Operations management 12th stevenson ch05 strategic capacity planning for products and services

supply capabilities of an organization and the predicted level of long-term demand  Overcapacity operating costs that are too high  Undercapacity strained resources and possible loss

Strategic Capacity Planning for Products and Services

Chapter 5

Learning Objective: Chapter 5

You should be able to:

developing capacity alternatives

for evaluating capacity alternatives

operating unit can handle

 Equipment

 Space

 Employee skills

Capacity Planning

supply capabilities of an organization and the

predicted level of long-term demand

 Overcapacity operating costs that are too high

 Undercapacity strained resources and possible loss

of customers

Strategic Capacity Planning

Key Questions:

 What kind of capacity is needed?

 How much is needed to match demand?

 When is it needed?

 Related Questions:

 How much will it cost?

 What are the potential benefits and risks?

 Are there sustainability issues?

 Should capacity be changed all at once, or through

several smaller changes

Capacity Planning Questions

Production Capacity Planning

Production Capacity

Equipment Capacity

Inventory Storage Capacity

Labor Capacity

Equipment Maintenance Capacity

Sales Force Capacity

 We measure the capacity of a plant,

machine department, worker, hospital, etc., either

number of pounds manufactured) or

hours, machines, labor hours, …)

 A major function of capacity planning

is to match the capacity of the

machine or facility with the demand

for the products of the firm.

Measures of Capacity

three planning horizons:

longer to provide sufficient time to build a new facility, to expand the existing facility or

to move to a new facility due to expected changes in demand

approximately from one month and less than

a year At this level of planning, decisions or activities include acquisition of a major piece

of machinery and subcontracting

capacity planning activities on a daily or a weekly basis and are generated as a result of disaggregation of the long or medium range capacity plans These activities include

machine loading and detailed production scheduling

Capacity Planning Horizons

Output rate is uncertain because:

Capacity Planning

Capacity decisions

1 impact the ability of the organization to meet future

demands

2 affect operating costs

3 are a major determinant of initial cost

4 often involve long-term commitment of resources

5 can affect competitiveness

6 affect the ease of management

7 have become more important and complex due to

globalization

8 need to be planned for in advance due to their

consumption of financial and other resources

Capacity Decisions Are Strategic

Design capacity

 Maximum output rate or service capacity an operation,

process, or facility is designed for

Effective capacity

 Design capacity minus allowances such as personal

time, maintenance, and scrap

Actual output

 Rate of output actually achieved cannot

exceed effective capacity.

Defining and Measuring Capacity

require updating

 Why is measuring capacity in dollars problematic?

 Design capacity

 The maximum output rate or service capacity an

operation, process, or facility is designed for

 Effective capacity

 Design capacity minus allowances such as personal

time and maintenance

Actual output

Efficiency

Utilization

Measuring System Effectiveness

capacity effective

output

actual Efficiency 

output

actual n

Utilizatio 

Example– Efficiency and Utilization

Design Capacity = 50 trucks per day

Effective Capacity = 40 trucks per day

Actual Output = 36 trucks per day

%

90 40

36 capacity

36 capacity

design

output

actual n

Determinants of Effective Capacity

Strategy Formulation

Strategies are typically based on

assumptions and predictions about:

Capacity Cushion

Capacity Cushion

uncertainty

 Organizations that have greater demand

uncertainty typically have greater capacity cushion

 Organizations that have standard products and

services generally have greater capacity cushion

Steps in Capacity Planning

1 Estimate future capacity requirements

2 Evaluate existing capacity and facilities; identify gaps

3 Identify alternatives for meeting requirements

4 Conduct financial analyses

5 Assess key qualitative issues

6 Select the best alternative for the long term

7 Implement alternative chosen

8 Monitor results

Forecasting Capacity Requirements

Long-term considerations relate to overall

level of capacity requirements

horizon and converting those needs into

capacity requirements

Short-term considerations relate to probable

variations in capacity requirements

with seasonal variations and other variations

from average

Calculating processing requirements requires reasonably accurate demand forecasts,

standard processing times, and available

work time

Calculating Processing

Requirements

product for

time processing

standard

machines required

of number

N

T

D

p N

R

k i

i i R

Calculating Processing Requirements

If annual capacity is 2000 hours, then we need three machines to handle the required volume: 5,800 hours/2,000 hours = 2.90 machines

Product

Annual Demand

Standard processing time per unit (hr.)

Processing time needed (hr.)

#1

#2

#3

400 300 700

5.0 8.0 2.0

2,000 2,400 1,400 5,800

If a department works one eight hour

shift, 250 days per year how many

machines are needed?

(5,800)/(8 X 250) = 2.9 or 3 machines

Calculating Processing

Requirements

Service Capacity Planning

Service capacity planning can present a

number of challenges related to:

The need to be near customers

 Convenience

The inability to store services

 Cannot store services for consumption later

The degree of demand volatility

 Volume and timing of demand

 Time required to service individual customers

Demand Management Strategies

Strategies used to offset capacity limitations

and that are intended to achieve a closer

match between supply and demand

periods into slow periods

In-House or Outsource?

 Once capacity requirements are determined, the

organization must decide whether to produce a good

or service itself or outsource

Developing Capacity Alternatives

management:

 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 capacity requirements

 Identify the optimal operating level

 Choose a strategy if expansion is involved

 Similar to the following strategy, but adds capacity in

relatively small increments to keep pace with

increasing demand

Bottleneck Operation

An operation in a sequence of

operations whose capacity is lower than that of the other operations

Bottleneck operation: An operation

in a sequence of operations whose capacity is lower than that of the other operations

Bottleneck Operation

Operation 1 20/hr.

Operation 2 10/hr.

Operation 3 15/hr. 10/hr.Bottleneck

Maximum output rate

Optimal Operating Level

Economies and Diseconomies of

Scale

Economies of Scale

increasing the output rate results in decreasing average per unit costs

Diseconomies of Scale

level, increasing the output rate results in

increasing average per unit costs

Economies of Scale

Economies of Scale

increasing the output rate results in

decreasing average per unit costs

 Fixed costs are spread over a larger number of

units

 Construction costs increase at a decreasing rate

as facility size increases

 Processing costs decrease due to standardization

Diseconomies of Scale

 If the output rate is more than the optimal level,

increasing the output rate results in increasing average

per unit costs

 Reasons for diseconomies of scale

 Distribution costs increase due to traffic congestion

and shipping from a centralized facility rather than multiple smaller facilities

 Complexity increases costs

 Inflexibility can be an issue

 Additional levels of bureaucracy

Facility Size and Optimal Operating

Output rate

Constraint Management

 Something that limits the performance of a process or

system in achieving its goals

1. Identify the most pressing constraint

benefit, given the constraint

supportive of the constraint

constraint

5. Repeat the process until the constraint levels

are at acceptable levels

Resolving Constraint Issues

 How much will it cost?

 How soon can we have it?

 What will operating and maintenance costs be?

 What will its useful life be?

 Will it be compatible with present personnel and present

operations?

 Non-economic

 Public opinion

Cost-volume analysis

revenue, and volume of output

 Fixed Costs (FC)

 Variable Costs (VC)

 Total Cost

Cost-Volume Analysis

total revenue are equal

QBEP



 FC

Cost-Volume Relationships

Cost-Volume Relationships

Capacity alternatives may involve step

costs, which are costs that increase

stepwise as potential volume increases.

possible occurrence of multiple break-even

quantities

Break-Even Problem with Step Fixed Costs

1 machine

2 machines

3 machines

Figure 5.7a

Cost-Volume Analysis

FC = Fixed cost

VC = Total Variable Cost

v = Variable cost per unit

Q2 : What is the profit if 1,000 units are sold?

P = Q(R – v) – FC = 1,000(72)6,000 = 1,000

-Q3: How many units must be sold to

realize a profit of $4,000?

Q = (P + FC) / (R - v) = 2)

(4,000+6,000)/(7-Q = 2,000 units

Q1: For an annual volume of 12,000,

should we make or buy?

TCmake = 150,000 + 60 x 12,000 =

$870,000

TC = 80 x 12,000 = $960,000

Cost-Volume Analysis

Example 2

Decion:

Buy if Q < 7,500Make if Q > 7,500

Q = 7,500

Variable cost is $10; revenue is $40 per unit

Q1: Determine QBEP for each output range.

1: QBEP = 9600/(40-10) = 320 > 300 not BEP

2: QBEP = 15000/(40-10) = 500 units

3: QBEP = 20000/(40-10) = 666.67

Cost-Volume Analysis

Example 3

If projected annual demand is between

580 and 660 units, how many machines should the manager purchase?

Answer: 2 machines (why?)

Cost-Volume Analysis Assumptions

comparing capacity alternatives if certain

assumptions are satisfied

 One product is involved

 Everything produced can be sold

 The variable cost per unit is the same regardless of

volume

 Fixed costs do not change with volume changes, or

they are step changes

 The revenue per unit is the same regardless of volume

Revenue per unit exceeds variable cost per unit

Financial Analysis

Cash flow

sales and other sources, and cash outflow for

labor, material, overhead, and taxes

Present value

flow of an investment proposal

Decision Theory

Helpful tool for financial comparison of alternatives under conditions of risk or uncertainty

Suited to capacity decisions

See Chapter 5 Supplement

Some Possible Growth

Demand

 Flexibility allows an organization to be agile

 It reduces the organization’s dependence on forecast accuracy and

reliability

 Many organizations utilize capacity cushions to achieve flexibility

 Bottleneck management is one way by which organizations can

enhance their effective capacities

 Capacity expansion strategies are important organizational

considerations

 Expand-early strategy