Configure working hours
Set each site's open and closed hours for every day of the week so Bulk can measure how long production work waits and takes inside your operating windows.
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Working hours record when a site is open for production, day by day. Bulk is a Manufacturing Execution System (MES): the software that runs and records work on the shop floor: and it uses a site's working hours to measure elapsed time fairly. Without them, a job that arrives on Friday evening and starts on Monday morning looks like it waited all weekend; with them, Bulk counts only the hours the site was actually open.
You configure working hours per site. In Bulk a site is called an entity, and each entity keeps its own weekly schedule. Use this page whenever a site's operating pattern is set or changes: for example when a plant moves to extended weekday hours, opens on Saturdays for a busy season, or closes an afternoon shift.
Working hours are not staff shifts
Working hours describe when the site is open, as a single window per day. They are the baseline Bulk uses for flow-time calculations. They are separate from shifts, which schedule people and their patterns. If you are rostering the workforce rather than setting a site's open hours, see Configure shifts instead.
Where to find it
Open the left sidebar and go to Settings → Organization → Working hours. The page is titled Working hours. Its subtitle names the selected site, for example Operational hours for Gotham Applied Sciences.
Working hours belong to the site you currently have selected. If you manage more than one site, switch to the correct one first using the site switcher. When no site is selected, the page shows "Select an entity to configure working hours" and there is nothing to edit until you pick one.
Before you start
Choose the right site. Because each configuration is tied to one site, confirm the selected site is the one you mean to change before you edit anything.
You need the right permission. Access is gated by four working-hours permissions, all scoped to the organization:
| Permission | What it allows |
|---|---|
| View working hours | See a site's schedule |
| Create working hours | Set up a schedule for a site that has none |
| Edit working hours | Change an existing schedule |
| Delete working hours | Remove a site's schedule |
In the default roles, the Super user, Entity admin, Manager, and People roles hold all four permissions. Other roles, including the standard Operator role, have no working-hours access. If your controls are missing or disabled, ask an administrator to grant the working-hours permissions, or confirm the exact grants for your site under Manage roles and permissions.
How a schedule is structured
A working-hours schedule is one row for each of the seven days, Monday through Sunday. Each day is either:
- Open, with a start time and an end time, or
- Closed, contributing no operating hours that day.
Times use 24-hour HH:MM form, such as 06:00 or 22:00, and are read in the site's own timezone. A site has exactly one working-hours schedule: there is no second or seasonal copy held alongside it.
Configure a site's working hours
The current page is a seven-day inline editor under Hours. It does not open a separate setup dialog. When no schedule has been saved, the editor starts with Monday to Friday open 09:00 to 17:00 and Saturday and Sunday closed. These initial values are not a saved schedule until you change and commit a day.
- Confirm the selected site in the subtitle.
- Use a day's switch to set it open or closed. Switch changes save immediately.
- Turning a closed day on starts it at
09:00to17:00. - For an open day, change the start and end time. Each time change saves when you leave that input.
There is no Save or Cancel footer. The first committed change creates the site's schedule; later committed changes update it. Check a time before leaving its field, and plan changes before toggling a day.
Review, edit, and delete a schedule
Once a schedule exists, the same inline editor shows its saved hours. Each day has an open/closed switch. Open days display start and end time fields; closed days show Closed. The seven rows use these same controls for setup and later changes.
Use the inline controls to edit. Delete appears above the editor when a saved schedule exists. It asks for confirmation and warns that the site will have no operational hours defined.
Deleting a schedule changes how flow time is measured
Removing a site's working hours does not stop Value Flow, but it changes that board's numbers. With no schedule, Value Flow treats the site as open around the clock, every day, so waiting and elapsed times count full calendar time instead of only operating hours. There is no undo button; to restore the behaviour, set the schedule up again with the same days and times.
Time rules Bulk enforces
When you save, Bulk checks every open day:
- The start and end must be valid 24-hour
HH:MMtimes. - The start must be before the end on the same day. Overnight windows that cross midnight: an end at or before the start, such as
22:00to06:00: are rejected.
If a day fails these checks, saving stops and Bulk names the day and the reason, for example that the start time must be before the end time. Closed days are not checked, because they hold no operating window. A site can also have only one schedule at a time; Bulk will not create a second one for the same site.
Example: Wayne Enterprises
Wayne Enterprises could use extended hours at Gotham Applied Sciences so Value Flow reflects its operating pattern. This example describes a possible change; the screenshot reuses the existing saved schedule read-only.
- Select Gotham Applied Sciences, then open Settings → Organization → Working hours.
- Plan the desired week before touching a control, because changes save inline.
- Set the open days to the intended start and end times, leaving each input to commit it.
- Switch closed days off; each switch change saves immediately.
The illustrated saved schedule is Monday to Friday 06:00 to 22:00, Saturday 06:00 to 14:00, and Sunday closed. It was not changed during capture.
If the operating pattern changes later, edit the affected days inline. Changes are recorded in the site's activity log.
Where working hours are used
Once set, a site's working hours feed Value Flow, the board that measures how long work waits and how long it takes to move through the plant:
- On Review Value Flow, the waiting and elapsed times for jobs are clamped to the site's working hours, using the site's timezone. Time that passes while the site is closed does not count against those figures.
- Touch time captured by production timers is not clamped: recorded hands-on time is counted as it happened, whether or not it fell inside working hours.
Expected result
After a change is committed, the site has a clear weekly pattern of open and closed days. The schedule page reflects it at a glance, and Value Flow starts measuring waiting and elapsed time against those hours in the site's timezone. Creating, editing, and deleting a schedule are all recorded in Review activity logs.
Limitations and feature state
This feature is generally available. Keep these behaviours in mind:
- One schedule per site. Each site holds a single weekly schedule. There is no built-in way to keep a separate seasonal or holiday calendar: you edit the one schedule when the pattern changes.
- One open window per day. A day is a single start-to-end window. You cannot record a split day, such as a morning and an afternoon session with a closed gap between them, in this schedule.
- No overnight days. Because the end must be after the start on the same day, a window that runs past midnight cannot be entered here.
- Working hours are not dated history. Value Flow always applies the site's current working hours, including to past work. Changing a site's hours therefore changes how already-recorded waiting and elapsed time is measured for that site. This recalculation of historical flow figures is verified in the backend clamp logic, not shown on this settings page.
- No schedule means always open. If a site has never had working hours set, or its schedule was deleted, Value Flow treats it as open 24 hours a day, every day, and does not clamp waiting or elapsed time.
Troubleshooting
- The page says "Select an entity to configure working hours". No site is selected. Choose a site with the site switcher, then return to the page.
- Saving reports that the start time must be before the end time. One of your open days has an end at or before its start. Fix that day's times so the end is later than the start, or set the day to closed, then save again.
- The Hours controls are missing or disabled. Your role lacks the working-hours permission you need. Ask an administrator to grant it, or check the grants under Manage roles and permissions.
- Value Flow shows more waiting time than expected. Confirm the site actually has a schedule and that its open days and times are correct. A missing schedule makes the board count around-the-clock time rather than operating hours.
Related guidance
- Configure shifts: schedule people and their patterns, which is separate from a site's open hours.
- Manage entities: create and manage the sites whose working hours you set here.
- Configure localization: the formats a site displays; a site's timezone is the one working hours are read in.
- Review Value Flow: the board that clamps waiting and elapsed time to working hours.
- Review activity logs: the record of who changed a schedule and when.
- Organization settings: the rest of the organization-level configuration.