Production Capacity & Decoration Departments

Production Capacity and Decoration Departments in Print Life Software allows print shops, screen printers, and embroidery operations to split shop equipment into distinct machine lanes (e.g., Automatic Press 1, Manual Press, 8-Head Tajima), assign daily run capacities, and monitor committed workload in real time across the dashboard and production calendar.

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1. Feature Scope & UI Navigation

Where Production Capacity Lives

Capacity management connects three operational areas of the software:

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                               Production Capacity Architecture                               │
├──────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────┤
│ 1. Shop-Wide Schedule        │ 2. Machine Department Tags   │ 3. Staff Operator Tags         │
│ (Global Operating Base)      │ (Configured on Matrices)     │ (Tagged in Settings)           │
│                              │                              │                                │
│ Finance & Settings           │ Pricing & Materials          │ Finance & Settings             │
│   ↳ Financials (`/financials`) │   ↳ Matrices (`/matrices`)   │   ↳ Settings (`/settings`)     │
│     ↳ Operating Costs        │     ↳ Open Matrix            │     ↳ Staff/ Vendors tab       │
│       ↳ Work Schedule &      │       ↳ Optional Settings    │       ↳ Decoration             │
│         Capacity             │         ↳ Department &       │         Departments            │
│                              │           Capacity           │                                │
└──────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────┘

1. Global Shop Work Schedule:

   • Navigate to Finance & Settings $\rightarrow$ Financials (/financials) $\rightarrow$ select the Operating Costs tab.
   • Configure Active Work Days, Daily Operating Hours, and Start Time under the Work Schedule & Capacity card.
   • Any department without a custom capacity defaults to your shop's global Daily Operating Hours.

2. Decoration Departments & Machine Capacities:

   • Navigate to Pricing & Materials $\rightarrow$ Matrices (/matrices) $\rightarrow$ open any decoration matrix (Screen Print, Embroidery, DTF, Laser, Flat Stock, or Single Item).
   • In the left column, scroll to the Optional settings label and click to expand the Decoration Department & Capacity section (collapsed by default).
   • Decoration Department (Optional): Enter the specific machine or lane name (e.g., Automatic Press 1 or Manual Press).
   • Production Capacity (Hours per Day): Enter the maximum operational run hours for that specific machine per day (e.g., 16 hours for a two-shift press).

3. Staff Department Tags:

   • Navigate to Finance & Settings $\rightarrow$ Settings (/settings) $\rightarrow$ select the Staff/ Vendors tab.
   • Open any staff member profile and scroll to Decoration Departments.
   • Check the specific methods and machine departments that operator runs.

4. Live Dashboard Capacity Tracker:

   • Located directly at the top of Dashboard (/dashboard) and the Production Calendar view.
   • Features the timeframe menu (Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week), the All Staff filter dropdown, individual department load pills, and Clear Filter.

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2. Capabilities & Operational Boundaries

Supported Capabilities

• Granular Machine Splitting: Group production capacity by physical work centers (e.g., separating an automated Roq press from a 6-color manual press).
• Open Invoices Commitment Standard: Only committed, open invoices consume shop capacity. Quotes never consume hours, allowing owners to evaluate true open capacity before promising turnaround dates on new bids.
• Intelligent Unscheduled Spillover: Invoices without a scheduled production date automatically distribute into the earliest available open capacity starting today, displaying an amber "incl. Xh unscheduled" label.
• Staff Share Transparency: Filtering by a team member in the All Staff dropdown shows that individual's contribution (e.g., "Alex 3.5h") without hiding the department's total load.
• Smart Auto-Assignment: When assigning team members on quotes, Auto-Assign Departments matches operators tagged for that specific department first, falling back to the general decoration method.
• Case-Insensitive Department Matching: Department names match automatically regardless of casing or extra spaces (e.g., Automatic Press 1 and automatic press 1 unify into a single department).
• Highest-Capacity Rule: If multiple matrices share the same department name with differing capacities, Studio automatically applies the highest defined capacity.

Operational Boundaries

• Product Markup Matrices: Product markup matrices price blank wholesale garments and do not feature department or production capacity fields.
• Daily Base Units: Capacities are defined per operating day. Weekly capacity is automatically calculated by multiplying daily hours by your shop's Active Work Days.
• Zero Production Time on Unconfigured Matrices: If a price matrix has zero setup time and zero run speed configured, jobs using that matrix book 0 hours of capacity.

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3. Step-by-Step Operating Procedures

Workflow 1: Setting Your Global Shop Operating Hours

1. In the sidebar, expand Finance & Settings $\rightarrow$ click Financials (/financials).
2. Select the Operating Costs tab.
3. Locate the Work Schedule & Capacity card.
4. Set your shop's Active Work Days (e.g., Monday through Friday).
5. Set your Daily Operating Hours (e.g., 8.0 hours) and daily Start Time (e.g., 08:00 AM).
6. Click Save Changes.

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Workflow 2: Assigning Departments & Capacity to Price Matrices

1. Expand Pricing & Materials $\rightarrow$ click Matrices (/matrices).
2. Open your target decoration matrix (e.g., Contract Auto Screen Print).
3. In the left settings column, scroll down to the Optional settings header.
4. Click Decoration Department & Capacity to expand the section.
5. In Decoration Department (Optional), enter the machine name (e.g., Automatic Press 1).
   • If other matrices already use this department, pick it from the suggested list.
6. In Production Capacity (Hours per Day), enter the daily machine capacity (e.g., 16).
7. Click Save Price Matrix.

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Workflow 3: Setting Screen Printing Crew Size

Screen printing requires operators to load, catch, and inspect garments. Setting the crew size ensures labor costs scale accurately with team size:

1. Open any Screen Printing matrix.
2. In the Production Time section (open by default):
   • Locate Press Crew Size (1 to 4 operators).
   • Enter the number of operators who physically run this press (e.g., 2 for a standard loader + unloader crew).
3. If the matrix includes an automatic press tier, expand the Automatic Press section under Optional settings:
   • Configure Auto Press Crew Size (e.g., 3 operators for automated production).
4. Click Save Price Matrix.

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Workflow 4: Tagging Staff Operators to Machines

1. Go to Settings (/settings) $\rightarrow$ select the Staff/ Vendors tab.
2. Click Edit on a team member's profile.
3. Under Decoration Departments, tick the methods and machine departments they operate (e.g., check both Screen Printing and Automatic Press 1).
4. Click Save Staff Member.

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Workflow 5: Auto-Assigning Staff to Work Orders

1. Open any Quote or Invoice at /quotes-invoices/[id].
2. Locate the Job Assignment card.
3. Click Assign Team.
4. Click Auto-Assign Departments:
   • The system checks every decoration on the order.
   • It searches for staff members tagged with the specific Decoration Department (e.g., Automatic Press 1) and assigns them first.
   • If no operators match the specific department, it assigns staff tagged with the general Decoration Method (e.g., Screen Printing).
5. Assigned staff names appear on the Work Order and directly below the due date on Dashboard Kanban cards.

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Workflow 6: Monitoring the Dashboard Capacity Bar

1. Navigate to Dashboard (/dashboard).
2. View the Capacity Bar across the top:
   • Timeframe Selector: Toggle between Today's, Tomorrow's, This Week's, and Next Week's Capacity.
   • Pill Status: Each department pill displays current booked hours against daily target capacity.
   • Hover Insights: Hover any pill to view Booked, Target Capacity, and Remaining hours, along with load status badges (Available, High Load, or Capacity Exceeded).
   • Filter View: Click any department pill to filter the Kanban board and Production Calendar strictly to that machine.
   • Staff Share: Choose an operator in the All Staff dropdown to see their individual booked hours beside the department's total load.

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4. Business Logic & Mathematical Formulas

Production Run Labor Formula

Crew size multiplies the run labor cost of a job, ensuring pricing reflects real shop labor:

$$\text{Run Labor Cost} = \text{Run Time (Hours)} \times \text{Shop Hourly Rate} \times \text{Press Crew Size}$$

[!NOTE] Setup labor (screen burning, ink mixing, jig alignment) is performed once per job and is never multiplied by crew size.

Capacity Availability Formula

$$\text{Remaining Available Hours} = \text{Daily Production Capacity} - \text{Total Booked Invoice Hours}$$

• If $\text{Remaining Hours} > 2.0\text{ hrs}$: Badge displays 🟢 Available.
• If $0.0\text{ hrs} \le \text{Remaining Hours} \le 2.0\text{ hrs}$: Badge displays 🟡 High Load.
• If $\text{Remaining Hours} < 0.0\text{ hrs}$: Badge displays 🔴 Capacity Exceeded.

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5. Troubleshooting & Diagnostic Matrix

Symptom / Question	Root Cause	Exact Remediation Step
Capacity Bar does not appear on Dashboard	No price matrices have Decoration Departments configured.	Open Pricing & Materials $\rightarrow$ Matrices, open a matrix, expand Optional settings $\rightarrow$ Decoration Department & Capacity, and set a department name.
I can't find the Decoration Department field	Section is collapsed under optional settings.	Scroll to the bottom of the left column on any decoration matrix, look for the Optional settings label, and click Decoration Department & Capacity to expand it.
A job books 0 hours on the capacity bar	Price matrix has 0 setup and 0 run speeds entered.	Open the matrix used by that quote and enter estimated setup times and press pieces-per-hour speeds.
A capacity pill shows "incl. Xh unscheduled"	Open invoices lack confirmed production dates.	Studio automatically places unscheduled jobs in the earliest open slots. Open the Production Calendar and drag those jobs onto target day cells to lock them in.
Selecting a staff member still shows high department hours	Department pills always display total machine load.	The pill displays total machine capacity to prevent false availability. The selected staff member's personal share is displayed as an individual blue tag beside the total.
Auto-Assign assigned every screen printer in the shop	No staff were tagged with that specific department.	In Settings $\rightarrow$ Staff/ Vendors, tag your specific press operators under the exact machine department name.
Does increasing Crew Size make the job run faster?	Crew size affects labor costing, not press velocity.	To change how fast a job runs, adjust Press Run Speed (Pieces per Hour) on the matrix. Crew size adjusts the labor rate multiplier.

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6. Frequently Asked Questions & Action Prompts

What is the difference between a Decoration Method and a Decoration Department?

• Decoration Method: The general production technique (Screen Printing, Embroidery, DTF, Laser Engraving).
• Decoration Department: A specific machine or physical lane within that method (e.g., Automatic Press 1, Manual Press 2, Tajima 6-Head).

[How do I set up a Decoration Department?](chat:How do I set up a Decoration Department on a matrix?) • [Show me Matrices](chat:Show me Matrices)

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How do I configure daily hours for a specific press or machine?

1. Go to Pricing & Materials $\rightarrow$ Matrices (/matrices).
2. Open your decoration matrix (e.g., Automatic Screen Printing).
3. Scroll down to the Optional settings label and click Decoration Department & Capacity to expand it.
4. Type your machine name in Decoration Department (Optional) (e.g., Auto Press 1).
5. In Production Capacity (Hours per Day), enter your daily hours (e.g., 16 for two shifts).
6. Click Save Price Matrix.

[How does the Dashboard Capacity Bar work?](chat:How does the Dashboard Capacity Bar work?)

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Why do quotes not count toward booked capacity?

Only confirmed, open invoices consume production hours. Quotes represent potential sales that have not yet been approved or paid. This ensures that shop owners can inspect true remaining capacity on the dashboard and know with certainty whether they can meet a customer's turnaround deadline before sending a bid.

[Show me the Dashboard](chat:Show me the Dashboard)