Resource and capacity management

the effective capacity is measured in terms of throughput for each stage of the supply chain. At the end of the supply chain effective capacity is the amount of finished product that can be supphed to end users on a daily basis. For example, in the military capacity could be measured by the number of rounds of ammunition, or the number of ration packs that could be supplied daily to the front line. Capacity is not the number that is supplied, but the number that could be supphed if required. 

Wild (2002) says Capacity management is concerned with the matching of the capacity of the operating system and the demand placed on that system . Planning to match demand and capacity begins with the forecasting of what the demand is likely to be. 

Capacity decisions are based on forecasts of donand at several different levels. Long-range capacity planning needs forecasts to be made several years ahead and includes facility planning. Short- and medium-term forecasts span 2-3 years, and generally are used to determine people requironents, leasing of premises, machines and equipment, and product details. In the more inunediate short-term forecasts are used to plan, order and schedule resources on a monthly, weekly and daily basis. The shorter the time frame, the more precise the forecast must be. 

As discussed in Chapter 4, there are three ways of looking at forecasts the qualitative approach, the mathematical or time series approach, and the causal approach. In reality, all three are interlinked and should be taken into account when determining a forecasted demand figure. 

Past history shows that it is unlikely that England will win the next Football World Cup. This does not prove that they won t  

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This building block of resource and capacity management including ERP is covered in more detail in Chapter 5. 

Customer focus and demand Resource and capacity management Procurement and supplier focus Inventory management Operations management Distribution management Systems and procedures Sales and operations planning Performance management... 

More efficient use of resources to better manage capacity and the outcomes of care while using best practices and reducing duplication. 

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