All entrepreneurs have a single-minded mission and aim – to grow their business. But it’s easier said than done. If you want to expand your business, it can be tough to monitor and manage it in a way that doesn’t overburden your existing employees.
Who doesn’t like getting newer clients and projects? But it is also very important to consider if you have the time or resources to execute that additional responsibility or not.
If you don’t do that and take up extra work, you and your team may end up being dissatisfied, which will further lead to unhappy customers and a blotch on your organization’s goodwill.
So, what is the way out here? Capacity management and resource capacity optimization help in knowing how much you can take on and manage. Read on to understand this better.
Capacity Planning
Capacity planning is a way to estimate the production capacity required to cater to the dynamic demands. The term capacity planning means the process where you match the availability of your resources to the projects or task requirements at hand.
Capacity planning takes into consideration various aspects. For instance, the schedule of your team or how many hours in total do they work in a week. It also takes into account the skill sets of employees to take on some tasks or projects, and lastly, what are the other tasks they are assigned on.
Key Benefits of Resource Capacity Planning and Resource Capacity Optimization
Maximize Utilization
Resource availability challenges are known to everyone. If the project and resource managers have clarity on who is available and when they can easily plan resources for new projects.
This also helps maximize resource utilization as you can fill the gaps of availability people might have b assigning smaller tasks. What does maximizing utilization mean here?
It means that you will achieve ideal capacity management and resource capacity optimization as you can get more done from the existing resources without over-burdening them.
Curtailing resource costs
Resource capacity planning also helps businesses meet their pipeline resource requirements effectively. You can gauge how each resource operates and then accordingly make the necessary changes to the pipeline projects depending on the availability and skills of your resources.
Capacity planning also allows an organization to make well-informed decisions about resource management, which further helps in minimizing resource costs.
Reduce the risks of over-booking
Many times, your team may be juggling between multiple projects. Assigning too many tasks to your team in one go can be quite damaging.
Firstly, it can over-burden your team members and impact the overall quality of all output. Additionally, there is also a risk of the project being delayed or even cost overruns, which may hamper your relationship with the client.
Access to Real-Time Data
Imagine if you get to know last minute that an important resource which you were banking upon for a task won’t be available now. How will you complete the project in the decided timelines now?
Therefore, getting access to real-time data about resources, project status, availability, and utilization can help a lot in resource capacity optimization. The best is to use capacity management software for getting access to real-time and updated information.
Consider the skills and competencies of your team
Not everyone has the same skills and thus, different people are good at different tasks. It is very important for a project manager to identify what skills or competencies does a resource possess. Accordingly, he can assign people to the right projects.
It’s also important for a team lead or manager to know what interests their team members. So, accordingly, when you get projects like that, you can align people who will be interested in doing that work.
Helps team members to efficiently manage their time
Employees are always more productive if they are aware of the exact task or project requirements. Resource capacity planning helps the team understand what their to-do list is and how their time is planned, and therefore, they can easily prioritize their work.
There is the least chance of time and effort being wasted, and it’s a win-win scenario for both the resources and the organization.
Production cycles
By doing capacity planning, a business can maintain the required production cycle so that they don’t suffer a loss during high demands. In most businesses, there could be seasonal demand.
Resource planning and management help plan your work, resources, and timelines accordingly to meet the expected demand.
Impact on long-term plans
If you are aware of when your team may get busier, then you can plan your pipeline accordingly. You can also see your existing resource pool and match it up with upcoming projects to see the gaps or how many resources and of what skills are to be hired to handle the busy season.
In case you feel that you won’t have the skill set or availability you will need, then you will know it much ahead of time. This way, you can start preparing a hiring plan and get the resources on time.
New offices or locations
When any organization is in an expansion mode, they open new offices at newer locations or add bigger spaces. Capacity management and planning is very beneficial then too as it aids in developing a precise estimate of what can be the expected production or how many services will be offered from the new location.
Resource Capacity Optimization with eResource Scheduler
Capacity management and resource capacity optimization is important to step in executing any successful business. With a cloud-based tool like eResource Scheduler, you’ll have all data about your resources, various projects, etc., on one single platform.
You can also do resource capacity planning in a few easy steps and monitor the status of your projects while ensuring that the capacity is not going above the ideal resource utilization percentage.
Enbraun’s eResource Scheduler automatically estimates your team’s capacity, utilization, effort, productivity, etc.
In fact, this capacity management tool helps to reduce your bench-time and increase your organization’s revenue. So, if you have questions, sign up for a free trial of the top-rate eResource Scheduler and achieve resource capacity optimization.
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