Thomas Fischer

Understand what creates value for customers

Intrinsically understanding tasks is the key to establishing the right organization: which tasks are uniform, which are different, how can they be grouped, what can be kept separate? Once a pattern has been established, the correct structure can be set up.

Two key planning and control tools are:
• A capacity plan – a general plan showing the relationship between the future incoming volume of work and the department’s available staff resources. The capacity plan reveals capacity shortages or surpluses in the department. As a rolling plan, it continuously projects the historic task flow and compares it with current staff capacity, taking into account such factors as holiday, training courses and absences. The capacity plan can be drafted at the overall departmental level or right down to task type, if necessary.
• A staffing plan – a detailed plan that ensures a satisfactory service level for telephone calls, emails or personal enquiries. Staffing rotas are the operational manifestation of the capacity plan – a schedule for each individual staff member. The staffing plan takes into consideration such factors as capacity fluctuations in the course of the day.