central