Companies invest time and effort to plan for future capacity and growth of their business. Shortfalls in capacity to handle peak loads can put pressure on the ability to maintain SLA's and place additional pressure on the companies reputational position in the respective market arena. Shortfalls in capacity can include resources,equipment and space restrictions.
Whilst many will look to spread or smooth peak volumes and for a small period of time this maybe manageable,however,at peak or spike periods other alternatives (additional support from Totalpost) should be eveluated and following the appropriate "due-diligence" process these alternatives should be introduced.
Totalpost through their Mail Management Division are ideally placed at their Warrington and Swindon sites to provide expertise, knowledge and equipment to support companies in the short-medium and long term. Totalpost will work closely in the capacity planning process to assess and recommend the appropriate way forward. The key essential in these situations is to understand the key components of the capacity planning process as detailed below.
- Establish forecasted volumes covering the period in question, including capacity for future growth and the historical data on a daily,weekly monthly basis.
- Scope the business model to show the variances between average and peak volume capacity levels and highlight the gaps.
- If there are multiple work types, ensure the respective SLA's are included in the forecasting model. Pressure on individual work type SLA's may restrict the ability to spread the peak load periods.
- Understand the linkage between the staffing, equipment and capacity models and highlight the strenghts and weaknesses.
- By smoothing the peak period how long is this sustainable and will this put pressure on cost budgets. Identify the risks of staff working additional hours and how this will impact SLA's.
- If the working day is extended during the peak period, will equipment (engineers etc) support be available.
- Totalpost will liase with companies to provide the appropriate Management Information data.
Totalposts' infrastructure at Warrington and Swindon will be available throughout the support period and will also include Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery support.
For more information please call: 01925 242360
