Business Success Also Means Greater Need For Superior Capacity Planning

Company managers love to see their capacity grow. It means they’re selling more products, reaching more customers and making more money. But along with increased capacity comes greater logistics complexity and challenges. Furthermore, capacity values, consumer demand and supply chain requirements can easily change several times within a one-year period.

That keeps logistics and distribution experts up at night. How can they react and solve problems – and not make things worse?

All of this is why business owners and managers place a premium on excellent capacity planning. They are increasingly relying on advanced chain modeling technology to gain a deep understanding of capacity needs on any given day. That includes the ability to implement strategy shifts that will keep things flowing smoothly while avoiding problems.

A key factor is the ability to evaluate certain trade-offs between investment in internal infrastructure capabilities or go outside with an outsourcing approach. Another area of critical consideration is pre-building inventories. What are the risks and rewards of each tactic? For example, what are the tradeoffs between outsourcing and keeping capacity planning in-house?

Getting answers means having access to hard data, and that means excellent information that will bring transparency to everything from the procurement process to shipping, not to mention inventory warehousing and manufacturing rates. For those that prefer to handle capacity planning in-house, the importance of access to powerful software tools is paramount. However, that increases the need for more in-house training and/or hiring additional qualified personnel.

But when it comes to supply chain and logistics optimization, many companies are finding it cost effective to outsource to professional providers who focus on getting this done. An outside agent can come in and create an end-to-end model that is custom designed for each individual business. Outsourcing eliminates the need for more internal training, hiring and other HR concerns.