by Lee Fried, on 16 Dec 2007 05:24 pm
The Journey
Question of Capacity
I have spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks talking with various leaders in the organization about capacity. As an organization we do not have a very good understanding of how to measure and manage capacity. In our operational areas where services are provided directly to our customers we do a fairly good job, but often have access buffer. In our supporting service areas like Information Systems, Finance and Human Resources we really struggle. Stepping back and taking a systems view of our organization it is not surprising that we are challenged in this area. We have very strong silos and we are primarily budget driven. Thus shared services are caught in the position of having to manage the competing priorities of many different operational areas. Because we are not organized around value streams (yet) there is always and unlimited amount of demand, a high level of work in progress and a high difficulty in measurement. All of which make the question of capacity a difficult one to manage.
These discussions are timely, because for the first time I believe the organization is positioning itself to be able to better manage and understand capacity as we begin to put in place a Lean Management System. The first step will occur during our Strategy Deployment process over the next couple of months where through the process of catchball we will for the first time make explicit decision about priorities at a strategic and not department level. We will also for the first time explicitly define and organize around our value streams. Allowing us to measure and make decisions in alignment with the way that our customers experience us. Both of these changes will allow us to make capacity issues more visible.
In the mean time in preparation for the Strategy Deployment process most of our supporting services are beginning to take steps toward better understanding their internal capacity. This will be a useful exercise. When asked I always tell teams that their first step is to separate the maintenance work from the improvement work. A challenge in itself, but necessary in order to be able to measure how capable the department is in supporting the demands of the organization.