Work Centres — defining your resources
Guide to setting up Work Centres in Brytebuild Planning — the machines, benches and teams that perform production operations.
Section 01
What are Work Centres?
1 minute
A Work Centre represents one productive resource in your workshop — a machine (e.g. CNC2), a bench (e.g. Mil 1), or a team. Each Work Centre has a daily capacity in hours and a labour rate per hour. The scheduler and MRP use these values to determine how much work can be loaded onto each resource and what each works order will cost in labour.
- Work Centres are referenced by Bill of Materials route steps — each operation in a BOM is assigned to a Work Centre
- The Capacity (hrs/day) sets the maximum hours per working day — default is 8 hours
- The Labour Rate (per hour) is multiplied by operation hours to calculate the labour cost component of a works order
- All Work Centres start as Active — inactive Work Centres will not accept new operations from MRP
- The current account has 2 Work Centres: CNC2 (8h/day, £10/hr) and Mil 1 (8h/day, £1/hr)
When MRP generates a Make recommendation, it assigns it to the Work Centre defined on the BOM route step. The Capacity Planner then shows how much load is scheduled against each Work Centre so you can spot bottlenecks before they happen.
Section 02
The Work Centres list
1 minute
Navigate to Planning → Work Centres to see all your Work Centres. The page uses a two-column layout: the list is on the left, and the Add / Edit form is always visible on the right. Click any row in the list to load it into the edit form.
All Work Centres 2
Select a row to edit, or use the form on the right to add a new one
| Name | Capacity (hrs / day) | Labour Rate (per hour) | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNC2 | ⏱ 8.0h | ⏱ 10.0h | ● Active | |
| Mil 1 | ⏱ 8.0h | ⏱ 1.0h | ● Active |
Capacity is used for scheduling and load balancing
Available production hours per working day (default 8)
Used for job costing. operation hours × this rate = labour cost. Leave blank if unknown.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Name | The Work Centre name — e.g. CNC2, Mil 1. Used in BOM route steps and the Capacity Planner. |
| Capacity (hrs / day) | How many hours per working day this resource can run — e.g. 8.0 h for both CNC2 and Mil 1. The scheduler uses this to avoid overloading a resource. |
| Labour Rate (per hour) | The cost per hour of operating this Work Centre — 10.0 h for CNC2, 1.0 h for Mil 1. Multiplied by operation hours to calculate labour cost on works orders. |
| Status | ● Active — this Work Centre is available for scheduling. Inactive Work Centres will not accept new operations. |
| Edit | Loads the Work Centre into the right panel form for editing. See Section 04. |
| Delete | Permanently removes the Work Centre. See Section 05 for the deletion warning. |
Section 03
Adding a Work Centre
1 minute
The Add work centre form is always visible on the right side of the Work Centres page. Fill in the name, set the capacity and labour rate, add an optional description, then click + Add work centre. The new Work Centre appears in the list immediately.
| Field | Required | What to enter |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Required | A unique name identifying this resource — e.g. CNC2, Mil 1, Assembly Bench A. This name appears in BOM route steps and the Capacity Planner. Placeholder: "e.g. CNC Mill #1". |
| Capacity (Hours / Day) | Optional | Available production hours per working day. Default is 8. Both CNC2 and Mil 1 are set to 8. Reduce this if the machine runs fewer hours — e.g. 6 for a machine with two shift breaks. |
| Labour Rate (Per Hour) | Optional | The hourly labour or machine cost. Used in the formula: operation hours × labour rate = labour cost. CNC2 is set to 10.00; Mil 1 to 1.00. Leave blank if unknown — the system records zero cost. |
| Description | Optional | Free-text notes about this Work Centre — e.g. maintenance schedule, calibration frequency, machine capabilities. Placeholder: "Maintenance schedule, calibration, capabilities…". |
If you set a labour rate, every works order that routes through this Work Centre will have a labour cost calculated automatically: operation hours × rate. CNC2 at £10/hr running a 4-hour operation adds £40 of labour cost to the works order. Mil 1 at £1/hr adds only £4 for the same operation. Leave blank to exclude this Work Centre from costing.
Section 04
Editing a Work Centre
1 minute
Click Edit on any Work Centre row to load it into the right panel. The form header changes to Edit work centre (blue) and the selected row is highlighted with a blue dot. Update any fields and click Save changes. Changes take effect immediately. Click Cancel to discard and return to the Add form.
All Work Centres 2
Select a row to edit, or use the form on the right to add a new one
| Name | Capacity (hrs / day) | Labour Rate (per hour) | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNC2 | ⏱ 8.0h | ⏱ 10.0h | ● Active | |
| Mil 1 | ⏱ 8.0h | ⏱ 1.0h | ● Active |
Changes are applied immediately on save
Available production hours per working day (default 8)
Used for job costing. operation hours × this rate = labour cost. Leave blank if unknown.
| Element | What changes in edit mode |
|---|---|
| Form header colour | Switches from grey (Add) to blue (Edit) with a pencil icon — visually signals you are editing an existing record. |
| Form header subtitle | Changes from "Capacity is used for scheduling and load balancing" to "Changes are applied immediately on save". |
| Name field | Pre-filled with the current name — e.g. CNC2. |
| Capacity (Hours / Day) | Pre-filled with current value — 8.00 hrs for CNC2. |
| Labour Rate (Per Hour) | Pre-filled with current value — 10.00 hr for CNC2. |
| Row highlight | The selected row gets a blue dot prefix and a subtle blue background tint. |
| Save changes button | Replaces the green "+ Add work centre" button. Navy background with pencil icon. |
| Cancel button | Appears next to Save changes. Discards the edit and returns the right panel to the Add form. |
Section 05
Deleting a Work Centre
1 minute
Click Delete on any Work Centre row to remove it. Deletion is permanent. The amber warning at the bottom of the form is always visible as a reminder:
This means: if CNC2 or Mil 1 is assigned to a route step on a BOM, deleting the Work Centre leaves those route steps pointing to a deleted resource. You must go into each affected BOM and reassign those steps to a different Work Centre before the BOM can produce accurate works orders.
Before deleting a Work Centre, search your Bills of Materials for any route steps assigned to it. Reassign those steps to a replacement Work Centre first. Otherwise, works orders generated by MRP for those BOMs will have incomplete routing and may not schedule correctly in the Capacity Planner.