Since malfunctions can never be completely avoided in the process flow, the system takes certain time-related floats (before and after production) in account when scheduling an order.

The float before production fulfills two functions:

• It can neutralize delays during the staging of ingredients.

• It offers you the option of shifting production dates towards the present if capacity bottlenecks occur at any of the resources involved. In this way, the float before production can also be used for capacity leveling as a float before and after production.

The float after production is used to neutralize unforeseen malfunctions in the production process so that these do not shift the scheduled finish of the order.

The float before production and the float after production are defined for each material via a scheduling margin key. This scheduling margin key, which is predefined in Customizing for Process Orders (Operations ® Scheduling ® Define Scheduling Margin Key), is copied automatically from the material master when you create an order.

However the times can be changed in the order.

The system calculates the scheduled start of the order by adding the float before production to the order start date. It calculates the scheduled finish of the order by subtracting the float after production from the order finish date.

The system subtracts the number of days defined in the release period from the scheduled start of the order, thus calculating the release date of the order.