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CAPACITY PLANNING
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Capacity planning has seen an increased emphasis due to the financial benefits of the efficient use of capacity plans within material
requirements planning systems and other information systems. Insufficient capacity can quickly lead to deteriorating delivery
performance, unnecessarily increase work-in-process, and frustrate sales personnel and those in manufacturing. However, excess
capacity can be costly and unnecessary. The inability to properly manage capacity can be a barrier to the achievement of maximum firm
performance. In addition, capacity is an important factor in the organization's choice of technology.

Capacity is usually assumed to mean the maximum rate at which a transformation system produces or processes inputs. Sometimes,
this rate may actually be "all at once"as with the capacity of an airplane. A more usable definition of capacity would be the volume of
output (/knowledge/Output.html) per elapsed time and the production capability of a facility.

Capacity planning is the process used to determine how much capacity is needed (and when) in order to manufacture greater product
or begin production of a new product. A number of factors can affect capacitynumber of workers, ability of workers, number of
machines, waste, scrap, defects, errors, productivity, suppliers, government regulations, and preventive maintenance. Capacity planning
is relevant in both the long term and the short term. However, there are different issues at stake for each.
 LONG-TERM CAPACITY PLANNING
Over the long term, capacity planning relates primarily to strategic issues involving the firm's major production facilities. In addition,
long-term capacity issues are interrelated with location decisions. Technology and transferability of the process to other products is also
intertwined with long-term capacity planning. Long-term capacity planning may evolve when short-term changes in capacity are
insufficient. For example, if the firm's addition of a third shift (/knowledge/Shift_work.html) to its current two-shift plan still does not
produce enough output, and subcontracting arrangements cannot be made, one feasible alternative is to add capital equipment and
modify the layout of the plant (long-term actions). It may even be desirable to add additional plant space or to construct a new facility
(long-term alternatives).

SHORT-TERM CAPACITY PLANNING

In the short term, capacity planning concerns issues of scheduling, labor shifts, and balancing resource capacities. The goal of short-
term capacity planning is to handle unexpected shifts in demand in an efficient economic manner. The time frame for short-term
planning is frequently only a few days but may run as long as six months.
Alternatives for making short-term changes in capacity are fairly numerous and can even include the decision to not meet demand at all.
The easiest and most commonly-used method to increase capacity in the short term is working overtime. This is a flexible and
inexpensive alternative. While the firm has to pay one and one half times the normal labor rate, it foregoes the expense of hiring,
training, and paying additional benefits. When not used abusively, most workers appreciate the opportunity to earn extra wages. If
overtime does not provide enough short-term capacity, other resource-increasing alternatives are available. These include adding shifts,
employing casual or part-time workers, the use of floating workers, leasing workers, and facilities subcontracting.

Firms may also increase capacity by improving the use of their resources. The most common alternatives in this category are worker
cross training and overlapping or staggering shifts. Most manufacturing firms inventory some output ahead of demand so that any need
for a capacity change is absorbed by the inventory buffer. From a technical perspective, firms may initiate a process design intended to
increase productivity at work stations. Manufacturers can also shift demand to avoid capacity requirement fluctuation by backlogging,
queuing demand, or lengthening the firm's lead times. Service firms accomplish the same results through scheduling appointments and
reservations.

A more creative approach is to modify the output. Standardizing (/knowledge/Standard_score.html) the output or offering complimentary
services are examples. In services, one might allow customers to do some of the process work themselves (e.g., self-service gas
stations and fast-food restaurants (/knowledge/Fast_food_restaurant.html)). Another alternativereducing qualityis an undesirable
yet viable tactic.

Finally, the firm may attempt to modify demand. Changing (/knowledge/Change.html) the price and promoting the product are common.
Another alternative is to partition demand by initiating a yield or revenue management system. Utilities also report success in shifting
demand by the use of "off-peak" pricing.

CAPACITY-PLANNING TECHNIQUES
There are four procedures for capacity planning; capacity planning using overall factors (CPOF
(/knowledge/Command_Post_of_the_Future.html)), capacity bills, resource profiles, and capacity requirements planning (CRP). The
first three are rough-cut approaches (involving analysis to identify potential bottlenecks) that can be used with or without manufacturing
resource planning (MRP) systems. CRP is used in conjunction with MRP systems.

Capacity using overall factors is a simple, manual approach to capacity planning that is based on the master production schedule and
production standards that convert required units of finished goods into historical loads on each work center. Bills of capacity is a
procedure based on the MPS. Instead of using historical ratios, however, it utilizes the bills of material and routing
(/knowledge/Routing.html) sheet (which shows the sequence or work centers required to manufacture the part, as well as the setup and
run time). Capacity requirements can then be determined by multiplying the number of units required by the MPS by the time needed to
produce each. Resource profiles are the same as bills of capacity, except lead times are included so that workloads fall into the correct
periods.

Capacity requirements planning (CRP) is only applicable in firms using MRP or MRP II. CRP uses the information from one of the
previous rough-cut methods, plus MRP outputs on existing inventories and lot sizing. The result is a tabular load report for each work
center or a graphical load profile for helping plan-production requirements. This will indicate where capacity is inadequate or idle,
allowing for imbalances to be corrected by shifts in personnel or equipment or the use of overtime or added shifts. Finite capacity
scheduling is an extension of CRP that simulates job order stopping and starting to produce a detailed schedule that provides a set of
start and finish dates for each operation at each work center.
A failure (/knowledge/Failure.html) to understand the critical nature of managing capacity can lead to chaos and serious customer
service problems. If there is a mismatch between available and required capacity, adjustments should be made. However, it should be
noted that firms cannot have perfectly-balanced material and capacity plans that easily accommodate emergency orders. If flexibility is
the firm's competitive priority, excess capacity would be appropriate.

SEE ALSO: Aggregate Planning (../A-Bud/Aggregate-Planning.html) ; Manufacturing Resources Planning (../Log-Mar/Manufacturing-

Resources-Planning.html)

R. Anthony Inman

FURTHER READING:
Cochran, Jeffery K., and Alberto (/knowledge/Alberto.html) Marquez Uribe. "A Set Covering Formulation for Agile Capacity Planning
Within Supply Chains." International Journal of Production Economics 95, no. 2 (2005): 139149.

Jonsson, Patrik, and Stig-Arne Mattsson. "Use and Applicability of Capacity Planning Methods." Production and Inventory Management
Journal 43, no. 3-4 (2002): 8995.

Meredith, Jack (/knowledge/Jack.html) R., and Scott M. Shafer. Operations Management for MBAs. 2nd Edition. New York: John Wiley
and Sons, Inc., 2002.

Vollmann, Thomas E., William L. Berry, D. Clay Whybark, and Robert F. Jacobs. Manufacturing Planning and Control Systems. Boston:
McGraw-Hill, 2005.

Also read article about Capacity Planning (/knowledge/Capacity_planning.html) from Wikipedia

User Contributions:

1
maurice OSODO Jul 30, 2015 @ 11:23 pm
(/management/Bun-

Good read very educative.This organization should grow stronger in membership since this is how to better our profession.

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