Plant calendar

The plant calendar defines when the factory works. Bold uses it to plan workstations, to calculate the scheduled time of the OEE, and to know when employees without their own shift work. You configure it in Control panel > Plant > Calendar, with the Calendars and Holidays tabs.

​

Concepts

​

Calendar

A calendar has a name, its own weekly schedule, and the holiday calendar it uses, for example 24/7 or Assembly one shift. It is always assigned as a whole: an area or a station cannot change only the schedule or only the holidays. The weekly schedule indicates in which periods the plant works on each day of the week. For example, the Two shifts calendar can work Monday to Friday from 06:00 to 22:00.

• A day can have several periods, but they cannot overlap.
• A period can end on the following day, for example from 22:00 to 06:00. Bold marks it with +1 day.
• A day without periods is a non-working day. A calendar without any period represents a closed plant.
• The weekly schedule repeats every week and does not support rotations. Rotating cycles are configured in employees’ shifts.

The weekly schedule belongs to its calendar: changing it does not affect other calendars. A new calendar starts without a schedule. To start from the schedule and holidays of another one, copy it with Copy from the list or from its page and adjust it afterwards. If you already had calendars configured, each one keeps the periods of the weekly schedule it used.

​

Holiday calendar

A holiday calendar lists the dates on which the plant does not follow its weekly schedule. Each date replaces the whole day:

• Closed: the plant does not work that day.
• Special hours: the plant works that day only in the periods you enter. For example, Special hours 8:00–14:00 on 24 December.

Each calendar uses one holiday calendar. Several calendars and employees can use the same one: a change to its dates affects all of them. Holidays are edited in their own holiday calendar: on a calendar’s page, Edit holidays, next to the Holidays field, takes you to it. Holiday calendars are the local calendars you already used for employees, and they replace the former People > Local calendars screen. Underneath, each date stores a work day named Closed or Special hours with its hours, which also appears in People > Work days. You cannot delete a holiday calendar while a calendar uses it.

​

General calendar

Exactly one calendar is the general calendar. It appears first in the list of calendars, with the General tag next to its name. Bold creates it automatically with the manufacturing working hours your company had configured. It is named after your company. Its holiday calendar is your local calendar if you had exactly one, or otherwise a new empty holiday calendar, also named after your company.

• To change when the whole plant works, edit the weekly schedule or the holidays of the general calendar.
• You can mark another calendar as general from its page with Mark as general. The previous one stops being general in the same operation.
• The general calendar cannot be deleted.

​

Inheritance

Areas, lines and workstations can have their own calendar. If they do not, they inherit the effective calendar of the level above them.

• A station without its own calendar uses the calendar of its line or area.
• An area or a line without its own calendar uses the calendar of its parent area.
• A top-level area without its own calendar uses the general calendar.

Inheritance stops at the first level that has its own calendar. For example, if the Machining area has the 24/7 calendar, all its lines and stations work 24/7, except those with another calendar of their own. If you move an area or a station, it inherits the calendar of its new parent. If you delete a calendar, the areas, lines and stations that had it assigned inherit again. In Production > Resources, the Calendar field of each area, line or station shows the calendar it uses and where it comes from: assigned here, inherited from its line or area, or general calendar.

​

Reduced days with different schedules

A date in a holiday calendar applies equally to everything that uses that calendar. If an area works with another schedule and needs different hours on a reduced day, assign it a calendar with its own holiday calendar that includes that date. For example, the plant closes at 14:00 on 24 December, but the Machining area works with the 24/7 calendar and stops at 22:00 that day. If the 24/7 calendar used the holidays of the general calendar, Machining would also work from 08:00 to 14:00. In the Holidays tab, create a holiday calendar for Machining with 24 December from 00:00 to 22:00, and select it in Holidays of the 24/7 calendar.

​

Time zone

The calendars of areas, lines and stations are calculated in the company time zone. See Configure the company. Employees use the time zone of their own schedule.

​

Employees

Employees keep their work days, shifts and holiday calendars. The general calendar fills in what they have not configured:

• Without their own holiday calendar, they follow the holidays of the general calendar.
• Without their own shift, they work the weekly schedule of the general calendar.

See Work days, calendars, and shifts for the full order.

​

Planning

A production plan schedules each finite-capacity station according to its effective calendar. It subtracts from that time the windows of open maintenance work orders that require stopping the station’s machine. See Work orders. Infinite-capacity stations and tools are available throughout the plan horizon. If you consider employees a limiting factor, operations also depend on their availability. If the general calendar has no working period in the horizon, Bold cannot create or update production plans until you configure its weekly schedule.

​

OEE

The scheduled time of a station in the OEE comes from its effective calendar, with its holidays. A closed day does not count as scheduled time, and a day with special hours counts only its periods. As maintenance downtime, the OEE counts only work orders that require stopping the machine. See View OEE by workstation.

​

Subscription plan

You can configure the plant calendar with any subscription plan. Advanced planning still depends on the plan.

​

Related

• Set plant working hours and holidays
• Resources
• Sequencing
• Production plans
• Work days, calendars, and shifts