Capacity planning
Build smart, data-driven plans that anticipate demand and optimize resource allocation using historical data and predictive insights!
Operations managers and planners are hardwired to think ahead, anticipating future challenges. This approach entails preparing for predictable peaks, addressing fluctuating demands, and gearing up for unexpected disruptions. The key to navigate these complexities lies in effective capacity planning, which ensures the efficient allocation of resources, optimized performance, cost control, and sustained organizational resilience.
Challenges
The planning of maintenance and operational activities on linear assets such as electric grids or gas pipes demands diligent coordination and foresight. These assets undergo a range of activities throughout the year, including routine inspections, scheduled upgrades, and other recurring tasks, that can be subject to unforeseen disruptions, due to sudden changes in weather conditions, equipment failure, and emergencies.
This could be the case of a utility company facing increased demand for repair crews during summer storms, while also struggling to complete scheduled transformer maintenance prior to peak power consumption periods.
Whenever the planning process relies on traditional tools like excel files or sheets, complications may add up. In fact, such an approach is prone to generating errors, inefficiencies, and time losses.
For instance, manual data entry and update is tedious and often leads to inconsistencies or mistakes, such as misallocated resources or missed deadlines. Poor planning is likely to increase the risk of overstaffing or understaffing, which ultimately results in higher costs and can lead to operational delays that could disrupt critical services or cause service outages.
This is where capacity planning comes into play. The new feature combines historical data and predictive insights to create a detailed, data-driven plan that anticipates demand and forecasts future needs, ensuring that the right resources are available at the right time. Moreover, whenever dealing with ongoing changes, the system allows for automatic re-planning, enabling managers to adjust the plan in real time without having to re-run the entire scheduling process manually.