RCCP (Rough-Cut Capacity Planning)

RCCP (Rough-Cut Capacity Planning) is the high-level capacity check between strategic planning (S&OP) and detailed scheduling. It answers one critical question: can the planned Master Production Schedule (MPS) actually be executed with available bottleneck resources?

Position in the Planning Process

• S&OP plans volumes at the product family level (months, quarters)
• MPS translates these into specific end products and quantities per period
• RCCP checks whether the MPS is feasible given available capacity
• MRP / detailed scheduling derives material requirements and sequences

Without RCCP, an MPS can look sound on paper but fail at a bottleneck – only becoming visible during detailed scheduling or in live operations.

How Does RCCP Work?

RCCP compares capacity demand against capacity availability at an aggregated level:

Required hours = planned quantity × hours per unit per bottleneck resource

This is compared against available capacity – adjusted for real-world availability (OEE, shifts, downtime). The result: overload, underload, or within range.

The key is focusing on actual bottleneck resources – not every machine, but the critical line, the specialized furnace, the key assembly station.

Methods

Capacity Planning Using Overall Factors: Total volumes are converted to capacity demand using an average factor. Fast but imprecise – suitable for simple environments.

Bill of Resources (BOR): Each product is linked to a resource list with standard times. Standard in MRP-II and ERP implementations.

Resource Profile: Also accounts for time-phased load within a period. More accurate but more maintenance-intensive – suitable for longer lead times.

Common Mistakes

Unrealistic capacity assumptions: Planning at 100% availability without OEE and downtime produces a theoretically clean but practically useless plan.

Outdated standard times: Without regular reconciliation against actual MES or OEE data, input parameters become stale.

Too much detail: RCCP is high-level capacity planning, not detailed scheduling. Including too many resources makes the process slow and unusable.

FAQ

What is the difference between RCCP and detailed capacity planning? RCCP works at an aggregated level (product families, bottleneck resources, weekly buckets). Detailed capacity planning looks at specific orders, machines, and sequences on a daily or shift basis.

Is RCCP only relevant for large plants? No. Wherever real bottlenecks exist, RCCP is useful – including mid-sized manufacturers. Without it, planning is essentially guesswork.

Where to start pragmatically? With 1–2 critical bottleneck resources, clean standard times for the most important product families, and a weekly MPS. Make deviations visible, decide in the S&OP or planning meeting, and improve the data foundation iteratively.