1. Concept of capacity
In general, production capacity is the maximum production rate of an organization.
The Federal Reserve Board, which measures and monitors production and industrial capacity in the USA, defines practical and sustainable capacity as "The highest level of production volume that a plant can maintain, within the framework of a realistic work program, taking into account the normal time and assuming a sufficient availability of supplies to operate the machinery and the installed equipment ”.
In the same way, capacity can be expressed as the volume of production in a period.
In the same way we must mention that:
Conversion Process, is the transformation of the inputs of labor, capital, land and administration, in results of products of goods / services. In addition to information:
Inputs + Conversion Process = Results
This through a - Feedback.
2. Strategic and Tactical Capabilities:
Many of the companies face situations where a sudden change is needed due to different production circumstances and their ability to react to these variables is where we can measure their strategy and tactical capacity.
Most companies are presented with the challenge of and a fundamental technique to successfully answer that question is, strategic planning and its tactics.
When a company makes the decision to make more than one product (or service) or makes the decision to "make" a new product, capacity planning is the first operations management activity that takes place. Once capacity has been assessed and a need for new or expanding facilities is determined, then localization and process technology activities take place. If there is too much capacity, it is necessary to explore alternatives to reduce capacity such as temporary closure or even the sale of facilities. In such a case, a consolidation may take place involving activities such as relocation, mixing of technologies, and reordering of equipment and processes (physical layout).
3. Models for Planning System Capacity
As the transformation process in the operations system is planned, organized and controlled, many problems are encountered and multiple decisions must be made, under the scenario of uncertainty and complexity.
Such difficulties can often be mitigated by the use of models, which are selected and implemented according to their representativeness of the problem.
4. System capacity and demand
The capacity of the system is the maximum or maximum measurement of storage or of a process, of this current system your current demand is subject, but as the main issue is the conversion you must be prepared for the change to greater capacity so as not to have problems to short term is to say to program a long term change of growth from your beginnings.
This capacity can be measured by your percentage demand and if you have the tactical and strategic capacity as we saw in the previous point, you can measure it. and expect peaks of growth and decline.
You can grow and make changes such as expansion of the property staffing machinery purchase system.
And in the opposite effect you will have to lay off staff, sell your assets.
In these two cases in trouble if not, it is planned. in Brazil, the Boing company is the largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft in the world.
He had a demand crisis and had to lower his production. their system was sufficient for those days they laid off staff and left providers who depended on them and had to close.
In recent years, the demand for modern aircraft has grown and companies such as Aeromexico have had to order 100 new aircraft for a period of 10 years, as well as other airlines.
This seems good but it was not like that, the shares fell by a good percentage because I was not prepared for this eventual case. the suppliers were badly hired: to lay off 1,200 employees they hired 3,000 and of course without the necessary training
And they had a lot of quality and delivery problems of their products.
The deliveries in time and form failed. That is why the stock went down.
5. Human behavior and planning of operational capacity
Human behavior in the planning of the operation of any entity is of vital importance for the correct achievement of the objectives set for any organization.
And many times this objective is not achieved for various reasons that have to do with the human factor, poor aptitude, worker problems or absenteeism are the main problems that prevent the achievement set by the company, and this always leads to company to the constant action of rescheduling the tasks already assigned.
The human element of planning
Even in companies with a computerized tendency, the human being becomes a necessary complement for the computers that perform the scheduling of production, but also because human beings allow flexibility, adaptability and have learning, these are characteristics that computerized systems cannot have. Human beings have the ability to communicate and negotiate, quickly making changes in production sequences after talking with a client or a supplier, intuition is another characteristic of human beings that allows them to have a knowledge of both processes of the company and of the behavior of the resources, and by this knowledge it is possible to solve the problems that the operation plan may have.
