Industrial service provider seeks capacity planning tool (personnel)

We are a global industrial service provider operating in the project business. Projects are generally long-term (several years). We are looking for a capacity planning solution to replace our current Excel application and improve our capacity planning.

• Task:

  Replace the current capacity planning solution (Excel application) with a multi-user application. The architecture of the time reporting system is used as a basis (employee lists, account assignment objects, etc.).

• Objectives of capacity planning:

  Utilization forecast:

  • Identify whether there is an “oversupply or undersupply” of personnel.
  • Determining: “How many incoming orders are necessary to utilize personnel capacity?”

• Features of planning:
  • Always 12 months are considered
  • In advance of every second business review meeting (every 2 months), the planning time window is shifted 2 months into the future and the data is updated.

• Level of detail in planning:
  • Time axis:
  • Months 1–3 are planned weekly
  • Months 4–12 are planned monthly
  • Accounting objects
  • Actual orders: these are planned by department heads
  • Requests: these are planned by quotation managers
  • Internal orders: these are planned by division managers
  • FE: these are planned by project managers or development department heads
  • People who are planned
  • “Own employees”
  • Not planned: Freelancers, temporary workers/interns, graduates, trainees
  • Details of planning
  • People -> Accounting objects

• Reconciliation with actual figures from time recording
  • There is no reconciliation of planning with “actual figures.” Exception: “Empirical values” used to adjust planning.
  • For projects, the comparison between plan and actual is carried out in project tracking for the projects in cooperation between commercial and technical project managers. This is done independently of capacity planning.

• Documentation of planning results:
  • The planning statuses are “documented” by “generating PDF reports” (including graphics).

• Roles:
  • „Planners” (project managers, sales representatives)
  • Secretariat collects data, enters it into a file, updates standard values (e.g., vacation planning)
  • Division management checks and supplements/corrects employee entries.

• Authorization:
  • There are no authorizations – everyone can see everything

• Expected improvements form the system:
  • Multi-user access (unlike Excel)
  • Better and more reliable capacity planning

Approximately 250 software workstations are planned.