It’s hard to know what you can expect to get out of a project without understanding what you need to put in. Having a clear picture of your company’s production capacity when it comes to essential resources and workload is vital for effective planning. Capacity modeling helps you estimate and secure your ability to achieve project success. Let’s explore how to use the practice of capacity modeling to predict project needs and measure them against your organization’s available resources.
What is capacity modeling?
Capacity modeling is a way to determine the relationship between your production ability and demand for your business. Like a resource allocation matrix, it is a helpful planning tool that allows you to analyze the available assets and negotiate them against the desired output.
Capacity modeling helps take some of the guesswork out of complex project planning and resource management. By understanding your company’s production capacity and needs, you can evaluate and prioritize projects more efficiently while planning for the future.
Capacity Modeling Strategies
There are three main strategies you can use for capacity modeling, but you can also use a hybrid method. Each of these strategies has strengths and risks to consider, so it’s important to understand each of them in depth and determine which capacity planning model is best aligned with your business goals.
1. Lead
This strategy involves estimating needs for the future and expanding capacity before it becomes necessary. It’s an anticipatory method that ensures you are prepared for upcoming increases in demand. It can be a risky strategy in an ever-changing market, but when done right, it can be a highly rewarding move for your business.
2. Lag
Rather than getting ahead of an increase in demand, you might want to wait until the demand has been established before making any increases in capacity. This is a safer road that involves fewer predictions, but you sacrifice the opportunity to get ahead of the curve.
3. Match
This is a more balanced approach that seeks to match your organization’s capacity closely with demand. It’s a more attentive, hands-on method that involves small, frequent adjustments to capacity so it suits the level of demand.
4. Hybrid
It is also possible to use a hybrid strategy that incorporates elements from the three listed above. You might choose to use different strategies for different services provided by your company. If the demand for one of your products is set to see a sharp increase, you may want to utilize a “Lead” approach as opposed to a more stable product that would benefit from matching.
Best Practices and Tips for Capacity Modeling
Time, workforce load, team, and resource capacity management are critical parts of planning projects effectively. Knowing how to allocate and source assets and products is vital when charting the path to success.
Consider Different Types of Capacity
Workforce, tools, and product capacity planning are all necessary when considering a new project. Having appropriate levels of staffing, and access to the necessary equipment and supplies, all factor into your overall production capacity.
Understand Your Current Capacity
Before engaging in any type of capacity planning, you need to understand your starting point. Analyze your current capacity for projects and have a realistic view of what kind of output your team can have so you can make accurate adjustments.
Plan Realistically, Not Ideally
As you work to understand your teams’ capacities, remember to judge things through a lens of realism, not idealism. In other words, consider how much your teams can actually get done based on past performance, not how much you’d like them to get done.
Apply this principle throughout all steps of the capacity and resource planning process; it’s always better to have some wiggle room than to overestimate how much capacity your organization truly has.
Optimize Capacity Modeling With Sciforma
To get the clearest picture of your team’s ability to meet demands, you need access to the most accurate information. Get the data and tools you need to make informed decisions with Sciforma’s resource allocation and management solutions.
To see how Sciforma can take your business to the next level, request a demo today and put your team on the path to success.
More about resource and capacity planning, modeling, and management:
- What is the difference between capacity and utilization?
- 4 Ways Resource and Capacity Management Can Make or Break Your Business
A Comparative Guide to Resource and Capacity Management Tools
