Let it Grow! Understanding and Managing Manufacturing Capacity for Sustainable Growth

Growth in manufacturing is a double edge sword, when you forecast it, there should be the path you have paved to ensure success. Conversely, when it is given to you, there is the expectation from external and internal factors to be ready, when you may not be.

Capacity analysis is a crucial element in protecting not only the business sustainability (in terms of health) but the customer delivery and therefore the success of the business. First hand there have been experiences of when opportunities for growth have not been risk managed suitably and capacity scenarios inflated or not fully understood leading to poor performance and damaged reputations.

Traditionally, capacity relates to the threshold of a system, whether that’s water in a bucket or the amount a machine/person can produce within a given period of time.

This is normally where the analysis stops despite the necessary steps that are still needed to be taken to investigate further capacity variants. For now, let’s ignore additional factors (for example OEE), although important may only confuse things for now, when we need to verify our capacity analysis first.

Tending to the weeds

Let’s start with manufacturing capacities. All systems have a theoretical capacity, this ignores the laws of physics and Murphy’s Law. Let’s be honest theoretical should never be uttered in relation to your manufacturing capacity.
Factors such as downtime, quality & performance should begin to be added. Again I am not talking about capturing OEE data that is very data and time intensive. Consider planned or assumed values that your manufacturing standards would like to achieve. We are beginning to create a more realistic picture of our maximum manufacturing capacity.

Lastly, we can look at capacity that is demonstrable under controlled conditions, unplanned activities (breakdowns, material shortages etc). This gives us an actual understanding of our capacity.

The next step is the alignment with each department, it is no surprise that Engineers will be advocating for the maximum capacity and production opting for realism of actual capacity, with potentially planning tied in between them both wondering why theoretical has been so easily dismissed.

What to plant next?

Although letting manufacturing volumes grow naturally feels like the right cause of action, that is not without ensure giving it the right environment to grow in. This is when the gardening analogy runs dry, like most things scene making sure the infrastructure and alignment internally will give the best outcome for any manufacturing plant.

Take these three things away and consider how to make your team the heroes of the outcome:

• Define; bringing clarity into the way things are described and calculated
• Align; make sure everybody is onboard and any questions that are unanswered are review periodically
• Implementing; setting the scene and seeding the methodology from the smallest area to the largest, tending to it in every stage.

When planned early and executed well, it’s the one change that connects everything: people, parts, processes, and performance.

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