Imagine you have a vision for your company, and everyone is sure it can take it to all-new highs and generate loads of revenue. However, you recently released a large chunk of your resources for cost-cutting, and now you know you cannot achieve your goals without resources. So, what will you do? Call them back, hire novel resources in vast numbers and once the goals get accomplished, let them go again, right? Instead, you can use Capacity Planning Software.  

Capacity Planning Software backed up by advanced algorithms helps you supervise and manage your capacity effectively. One question that even numerous big companies ask us is why we need Capacity Planning. And our answer is simple: so that you don’t have a shortage of resources when you need them the most or don’t have to cut someone off when you do not have enough work for them.  

The art of managing your resources so that it increases your business' efficiencies is called Capacity Planning. If done well, it assists you in identifying new opportunities, keeping the morale of your employees high, and increasing ROI (Return on Investment).  

The article will explain how you can devise an effective Capacity Planning Process. Read on.  

Suppose you are an IT firm and planning to take up new projects. It would be best if you had a team of developers, project managers, analysts, coders, etc. Capacity planning allows you to know what you need and its quantity. Additionally, it also tells you if you can optimize some resources. You should remember that resource planning is different from Capacity planning. For some, this will come as a shock as most groups use these terms interchangeably, but they are not the same.  

Resources Planning is about assessing the capacity of any specific resources. For example, a firm needs a developer or a project manager. It is called resource planning. However, it is called Capacity planning when you assess the capacity of a whole project, department, or workplace. 

Here are some tips that will help you set a productive Capacity Planning Process:  

1. Appoint a planning process owner  

The foremost thing to do is appoint someone who could lead the process, build it from scratch, and optimize it from time to time to make the most of it. Rough-cut Capacity Planning is a lengthy and a time taking process. It requires focus and attention to detail. Thus, it would help if you had someone who has an eye for detail and is organized. Then it would be best if you devise a team together. A team with at least one employee from the group of all critical stakeholders. This ensures that the views and opinions of all the departments are on the table while designing the entire process.  

2. Determine what needs to be measured  

Once the final team and the process leader is finalized, it is time to determine what you need to measure. It is as crucial as choosing the process owner. Usually, companies can decide to measure the wrong resources, and the entire process will become a waste of human and monetary resources. Therefore, determine the resources carefully. For example, the critical resources for e-commerce or logistics companies could be drivers, vehicles, and fuel. Similarly, for tech-enabled companies, it could be the network bandwidth, channels, tape drives, centralized disk space, etc.  

3. Calculate the current performance of resources  

Before analyzing the capacity, you should be aware of the current performance of the resources. The resources decided in the above step must go through the scrutiny of what their overall capacity was and how it performed or was utilized. You can very well take advantage of technology here. Avercast's Rough-cut Capacity Planning Software assists you with the information.  

4. Compute the ideal capacity of the resource  

The ideal capacity of resources is defined as the maximum output a resource could provide you in a given period. The main idea behind finding the maximum capacity is to become aware of how many resources you have in excess and how you can utilize them to increase your efficiency and mutual productivity.  

5. Forecast the workload 

After you have identified the maximum capacity of your resources, you need to forecast the work. You need to predict how much work you might get and how you can distribute it. In short, you need to assess the workload of all your resources, and you can do it by asking them, seeing their work schedule, etc. Then match it with the maximum capacity.  

6. Distribute the forecasts among resources  

Once you get the forecasts, segregate the work among your resources. The estimates obtained above allow you to change your capacity planning effectively. Suppose you are in logistical business and the holiday season is forthcoming; you might have to deliver more packages than an average day. How are you going to accommodate the additional deliveries? You can ask your existing drivers to squeeze in some deliveries in their schedule. Secondly, you can optimize their route. Lastly, if you still fail to deliver the orders on time, you can hire novel resources.  

7. Put it to work, review it, and make changes  

Now that you have established a capacity planning process for your operations, it's time to put it to work. By following all the steps mentioned above, you will get the deal about whether you can complete the task with the current resources or not. If yes, how, and if not, what's the solution? After implementing the process, you will receive significant insights about the process, consider all the feedback from various departments, and make the appropriate changes.  

The process has the potential to solve all your capacity-related problems. Often it is observed that it is not the lack of resources but the poorly utilized and badly managed resources that cause more problems. Implementing capacity planning processes can streamline all your operations. With assistance from capacity planning software, it can bring back the lost efficiency you have always desired.