5

Capacity Planning
For Products and
Services

Copyright © 2014 by McGraw-Hill Education (Asia). All rights reserved.

 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
5-2
 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
 Key questions in capacity planning:
 What kind of capacity is needed?
 How much is needed?
 When is it needed?

5-3
 Importance of Capacity Decisions
1. Impacts ability to meet future demands
2. Affects operating costs
3. Major determinant of initial costs
4. Involves long-term commitment
5. Affects competitiveness
6. Affects ease of management
7. Globalization adds complexity
8. Impacts long range planning

5-4
 Capacity
 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

5-5
 Efficiency and Utilization

Actual output
Efficiency =
Effective capacity

Actual output
Utilization =
Design capacity

Both measures expressed as percentages

5-6
 Example 1
Design capacity = 50 trucks/day
Effective capacity = 40 trucks/day
Actual output = 36 units/day

Actual output = 36 units/day

Efficiency = = 90%
Effective capacity 40 units/ day

Utilization = Actual output = 36 units/day

= 72%
Design capacity 50 units/day

5-7
 Determinants of
Effective Capacity
 Facilities
 Product and service factors
 Process factors
 Human factors
 Policy factors
 Operational factors
 Supply chain factors
 External factors

5-8
 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
5-9
 Key Decisions of
Capacity Planning
1. Amount of capacity needed
 Capacity cushion (100% - Utilization)
2. Timing of changes
3. Need to maintain balance
4. Extent of flexibility of facilities

Capacity cushion – extra demand intended to offset uncertainty

5-10
 Steps for Capacity Planning
1. Estimate future capacity requirements
2. Evaluate existing capacity
3. Identify alternatives
4. Conduct financial analysis
5. Assess key qualitative issues
6. Select one alternative
7. Implement alternative chosen
8. Monitor results

5-11
 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

5-12
Calculating Processing Requirements
(Example 2)
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SS t taa nn dd aa r rdd
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pp ee r r uu nn i ti t ( (hh r r. .) ) nn ee ee dd ee dd ( (hh r r. .) )

## 11 44 00 00 55 . .00 22 , ,00 00 00

## 22 33 00 00 88 . .00 22 , ,44 00 00

## 33 77 00 00 22 . .00 11 , ,44 00 00
55 , ,88 00 00

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

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 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

5-14
 In-House or Outsourcing
Outsource: obtain a good or service
from an external provider

1. Available capacity
2. Expertise
3. Quality considerations
4. Nature of demand
5. Cost
6. Risk

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Developing Capacity Alternatives
1. Design flexibility into systems
2. Take stage of life cycle into account

3. Take a “big picture” approach to capacity

changes
 Bottleneck operations

4. Prepare to deal with capacity “chunks”

5. Attempt to smooth out capacity requirements
6. Identify the optimal operating level
7. Choose expansion strategy
5-16
 Bottleneck Operation
Figure 5.2
Bottleneck operation: An operation
10/hr
Machine
Machine #1
#1
in a sequence of operations whose
capacity is lower than that of the
other operations

10/hr
Machine
Machine #2
#2 Bottleneck
Bottleneck 30/hr
Operation
Operation
Machine
Machine #3
#3 10/hr

Machine
Machine #4
#4 10/hr
 Bottleneck Operation

Bottleneck

Operation 1 Operation 2 Operation 3

10/hr.
20/hr. 10/hr. 15/hr.

Maximum output rate

limited by bottleneck

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 Economies of Scale
 Economies 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

5-19
 Optimal Rate of Output
Figure 5.4
Production units have an optimal rate of output for minimal cost.
Average cost per unit

Minimum average cost per unit

Minimum
cost

0 Rate of output

5-20
 Economies of Scale
Figure 5.5
Minimum cost & optimal operating rate are
functions of size of production unit.
Average cost per unit

Small
plant Medium
plant Large
plant

0 Output rate

5-21
 Evaluating Alternatives
 Cost-volume analysis
 Break-even point (BEP)
 Financial analysis
 Cash flow
 Present value
 Decision theory
 Waiting-line analysis
 Simulation

5-22
 Cost–Volume Relationships
Figure 5.6A

F C
+
Amount ($)

V C C)
= t (V
st s
lc
o co
ta b le
To ri a
l va
ta
To
Fixed cost (FC)

0
Q (volume in units)

5-23
 Cost–Volume Relationships
Figure 5.6B

ue
e n
Amount ($)
v
l re
t a
To

0
Q (volume in units)

5-24
 Cost–Volume Relationships
Figure 5.6C

u e
e n f i t
Amount ($)

ev P ro
l r
t a s t
To l c o
o ta
T

0 BEP units
Q (volume in units)

5-25
 Break-Even Problem with Step
Figure 5.7A Fixed Costs
C =
+ V
FC
TC
= TC
V C
+
FC 3 machines
T C
C =
V
+ 2 machines
FC

1 machine
Quantity
Step fixed costs and variable costs

5-26
 Break-Even Problem with Step
Figure 5.7B Fixed Costs
$
BEP
3
TC
BEP2
TC
3
TC
2
TR 1
Quantity
Multiple break-even points

5-27
 Assumptions of
Cost–Volume Analysis
1. One product is involved
2. Everything produced can be sold
3. Variable cost per unit is the same
regardless of volume
4. Fixed costs do not change with volume
5. Revenue per unit is constant with
volume
6. Revenue per unit exceeds variable
cost per unit
5-28
 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.

5-29
 Decision Theory
 Helpful tool for financial comparison of
alternatives under conditions of risk or
uncertainty
 Suited to capacity decisions
 See Chapter 5 Supplement

5-30
 Operations Strategy
 Capacity planning has strategic implications
 Could constrain subsequent operations
decisions
 Flexibility allows for agility
 Capacity expansion strategies:
 Expand early
 Wait-and-see

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