Operational Capacity Review

Assess your operational bottlenecks and plan for growth

Supply Chain Consultancy » Operational Capacity Review

Every supply chain has a limit to its overall capacity. The operational capacity is driven by the weakest individual capacity of each process within the warehouse or wider supply chain. The objective of capacity review projects is to identify the key bottlenecks within the supply chain and determine mitigations to minimise the risk during peak.

The limitation could be internal to the warehouse in the form of storage, labour, or equipment availability; or it could be external, either upstream or downstream, in the form of transport, manufacturing or supplier capacity.

It is critical to understand the bottlenecks within a supply chain as these define the maximum flows of material and will determine how the flows are managed during peak. This is particularly important in supply chains undergoing significant growth or with large surges in demand, as is the case retailers around Black Friday, grocers with Christmas or any other seasonal products. It is during these periods that a supply chain’s resilience is most stretched and the business relies on it to deliver to achieve its revenue projections.

The project deliverable is typically a report summarising our assessment of each key area of your warehouse or supply chain, including recommendations of where to focus attention alongside suggestions of mitigation strategies and budget costs. The deliverables might also include the handover of bespoke modelling tools used to generate our assessments.

We Solve Problems

What strategic changes need accommodate the forecasted growth over the medium term
You need to develop a peak operational plan to deal with next year’s growth
How to assess your operational resilience against a range of scenarios
You are looking for an independent perspective to assess and critique your operational expansion plans

Typical Project Approach

Familiarisation

We develop a strong working understanding of your logistics operations by facilitating a kick-off workshop and interviewing key stakeholders to enhance our understanding and build a picture of the project requirements.

Capacity Mapping

We work with your team to go through each process step and establish the capacities. Whether these are the result of labour availability, equipment quantities or storage, we agree the best way to assess the capacity and map that element in the overall process.

Capacity Modelling

After a few volume and growth scenarios are agreed, a bespoke model is built by our consultants to assess the elements of the supply chain that are most at risk from breaking. A range of options are considered to mitigate each capacity breach with budget costs.

Solution Development

The range of mitigation options are evaluated, and the preferred mitigations are identified. A concept design of the end-to-end solution and impact on capital and operating costs are compiled to support a business case, if necessary. The implementation steps are also considered leading to an outline transition plan.