About this Presentation
Capacity buffers are the means to temporarily increase the capacity of an overloaded resource for an extra cost. Such buffers include overtime, temporary workers, and outsourcing. Buffering is a critical part of planning according to TOC. Treating the options of increasing capacity in a temporary manner as buffers means carefully ensuring that whenever there is a need the buffer can be consumed. Certainly the amount open for the costly extra capacity needs to be monitored and the Green, Yellow and Red zoned be managed. Capacity buffers should be a strategic issue as they allow the delay of significant investments in purchasing additional capacity based on forecasts. Any growth strategy should consider the option of maintaining capacity buffers to allow capitalizing on emerging new opportunities in the market without the burden of financial obligations to the longer time frame. The webinar will open the following questions for discussion: Is a resource that is often used for 100% of its regular capacity a constraint / bottleneck when it is possible to add capacity for extra cost? Is the capacity buffer part of the ‘protective capacity’? Is the use of the capacity buffer of the constraint an ‘elevation’? Should the extra cost of adding temporary capacity be considered TVC or delta-OE?
What Will You Learn
To help you get the most value from this session, we’ve highlighted a few key points. These takeaways capture the main ideas and practical insights from the presentation, making it easier for you to review, reflect, and apply what you’ve learned.
Capacity buffers are a strategic tool that allows organizations to temporarily increase the capacity of resources, thus enabling them to respond to increased demand or peak periods without compromising their performance.
Maintaining capacity buffers might require certain minimum usage, even when the available capacity is enough, to ensure their availability when needed. This can be considered as a fixed cost of maintaining these buffers.
The use of capacity buffers should be closely monitored to avoid exhausting all the capacity buffer. This requires buffer management, which includes registering cases where the capacity buffer was not available, recording the cost of maintaining the capacity buffer, and the cost of consuming those capacity buffers.
Instructor(s)
Eli Schragenheim
Ms Alka Wadhwa
Alka Wadhwa is an experienced consultant and process improvement expert with over 24 years of expertise in the Theory of Constraints (TOC), Lean Six Sigma, and organizational performance optimization. She has successfully led projects in healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing, driving significant improvements such as a 67% boost in hospital operations and a 140% increase in outpatient visits.
Previously, Alka Wadhwa spent 17+ years at GE Global Research Center, where she led initiatives to enhance various GE businesses through advanced technologies, process redesign, and system optimization. Founder of Better Solutions Consulting, LLC, she specializes in using TOC, Six Sigma, and data analytics to streamline operations and build high-performance teams.
Her work has earned her multiple accolades, including the Empire State Award of Excellence in healthcare.
Dr Gary Wadhwa
Dr. Gary Wadhwa is a Board Certified Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon with extensive experience in the field. He completed his Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery training at Montefiore Hospital, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY, and has served as an Attending at prestigious institutions like St. Peters Hospitals, Ellis Hospital, and Beth Israel Hospital in NY. With a career spanning over two decades, he was the former CEO and President of a group specialty practice in NY from 1994 to 2015. Dr. Wadhwa holds an MBA from UT at Knoxville, TN, and has undergone additional training in System Dynamics at MIT, Health System Management at Harvard Business School, and Entrepreneurship and healthcare innovations at Columbia Business School. Committed to expanding access to Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery care, he is currently engaged in a meaningful project to provide healthcare services to underserved populations in inner city and rural areas through non-profit Community Health Centers.