How Utilization and Efficiency Percentages Impact Scheduling

Utilization and efficiency percentages determine the duration of the resources that are scheduled on a work order.

Work Center Settings That Affect Scheduling

• Utilization percentage

• Efficiency percentage

• Shift assignments

How Scheduling Is Calculated

By default, the utilization and efficiency percentages are set to 100 percent. When you set these percentages to less than 100, the scheduled duration of the resources gets extended.

Let's say you want two hours of work done using a resource. You begin with the assumption that your resources will be fully utilized, and at full efficiency. To know whether your work will be done in two hours, divide the number of work hours by the product of your utilization and efficiency percentages. That's 2 / (1*1), which equals 2. This confirms that your work will be done in two hours.

Now let's say you halve the utilization and efficiency percentages. The new calculation is 2 / (0.5*0.5), which equals 8. This means your work will take longer to complete, and that's because your resource isn't being fully utilized at 100 percent.