If you want to display resource hierarchies in capacity planning instead of the capacity situation of individual resources, you must cumulate the available capacities.

It is a good idea to cumulate, for example, when no available capacity has been directly maintained for the superior resource level, but the available capacity is of interest for planning purposes and can be derived from the subordinate resources.

The cumulation of available capacity takes place statically in the resource. In capacity requirements planning, it can also take place dynamically.

You can use static cumulation to cumulate available capacity of hierarchy resources in a superior hierarchy resource.

You carry out static cumulation in the resource while processing a version of available capacity of a capacity. In this way you specify the available capacity of this version of available capacity.

When cumulating available capacity, note the following:

• Existing intervals of available capacity are deleted when you cumulate capacities of one capacity category. The cumulated available capacity is created for the time defined by the period pattern key via the create cumulation function.

• Available capacities of one hierarchy level are cumulated to the superior resource. Since there could be duplicate available capacities, intermediate levels may not be included in the cumulation.

• By setting the Stop explosion indicator on the Hierarchy Detail screen in resource maintenance, you can specify that when cumulating available capacity using a hierarchy from a resource, the hierarchy may not be exploded further than this resource. It is a good idea to do this if, for example, the available capacity of this resource is to be larger than the cumulated available capacity of the subordinate resource.

• Available capacity is used in capacity requirements planning. In capacity requirements planning, the operating times for the resources are not considered. Because subordinate resources can have different operating times, the system automatically defines the operating time as the longest operating time of all resources involved.

• One resource can exist in several hierarchies. If you want to cumulate available capacity of a resource using different hierarchies, you can record these various results in different versions of a capacity category. By entering the active version on the header data screen in capacity maintenance, you specify which available capacity will be used for capacity requirements planning.

Cumulation of available capacity takes place using a period pattern key. This key defines a time frame and an increment. It is used for:

• Cumulating available capacity

• Displaying available capacities

One period pattern key is made up of any number of consecutive segments. Each segment consists of periods, whose length is determined by the period length and period type. Typical period types include:

• Calendar days

• Work days

• Weeks

• Months

• Years

Available capacity is cumulated per period. In one period, an average is calculated for each available capacity to be cumulated. The averaged available capacities for one period are then cumulated.

If you want a more detailed cumulation of available capacity and yet still have an overview of available capacity, you should use detailed planning in the more current segments and rough-cut planning for the later segments. This method has the advantage that even for a large time frame, only a limited number of periods have to be cumulated.

The following figure shows the cumulation of available capacities A and B using the period pattern key XYZ.

In this graphic, there are three segments defined for the period pattern key XYZ:

• Segment 1:
  Seven periods with one day each.
  The system cumulates the available capacities A and B for each day of the period.

• Segment 2: Three periods of seven days. This is the same as three periods of one week.
  The system averages and cumulates the available capacities A and B for each week.

• Segment 3: One period of one month.
  The system averages and cumulates available capacities A and B for the month.

An interval with a cycle length of one is created for each period. The cumulated available capacity is displayed in available capacity C.

You can use dynamic cumulation to cumulate available capacity of hierarchy resources in superior hierarchy resources in capacity planning.

When cumulating available capacity, the system summarizes the available capacities in the active version of available capacity to one available capacity and writes it in the active version of available capacity of the corresponding capacity category in the superior resource.