I often hear the\u00a0statement “Our problem is\u00a0caused by lack of capacity?” and this\u00a0is usually followed by a heated debate (i.e. an\u00a0arugment)\u00a0about how to get more resources to solve the “capacity problem”: The protagonists are usually Governance who start the debate by raising a safety or\u00a0quality problem; Operations who are tasked to resolve the problem and Finance who are expected to pay.<\/p>\n
But what\u00a0are they talking about? What exactly is “Capacity”? The reason I ask is because the word is ambiguous – it has several meanings – and unless the precise meaning is made explicit\u00a0then individuals\u00a0may\u00a0unconsciously assume different\u00a0interpretations and crossed-wires, confusion and conflict will ensue.<\/p>\n
From the perspective of a process there are at least\u00a0two<\/strong> distinct meanings that must not be confused: one is flow capacity and the other is inventory capacity.\u00a0 To give an example of the distinction consider\u00a0your household plumbing system: the hot water tank\u00a0has\u00a0a capacity that is\u00a0measured in the\u00a0volume of the tank –\u00a0e.g. in\u00a0litres; the pipe that leads from the tank to your tap has a capacity that is measured by the flow through the pipe –\u00a0e.g. in litres per minute.\u00a0 These are clearly NOT the same;\u00a0they are\u00a0related\u00a0by time:\u00a0A 50 litre capacity tank connected to a 5 litre per minute capacity pipe will empty\u00a0in 10 minutes. So when you are talking about “capacity” be sure to be explicit about which form you mean … volume or flow; static or dynamic;\u00a0inventory or activity.\u00a0\u00a0It will avoid a LOT of confusion!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I often hear the\u00a0statement “Our problem is\u00a0caused by lack of capacity?” and this\u00a0is usually followed by a heated debate (i.e. an\u00a0arugment)\u00a0about how to get more resources to solve the “capacity problem”: The protagonists are usually Governance who start the debate by raising a safety or\u00a0quality problem; Operations who are tasked to resolve the problem and … <\/p>\n