We’re seeing a consistent scheduling issue in our Epicor 10.2.700 environment. Whenever we create or reschedule jobs, everything defaults to a single resource within a resource group—even though we’ve configured the system to schedule at the group level.
Since we don’t have the Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) module, we’re working within the limits of base scheduling. The setup looks correct, but the issue persists—suggesting we might be missing a subtle setting or running into a known limitation. System Overview: ERP Version: 10.2.700 Resource Group: LATHE Resources in Group: T05, T10, T15, T20, T25, T30 Scheduling Mode: Finite capacity enabled for the group and each resource (100-day horizon, 10 hours/day, 5 days/week, ~300 hours/week total capacity) Operations: Primarily CNC_TURN, tied to the resource group—not specific machines (since we don’t have APS, we can’t use capabilities) The Problem: Even though we’re scheduling at the group level, all operations get assigned to the first-listed resource (currently T05), unless we manually intervene using the Job Scheduling Board.
This has resulted in T05 being consistently overloaded, while the rest of the machines in the group sit mostly idle. In fact, our reports show that 88% of recent jobs have gone to T05 alone. What We’ve Already Verified: Finite capacity is enabled and aligned on both group and resources Calendars are consistent across all resources with no exceptions or hidden downtime We reordered the resource list (put T10 first) and observed that new jobs started defaulting to T10—so the system clearly defaults to the first listed resource All methods and operations have been reviewed in Engineering Workbench—no operations are tied to specific ResourceIDs We’re using Global Scheduling with “Process Finite”, which spreads work out in time but doesn’t distribute across resources Load reports and scheduling boards all show the same single-resource loading pattern There are no active BPMs or custom overrides APS module is not licensed, and we understand this limits capability-based balancing The
Has anyone experienced this in 10.2 without APS? Could there be a hidden configuration option under Company or Site Maintenance that we’ve missed? Or is this simply a limitation of the base scheduler? Would love to know if a newer patch or CU has addressed this—or if something like an MRP regen or system agent task could be playing a role. I’ve attached shop load report snippets and other visuals to illustrate the issue. Any advice or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated!
Things are currently a mess — jobs are running late, which is causing significant issues with capacity planning and scheduling. I’ve been digging deep (to the point of going cross-eyed) and am running out of places to look, but I’m still actively working to resolve the root causes.
I’m diving back in today to review everything again and finally figure out why the load isn’t balancing properly.
A workaround was developed and implemented because of these issues, but our goal is to eliminate it, bring everything back into the ERP system as it should be, and achieve much better planning and scheduling overall.
Do you have any thoughts as to what could be causing these issues? We are running Epicor ERP v10.2.700.12.
Are you not running Global Scheduling? That is where the selection of other resources happens. If you are only using the job scheduling, it will not work.
I ran global scheduling yesterday afternoon (in test environment) and verified that the calendar buckets are identical across the resource group and all individual resources within that group. Despite this, everything is still loading onto only one resource.
I am going to rerun both right now to see what if anything changes. The user said noting ever come up when they run the Generate Shop Capacity Process option. Do you know how long it takes to run Generate Shop Capacity Process?
I’ve been reviewing the load balancing results, and it does look like things are finally moving across the turning resource group. Not as many operations moved as I expected, but the balancing is definitely happening now.
As I keep refining the setup, I want to make sure I’m considering everything that affects how Epicor decides which operations can move to alternate resources. Are there other constraints, part-level settings, or job-status factors that could prevent more load from shifting off of T05?
Also, do we have any documentation or internal notes on the APS module? I’d like to understand what additional scheduling logic APS provides and whether it handles resource balancing differently than standard finite scheduling.
With the global scheduling what do you typically use for your start date. With regards to capacity planning are there any other tools that need to be considered?
The big things that come with APS is the ability to use Capabilities, unlimited scheduling resources on operations, and non-time scheduling. Other than that, there is no difference.
Have you looked at the scheduling logs yet? They are a little much at first but provide a lot of good information as to what the system is actually doing.
Not just yet, Ive been looking into this ERP system setting. I have worked with Epicor for nearly 20 years and I am working on Epicor ERP v10.2.700 at a new company. I am getting myself up to speed as quickly as possible. My first project is to fix the capacity load issues. As I navigate around and find the programs I need I am just trying to familiarize myself as much as possible. Can you tell me what the Schedule Start Date means in the Global Scheduling tool. I know it sound like a simple question by I am not assuming anything here. I believe this tool is ran each week in the live database on Sunday
No worries! That will be the date that the system will start scheduling from. I think that is really only valid if you are forward scheduling and do not allow dates in the past. I have not tested forward scheduling that much and what I have run into when I did is the system deciding the start date. I never found a way to have the start date set and stick for forward scheduling.
One thing that I want to point out if you are doing a lot of changes and testing is that you need to remove all jobs from the schedule if you want to make sure a change really takes effect. There are certain settings that “stick” when the job is first scheduled.
How do you do that—clear the schedule? I am currently making small changes and trying to verify, in this one specific resource group, that all the required settings are the same before applying them to the entire company. In this group we have a handful of resources, and each one can run the same jobs, but everything is still being loaded onto one resource.
After doing all of the required steps yesterday on a fresh test database, it moved a large portion, but nowhere near the amount I expected. Today I am looking into why that is. I’m not sure who did the original setup, but I don’t think enough was done, as capacity planning and setup have always been an issue for us.
Are there other tools that would—or should—be used or helpful in this process?
I would recommend ruthlessly rechecking the Operation records to really, honest-to-goodness, pinky swear that each operation has ONLY a Scheduling Requirements Resource Group and NO Scheduling Requirements Resource .