Capacity planning is especially important for companies preparing
to enter an export market/s.
Estimating whether your company has sufficient manufacturing capacity to meet
customer demand in a timely manner is a priority.
The capability to manufacture the correct quantities on time will depend on
how well you manage the following:
Understand existing capacity
Estimate capacity required
In some companies, capacity is simple to measure, particularly if a company
produces only one product. However, capacity is difficult to measure for companies
with different production lines. Day-to-day variations are the main reason
for the difficulty of measuring capacity realistically. Absent or late employees,
machine breakdown, cable theft causing electrical shut downs, facility maintenance
and or repair, machine set-ups and employees on vacation, are examples of these
variations.