Capacity Management Strategies Explained
Capacity Management Strategies Explained
CAPACITY MANAGEMENT
5.1 INTRODUCTION
Capacity is a value creating ability of an organization, an ability that takes form in a wide variety
of resources. Lying at the heart of the management process, capacity shapes and defines future
planning and control.
The essence of the capacity issue is the unavoidable fact that resources not used to their fullest
represent waste. Wastes erode profits and shorten the life of an organization. Waste is the entropy
of the business systems, the drag on their current and future performance. Effective managing an
organization starts with making the fullest use of every company’s command that is its theoretical
capacity. Using this capacity productivity, maximizing its value creating potiential, starts with
eliminating resources waste, which is the idle or excess capacity.
5.2 CAPACITY
Usually two kinds of capacity are important: capacity available and capacity required.
Capacity available is the capacity of a system or resources to produce a quantity of output in a
given time period.
Work Effort.
If the work effort varies that is the pace of doing work, then the capacity is also altered.
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Available capacity
Rated capacity is calculated by taking into account the available time, work center utilization and
efficiency.
Standard Hours at a particular work Center = Setup time in Hours +(Number of Hours of Run
Time per piece * Number of Pieces)
Example 5.1
How many standard hours are needed to run an order of 300 pieces if the setup time is 1.5 hours
and the run time 0.4 hours per piece? How many actual hours are needed at the work center if the
efficiency is 130% and the utilization is 70 %? Also calculate the rated capacity (assume 40
machine-hours per week).
Capacity required (Load) is the capacity of a system or resources needed to produce a desired
output in a given time period.
The APICS Dictionary defines load as the amount of planned work scheduled for and actual work
released to a manufacturing facility, work center, or operation for a specific span of time, usually
expressed in terms of standard hours of work or in units of production when the items consume
similar resources at the same rate. Simply stated load is the input rate, the rate at which work is
imposed upon the system.
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Released Load
Planned Load
Loads Unreleased Load
Unplanned Load
It is generated by the MRP I system. This type of load is known in advance and the capacity for
meeting this planned load can be arranged long before it is required. The types of planned orders
are as following.
Released Load (Scheduled Receipts). The released load consists of those orders that have been
released to the shop by the MRP Planner. This order appears as MRP and displays as scheduled
receipts, and on the shop dispatch lists as shop orders.
Unreleased Load (Planned order release). The unreleased orders, or planned order releases, are
the orders in the MRP system for planning purposes only; they do not show up in the shop at all
until actually released by the planner.
5.5.2 Unplanned Load. It includes the total load that was not generated by the MRP. This can
include emergencies, engineering requests, unplanned response to very important customers,
personal works, and various other situations. The unplanned load is obviously a cause of concern
and should be minimized.
There are three basic strategies for timing of capacity expansion in relation to a steady growth in
demand.
Demand
Capacity
Demand
Capacity
Time
Time
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Incremental Vs One step
expansion
Units Average Capacity Strategy Units
Capacity
Incremental expansion
Time Time
It is defined by the APICS dictionary as the “the function of establishing, measuring, monitoring,
and adjusting limits or levels of capacity in order to execute all manufacturing schedules”.
Capacity management is needed to make sure that priority plans are met and which proper
monitoring, planning and controlling achieve. It consists of planning and control functions.( Refer
Figure 5.7)
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5.7.2 CAPACITY PLANNING
Capacity planning is the process of determining the resources required to meet the priority plan
and the methods needed to make that capacity available. Adjustments are made in the priority
plans if capacity requirements cannot be met.
1. Determination of capacity available at each work center in each time period to meet the
proposed production plan.
2. Comparison of the required capacity (Load) to the planned capacity.
3. If necessary, adjustment of planned and required capacity so that the two are in balance.
This process occurs at each level in the priority planning process, varying only at the level of
detail and the time span involved.
Priority Capacity
Medium Range
Short Range
Implementation/Control
Production Activity Capacity Control
Control
Short Range
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5.8 RESOURCE REQUIREMENT PLANNING
It is long-range capacity planning process, which is directly linked to the production planning.
Resource planning is a top-level management activity that determines long range, overall levels
of capacity. It involves changes in manpower, plant and capital equipment, product design, or
facilities that take a long time to acquire and eliminate.
It’s the next level of capacity planning. Rough cut capacity planning as defined by APICS as the
process of converting the master production schedule into requirements for key resources, often
including labour, machinery, warehouse space, supplier’s capabilities, and in some case money.
RCCP determines the impact of high level plans on resources, which are needed to carry out
production plans. RCCP quickly identifies the obstacles to the plan without going through the
details.
Lacks Detail
RCCP considers only key or critical resources. Actual product building requires the resources in
all work centers. Therefore the execution of production plan is susceptible to contingencies not
highlighted during the RCCP process.
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5.10 CAPACITY REQUIREMENT PLANNING (CRP)
The CRP is directly connected with the material requirement planning MRP. This type of
planning focuses on components parts and sub assemblies; therefore a greater detail is involved.
It is concerned with individual orders at individual work centers and calculates work center loads
and labour requirements for each time period at each work center.
The CRP is most detailed, complete and accurate of the capacity planning techniques.
5.10.1 INPUTS TO CRP
Capacity requirement planning is based on released and planned orders generated by the MRP
system. The inputs to the CRP are open released orders, planned released orders, routings, time
standards, lead times, and work centers capacities.
Open Order File (Scheduled Receipts)
An open shop order appears as scheduled receipts on the material requirements plan. It is
triggered for the release of quantity of a part to be manufactured and completed on a specific date
that contains information about the quantities, due dates and operations.
The open order file is record of all the active shop orders and contains the following data by part
number and work order.
1. Order due date
2. Order Quantity
3. Operations Completed
4. Operations Remaining
INPUTS OUTPUTS
Loading Capacity
Verification reports from
From work center file
MRP system
CAPACITY
REQUIREMENT
Routing data from PLANNING
Routing file Capacity Modification Data
Refer Table 5.2
Planned order releases are inputs to CRP in assessing the total capacity required for the future
time period.
The data includes:
1. Planned order release date.
2. Planned order receipt date.
3. Planned order quantity.
Routing File
Routing is typically used as shop traveller that accompany the work from start to finish.
The necessary details of how to manufacture an item are found in routing file. Routing file
contains the following information.
1.Operations to be performed.
2.Seqeunce of operations.
3.Work centers in which the operations should be performed.
4.Possible alternative work centers
5.Tooling needed for each operation.
6.Standard times (Associated with each operations): setup times, and runtimes per piece.
7.Operator’s skills.
8.Inspection, operations and testing requirements.
The routing file along with the standard time estimates complete the basic input data necessary to
perform CRP.
Alternate Routing
The standard routing for an item is its primary routing. An item can also have one or more
alternate routings, which describe additional methods of manufacturing the same item. Alternate
routings are used when the primary routing is not available (which occurs due to capacity
constraints or equipment unavailability).
Alternate routing is considered when the primary work center is overloaded. However if alternate
routing leads to significant quality problems then revert to primary routing. It may so happen that
the primary work center produces parts that are cheap but in such case also alternate routing may
be considered in case the secondary work center may be under loaded.
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The work center file assimilates all the data related to work center such as information concerning
cost, capacity, lead-time, crew size, and function. Work center file is one of the prime inputs to
the CRP. It also provides work center capacity data to production scheduling, shop loading, and
capacity planning.
The work center file contains information on the capacity and move, waiting and queue time
associated with the center.
Queue time. It is a planned time a job waits at a work center before being handled. Queue time is
very significant in calculation of lead-time and capacity utilization. If there is high machine
utilization then there must be large queue time for job availability and flexibility improvement
and vice versa.
Waiting Time. It is the time a job is at the work center after the completion and before being
moved.
Move Time. It is the time taken to move the material from one work center to another.
Lead Time. It is the sum of queue, set up, run, wait, and move times. The lead-time is required to
place the workload in proper time period. It is here to noted that actual workload in the time
period is only the setup and run times even though there are in small part of the total lead-time.
However queue, wait and move elements are a part of the total time that do not use capacity but
are a part of it which use space and time.
Manufacturing Cycle. It consists of all the activities that occur to an item between the release of
an order to the shop and the receipt into the stores, or the shipment to the final customer.
Load Activity. Any activity that requires the resources or the capacity of a work center is called a
load activity. Time elements concerned with load activities are operation times whereas times
concerned with no load activities are called as interoperation times.
Internal and External Setup. Setup can be of two types external, which allows machine to
perform outside work and internal which absorbs the machine capacity.
Shop Calendar
The shop calendar contains information about the number of working days available.
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Backward scheduling reveals, in addition to work center loads profiles, the latest possible start
date for each operation in work orders to achieve on-time completion.
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5.16 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RCCP AND CRP
RCCP CRP
What • Projected gross Capacity. • Projected net capacity.
• Requirement for Key resources. • Requirement for each work center.
How Explode production plan or MPS through Explode MPS and MRP planned orders
resource profile. through detailed routings; combine
with current WIP status from shop floor
control.
When As require for simulation. Weekly, monthly.
Why • Pre-MPS I evaluation of MPS. • Post-MRP I detailed analysis.
• Intermediate- to- long- range • Periodic check of all work centers.
planning.
Precision Aggregate or gross key resources only. Detailed-considers inventory, lot sizing
WIP completions, works center lead
times.
Complexity Much less then CRP. Usually exceeds MRP.
Planning Productions plan limits. MRP Horizon.
Horizon
Implementation Short Require work centers, routings, MPS,
MRP I, and WIP status of SFC.
Rated Capacity
100
80
S 60
T Planned Load
A
N
D
A
R 40
D
H
O
U 20
R
S
Released Load
PERIOD
TOTAL
Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5
OVERLOAD 4 3 10 -3 2 16
50 Stores Inventory
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Realistic?
EXAMPLE 5.2
A work center has the following open orders and planned orders for the period I. Calculate the
total standard time required on this work center in the period I from the following information.
Released Orders
Part A 150 1 0.5
Planned Orders
Part C 300 3.5 0.4
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Solution:
Planned orders Part A Total Time = 1+ (150 * 0.5) = 76 standard hours.
Part B Total Time = 1.5+ (200 * 0.6) = 121.5 standard hours.
Planned Orders Part C Total Time = 3.5+ (300 * 0.4) = 123.5 standard hours.
Part D Total Time = 4+ (400 * 0.15) = 64 standard hours.
EXAMPLE 5.3
Calculate the capacity requirement per week for a company, which uses an MRP system.
Actual capacity requirement and forecasted demand are given in the Table below. Company plans
to adjust capacity when the cumulative deviation exceeds 1/3 of the forecasted average demand
per week.
Would this system necessitate any adjustment?
Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
620 580 425 735 630 645 695 560 630 480
Solution:
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Weeks1 Weeks2 Weeks3 Weeks4 Weeks5 Cumulative
Deviation
Planned 600 600 600 600 600
205
Actual 560 550 635 765 695
Adjustment Requirement:
Actual Cumulative Deviation = 205 (Which is greater than 200 that is the permissible Deviation)
So adjustment is necessary.
12
Lot Size (r) 50 80 40 80 20 390 Infeasible
0
Because the requirements are greater than the capacity, 390 > 360, a plan that meets all
requirements without exceeding capacity is infeasible. The total requirements are 30 units greater
than total capacity (390 – 360 = 30). Therefore, this solution must include 30 units of backlog in
addition to producing full capacity for all periods.
EXAMPLE 5.5
Capacity planning with scrap
Hint:
Capacity requirements can be calculated while considering the scrap rates. For example, if the
maximum production rate is 200 units per hour and the scrap rate at the process is 2%, then the
total amount of good units would be (200 – 0.02*200) = 196. Now, we can determine the
capacity and production requirements for equipments that proceed a given equipment. This is
demonstrated through an example.
The diagram below represents the production processes for three processors (equipment). From
the diagram, it can be seen that to produce one unit of P1 , we need to have 3 units of P1,1 and 2
units of P2,1 . Suppose the scrap rates at P1,1 is 20%, at P2,1 is 15% and at P1 is 30%. (These are
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very high and un-realistic numbers but are given for purpose of illustration) No inventory can
exist between P1 and P1,1 ; and between P1 and P2,1 .
To make the next explanation more clear, the notations to represents the process and the prior
processes are discussed as below:
Pi,k = A process i occur before the particular process k . (Where i =1, 2, 3….)
ri,k = The required unit goods of process i to produce one unit good at process k
ck = Capacity at process k
r1,1 = 3
P1,1
P1
r2,1 = 2
P2,1
For P1 of good units would be: 160 (200 – 0.2*200 = 160. For the other two,
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Therefore, the maximum capacity of the above system is Minimum {160, 37.33, 50.58}= 37.33
Question: Given that the production rate of finished (good) product of P1 should be 100 units per
hour, what should be the minimum capacity rate of P1,1 and P2,1 ?
c1 r1,1 100*3
MinPR1,1 = = = 535.71
(1 − s1,1 )*(1 − s1 ) (1 − 0.20) *(1 − 0.30)
c1 r2,1 100* 2
MinPR2,1 = = = 336.13
(1 − s2,1 ) *(1 − s1 ) (1 − 0.15) *(1 − 0.30)
The minimum capacity (production rate/hour) for P1 should be: 100/(1-0.3)= 142.8.
EXAMPLE 5.6
For example, consider three parts A, B, and C. Assume part A is assembled in work center 1, part
B is fabricated in work center 2, and part C is received and prepared in work center 3. A
summary of the work center capacities is given below.
Machine
Work
Throughput
Part Center
(units/week)
A 1 50
B 2 35
C 3 100
Part A 0 0 32 40 30 42 40 48 32 48
Part B 0 32 32 30 42 40 48 32 0 48
Part C 29 64 60 84 80 96 64 0 0 96
Solution:
While comparing the two sets of information above, it becomes obvious that the net requirements
for part B exceed the capacity of work center 2. The current lot sizing is therefore infeasible, and
some form of corrective action is required. One option would be to adjust the previous lot sizes
to accommodate the over-scheduled weeks (see the heuristic for lot sizing with capacity
constraints above). The maximum capacity of the work center is exceeded three times (weeks 9,
10, and 11, and other alternatives (or a combination of alternatives) may be preferable.
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