Capacity Planning - MAN 341-

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

5

Capacity Planning

For Products and

Services

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 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

 The basic questions in capacity handling are:

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

 Effective capacity

 …

 Actual output

5-5

Efficiency and Utilization

Efficiency =

Actual output

Effective capacity

Utilization =

Actual output

Design capacity

Both measures expressed as percentages

5-6

Efficiency/Utilization Example

Design capacity = 50 trucks/day

Effective capacity = 40 trucks/day

Actual output = 36 trucks/day

Efficiency =

Utilization =

Actual output = units/day

Effective capacity units/ day

=

Actual output

Design capacity

= units/day

= 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

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

5-11

Tot

Product

Calculating Processing

Requirements

Annual

Demand

Standard processing time per unit (hr.)

Processing time needed (hr.)

#1

#2

#3

Total

400

300

700

5.0

8.0

2.0

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

5-12

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

5-13

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

5-14

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

4.

Prepare to deal with capacity “chunks”

5.Attempt to smooth out capacity requirements

6.Identify the optimal operating level

5-15

Figure 5.2

Bottleneck Operation

Machine #1

10/hr

Bottleneck operation: An operation in a sequence of operations whose capacity is lower than that of the other operations

Machine #2

10/hr

Bottleneck

Operation

30/hr

Machine #3

10/hr

Machine #4

10/hr

5-16

Bottleneck Operation

Which operation is the Bottleneck operation?

Operation 1

20/hr.

Operation 2

10/hr.

Operation 3

15/hr.

?

Maximum output rate limited by bottleneck

5-17

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

5-18

Optimal Rate of Output

Figure 5.4

Production units have an optimal rate of output for minimal cost.

Minimum average cost per unit

Minimum cost

0

Rate of output

5-19

Figure 5.5

Economies of Scale

Minimum cost & optimal operating rate are functions of size of production unit.

0

Small plant

Medium plant Large plant

Output rate

5-20

Evaluating Alternatives

 Cost-volume analysis

 Break-even point

 Financial analysis

 Cash flow

 Present value

 Decision theory

 Waiting-line analysis

5-21

Cost-Volume Relationships

Figure 5.6a

0

Fixed cost (FC)

Q (volume in units)

5-22

Cost-Volume Relationships

Figure 5.6b

0

Q (volume in units)

5-23

Cost-Volume Relationships

Figure 5.6c

0 BEP units

Q (volume in units)

5-24

Break-Even Problem with Step

Figure 5.7a

Fixed Costs

3 machines

2 machines

1 machine

Quantity

Step fixed costs and variable costs.

5-25

Break-Even Problem with Step

Fixed Costs

Figure 5.7b

$

BEP

3

FC

3

FC

2

BEP

2

3

FC

1

2

1

Quantity

Multiple break-even points

TP = (P – VC) Q

5-26

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 constant with volume

6.Revenue per unit exceeds variable cost per unit

5-27

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.

5-28

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

5-29