Problem:
In your role as Manychip's production planning staff member, one of your tasks is to help the supply chain team focus on capacity planning. The company has determined they will use one or more of the following options to optimize capacity planning:
- The use of dedicated and flexible facilities: Manychip has several permanent storage facilities and has used temporary storage in the past.
- Flexible workforce: Manychip's workforce generally works 8-5 Monday through Friday, though some Asian locations have different days of working. Management is considering adjusting existing workforce time structures to meet planned demand.
- Subcontracting: With the planned demand increasing, perhaps temporarily, subcontracting the additional resources might be an option.
- Product design flexibility: Manychip is considering modifying its factory production lines to be better able to handle future demand.
Objective:
Q1. Identify one or capacity planning methods that you will recommend for Manychip and explain the method and how it is used in various industries. Are there other options?
Q2. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of your proposal.
Q3. Comment on other postings by critiquing the other proposals and suggesting aspects of your classmates' plans that may have been overlooked.