Workstation
A Workstation in ERPNext is a designated location, machine, or workshop where the manufacturing process is performed. It is a master record in the manufacturing module that enables businesses to specify the operating conditions—and the associated cost, availability, and planning.
Every Operation in a production process is done at a Workstation. For instance, an operation such as "Melting" can be done at multiple various physical configurations or equipment (Workstations). One Operation could therefore be associated with multiple various Workstations to introduce flexibility on the shop floor.
1. How To Create Workstation
1. To create a Workstation, navigate to:
Click on New to start. Enter a distinctive name for the Workstation and, optionally, a description text describing its function or setup
In the Operating Costs tab, if you so desire, you may enter the fixed and variable cost of operating this Workstation. This would commonly consist of:
- Electricity Cost – Cost of electricity per hour/unit
- Rent Cost – Rent or leasing cost designated
- Wages – Worker wages for running the machine or setup
These values for costs are required for proper cost estimation of manufacturing operations and are used when you cost Work Orders
Optionally, you may enter a Description
Click on Save
2. Workstation Hours and Availability
You can set Workstation Hours to specify the working time frame in a day. This helps in scheduling job cards and scheduling job cards for working hours. You can also link a Holiday List to the Workstation to avoid non-working days (weekends, maintenance days, or holidays) when scheduling production or estimating lead times.
3. Post-Creation Actions
After saving, the Workstation can be used in specifying Operations of a Work Order or a Bill of Materials (BOM). ERPNext provides efficient scheduling and resource allocation based on availability and cost information given in the Workstation. You may also update or track the usage and efficiency of each Workstation through reports or analytics.
2. Features
2.1 Production Capacity
Production Capacity is the number of jobs that can be executed by a workstation in parallel. In ERPNext, it is defined on a Workstation level and represents the number of operations it can execute in parallel. For example, if a workstation capacity is 2, then two distinct operations can be executed in parallel. This property plays an essential role while job scheduling and load balancing. In ERPNext v15, capacity options are applied at Work Order scheduling to avoid overallocation—so that no operations are scheduled more than the Workstation has capacity for.
2.2 Working Hours
ERPNext setup of Working Hours enables detailed specification of time windows when a Workstation is active. For example, you can specify two shifts: 9 am–1 pm and 2 pm–5 pm. Additionally, the system accommodates multiple shifts in a day (e.g., day shift, evening shift, night shift). During Work Order scheduling, ERPNext calls such time blocks to find idle periods in each workstation. The system also shows visual cues when scheduling jobs after working hours and offers available slots depending upon scheduled working hours and capacity in v15.
2.3 Holiday List and Overtime
Workstations can be linked to a Holiday List in a way that non-working days like public holidays or maintenance days are not counted during production planning and availability calculations. Within ERPNext v15, it's also possible to set an Overtime flag (via Manufacturing Settings) on a Workstation. This enables scheduling operations beyond normal working hours—calculating overtime costs automatically based on rates that have been configured. ERPNext accurately distributes such overtime in a predictable fashion, whereby correct cost capture is performed without affecting normal scheduling.