1. Capacity Planning For Products and Services5
Capacity Planning
For Products and Services

2. Learning Objectives Explain the importance of capacity planning.
Discuss ways of defining and measuring capacity.
Describe the determinants of effective capacity.
Discuss the major considerations related to developing capacity alternatives.
Briefly describe approaches that are useful for evaluating capacity alternatives

3. Capacity Planning
Capacity is the upper limit or ceiling on the load that an operating unit can handle.
Capacity also includes
Equipment
Space
Employee skills
The basic questions in capacity handling are:
What kind of capacity is needed?
How much is needed?
When is it needed?

4. Importance of Capacity Decisions
Impacts ability to meet future demands
Affects operating costs
Major determinant of initial costs
Involves long-term commitment
Affects competitiveness
Affects ease of management
Globalization adds complexity
Impacts long range planning

5. Capacity
Design capacity …
Effective capacity
Actual output

6. Efficiency and Utilization
Actual output
Efficiency =
Effective capacity
Utilization =
Design capacity
Both measures expressed as percentages

7. Efficiency/Utilization Example
Design capacity = trucks/day
Effective capacity = 40 trucks/day
Actual output = trucks/day
Actual output = units/day
Efficiency = =
Effective capacity units/ day
Utilization = Actual output = units/day
= Design capacity units/day

8. Determinants of Effective Capacity
Facilities
Product and service factors
Process factors
Human factors
Policy factors
Operational factors
Supply chain factors
External factors

9. Strategy Formulation Capacity strategy for long-term demand
Demand patterns
Growth rate and variability
Facilities
Cost of building and operating
Technological changes
Rate and direction of technology changes
Behavior of competitors
Availability of capital and other inputs

10. Key Decisions of Capacity Planning
Amount of capacity needed
Capacity cushion (100% - Utilization)
Timing of changes
Need to maintain balance
Extent of flexibility of facilities
Capacity cushion – extra demand intended to offset uncertainty

11. Forecasting Capacity Requirements
Long-term vs. short-term capacity needs
Long-term relates to overall level of capacity such as facility size, trends, and cycles
Short-term relates to variations from seasonal, random, and irregular fluctuations in demand

12. Calculating Processing Requirements
If annual capacity is 2000 hours, then how many machines do we need to handle the required volume of …. ?

13. Planning Service Capacity
Need to be near customers
Capacity and location are closely tied
Inability to store services
Capacity must be matched with timing of demand
Degree of volatility of demand
Peak demand periods

14. In-House or Outsourcing
Outsource: obtain a good or service from an external provider
Available capacity
Expertise
Quality considerations
Nature of demand
Cost
Risk

15. Developing Capacity Alternatives
Design flexibility into systems
Take stage of life cycle into account
Take a “big picture” approach to capacity changes
Prepare to deal with capacity “chunks”
Attempt to smooth out capacity requirements
Identify the optimal operating level

16. Bottleneck Operation Machine #1 Machine #2 Bottleneck Operation
Figure 5.2
Bottleneck operation: An operation in a sequence of operations whose capacity is lower than that of the other operations
Bottleneck
Operation
Machine #1
Machine #3
Machine #4
10/hr
30/hr
Machine #2

17. Bottleneck Operation Operation 1 20/hr. Operation 2 10/hr.?
Which operation is the Bottleneck operation?
Maximum output rate limited by bottleneck

18. Economies of Scale Economies of scale Diseconomies of scale
If the output rate is less than the optimal level, increasing output rate results in decreasing average unit costs
Diseconomies of scale
If the output rate is more than the optimal level, increasing the output rate results in increasing average unit costs

19. Production units have an optimal rate of output for minimal cost.
Figure 5.4
Production units have an optimal rate of output for minimal cost.
Minimum
cost
Average cost per unit
Rate of output
Minimum average cost per unit

20. Economies of Scale Figure 5.5 Small Medium plant Large plant
Minimum cost & optimal operating rate are
functions of size of production unit.
Small
plant
Average cost per unit
Medium
plant
Large
plant
Output rate

21. Evaluating Alternatives
Cost-volume analysis
Break-even point
Financial analysis
Cash flow
Present value
Decision theory
Waiting-line analysis

22. Cost-Volume Relationships
Figure 5.6a
Amount ($)
Q (volume in units)
Total cost = VC + FC
Total variable cost (VC)
Fixed cost (FC)

23. Cost-Volume Relationships
Figure 5.6b
Amount ($)
Q (volume in units)
Total revenue

24. Cost-Volume Relationships
Figure 5.6c
Amount ($)
Q (volume in units)
BEP units
Profit
Total revenue
Total cost

25. Break-Even Problem with Step Fixed Costs
Figure 5.7a
Quantity
FC + VC = TC
Step fixed costs and variable costs.
1 machine
2 machines
3 machines

26. Break-Even Problem with Step Fixed Costs
Figure 5.7b $
FC1
FC2
FC3
BEP 2 3 TP
Quantity 1
Multiple break-even points
TP = (P – VC) Q

27. Assumptions of Cost-Volume Analysis
One product is involved
Everything produced can be sold
Variable cost per unit is the same regardless of volume
Fixed costs do not change with volume
Revenue per unit constant with volume
Revenue per unit exceeds variable cost per unit

28. Financial Analysis
Cash Flow - the difference between cash received from sales and other sources, and cash outflow for labor, material, overhead, and taxes.
Present Value - the sum, in current value, of all future cash flows of an investment proposal.

29. Waiting-Line Analysis
Useful for designing or modifying service systems
Waiting-lines occur across a wide variety of service systems
Waiting-lines are caused by bottlenecks in the process
Helps managers plan capacity level that will be cost-effective by balancing the cost of having customers wait in line with the cost of additional capacity