Before starting a project, these tools and strategies will ensure your team can take on the workload
Picture a busy, downtown sports bar on Super Bowl Sunday. The two best teams are ready for kickoff, and people are getting excited for the game. Everyone from massive fans to those only there for the halftime show are settling in for the night. A successful night comes down to every last detail, including stocking enough wings and nachos, getting the volume on the TVs right, and making sure the bar is crowded, but not packed to the brim. That, in a nutshell, is capacity planning: ensuring the beer keeps circulating and the kitchen keeps food coming.
But even global businesses with the best forecasting tools and flexible supply chains can find themselves facing challenges when it comes to capacity planning.
Restaurants must project if diners will opt for the salmon or the steak, retailers weigh whether wide-leg denim will trend for fall or end up on the sale rack come winter, and construction project managers determine how many workers they’ll need to adequately staff a project – and how much material they’ll need. Each of these examples points to the same capacity planning process: determining what your future demand will be so that you can avoid excess capacity – and then be able to meet actual demands.
Why capacity planning is a top business priority
Capacity planning is how businesses peer into the future requirements of projects. Capacity planning strategies can help predict market forces, consumer demand and behavior, and give a clear understanding of what pieces and parts to order – as well as how to staff up accordingly. An ideal capacity planning model will also allow organizations to sync all those details against their supply chain. It’s how a new flower shop protects itself from ordering too few roses, or an art gallery from not ordering enough bubbly to get art buyers buying.
Most companies understand that accurate demand forecasting is a key priority, but 75% say they need to develop better methods for capacity planning, according to a 2022 Research Management Institute study.
“Capacity planning can never be perfect,” writes Seth Page, COO of ThroughPut, a supply chain management company. “After all, no one could’ve predicted the chaos that COVID-19 would bring upon manufacturing chains in 2020. But there are strategies you can practice to get more accurate demand insights… reduce capital locked up in inventory, and enhance your competitive advantage.”
The benefits of capacity planning
A well-executed capacity plan can help ensure a strategy comes together, while delivering a number of benefits to your business and your team that include bypassing unexpected expenses and keeping your staff bustling, not frazzled.
Strengthen your team: Effective resource capacity planning can help you make sure that you have enough resources for a job well done. In doing so, you’ll develop a working staff that feels empowered and engaged, and ready to jump into the next challenge. Otherwise, "[o]perating at 100 percent effort all of the time will result in burnout and ultimately less-optimal results," writes Greg McKeown in Harvard Business Review. That’s especially critical in industries like manufacturing and the shop floor management challenges that are critical in keeping operations moving.
Eliminate problems in advance: Do you have what you need? Finding gaps between current demand, anticipated demand, and excess demand on reserve that's required, as well as understanding resource requirements, can help your company stay fluid. Businesses that can pivot can meet any challenge, no matter what arises in the moment.
Find cost savings: Overstaffing and emergency purchases can waste resources. Capacity planning can help reduce overspending by forecasting what’s needed, and planning an appropriate utilization rate instead of having to respond to fires. (Stakeholders will approve too!)
Charm customers: By anticipating demand, businesses develop a loyal customer base. Clients flock to companies where the flowers are always fresh, the cava keeps pouring, and the dinners consistently delight.
The three types of capacity planning models
There are three key capacity planning techniques — and picking the right one depends on your company and its needs. Think of these as designing the menu for a summer soiree with friends at home: Are you thinking caviar and cocktails or a last-minute backyard barbecue with all the classics?
Lead capacity planning: With this approach, companies plan in advance, anticipating their needs so stress never reaches past a quiver. A florist, for example, may buy cases of red bows and cellophane months ahead of Valentine’s Day, anticipating demand estimates from years past. That does mean they’ll need the budget to buy in advance — plus have room to store all that ribbon in their shop.
Lag capacity planning: Here, managers wait until the situation is more pressing. Worry? That may hit a slow boil. As customers place advanced orders for bouquets the week before Valentine’s Day, a flower shop owner may send an employee to a dollar store for extra supplies as the lag strategy projected a lower customer demand than the actual.
Match Strategy Planning: Consider this strategy as the perfect simmer, a combination of both lead and lag capacity planning, with investments made more slowly. Here a florist may order an extra case or two of red ribbons, but reserve funds to pivot to pink if trends change.
Step-by-step process for capacity management
Each business needs its own unique roadmap to get a capacity plan into play: a flower shop has different demands than a solar panel manufacturer. But these five steps can get any company started.
Read the signs: Assess what the situation may require and what you anticipate the demand may be. Are roses still smart or are violets more in vogue?
Take stock: What do you already have on hand, and is the company ready to handle the upcoming details?
Make people a priority: Is your staff prepared, and does it understand what the task requires? Investing an upfront period of time in workforce capacity planning can help avoid burnout and low engagement, which Gallup notes contributes to a $8.8 trillion drain on the global economy, cutting into your company’s bottom line too.
Develop a first pass: Organize a plan. Think about what you need but also your current capacity, and consider adding in a few backups in advance.
Monitor the process: Be flexible enough to shift as priorities change. Maybe your tulips are stuck in customs after an overnight flight from Amsterdam. A local flower farm on speed dial lets your customers leave with dahlias instead of disappointment.
Building efficiency with a capacity planning template
For a successful project to come together, a team needs direction and oversight to pull all those pieces into one. Like a Michelin restaurant on a Friday night, a chef keeps dishes flowing to tables by trusting each station to compose their elements to perfection. In the same way, a capacity planning template brings insight to the full picture so setbacks can be addressed quickly, keeping companies (and kitchens) nimble: if the endive is off, dandelions can fill in for a wild salad. A template can help simplify a complex process and aid in better project planning.
Tips / tools for effective capacity planning
Assign project tasks based on need: Structure priorities based on resources. A perfect course doesn’t come out of a kitchen in minutes. Know the elements to plate a dish that enchants diners.
Build a trusted team: Hire for talent. Look for people who excel at their jobs — and have the capacity to learn new skill sets as needed.
Invest in a capacity planning tool: There’s no reason to invent every detail from scratch. There are several management tools that can help develop a capacity planning structure for every business based on their need — and their budget constraints.
Capacity planning versus resource planning: the difference
While capacity planning and resource planning have some overlap, one involves thinking ahead, while the other looks at what’s in hand now. Resource planning differs: here, a business reviews what they need to accomplish and determines if they already have what’s needed. Certainly there’s some resource planning that is needed for a solid capacity plan. But with capacity planning, companies are reading a bit more into their tea leaves — they’re finding, then delivering, what’s required to pull off that Michelin-starred meal.
Takeaways
Capacity planning is the executive chef who effortlessly conducts a symphony of line cooks, sauciers, pastry chefs and others to deliver an evening of amusements that never disappoints. It’s an approach that allows a floral shop to transform simple flowers into ethereal bouquets whether it’s Valentine’s Day or just a Thursday. It’s how a multi-layered construction project comes in early and even under budget.
The ability to look ahead, schedule what’s needed, and transform tasks into an orchestration of deliverable details, is the capacity planning that transforms a business strategy into a success story that dances its way to customer loyalty.
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