5, 10, 15, … 50% Savings by the Fives!
If these percentages were the savings you made in operating expenses, good things would be happening in your career.
- More surgeries with the same number of operating rooms
- More service calls with the same number of technicians and vehicles
- More billable time for your key personnel
- More revenue events in your event center
- Fewer classrooms required for the course offerings each semester
These are a few examples of why the Fortune 500 companies and other organizations have embraced finite capacity scheduling and resource management. Efficiency and productivity improvements in the 5-15% range have been documented as a result of better scheduling techniques.
But 50%? No way!
The 50% number is the potential savings in personnel costs that result from using the appropriate scheduling tools. In many organizations, there are multiple people using white boards, calculators, scheduling applications, telephones and lots of ‘tribal knowledge’ to build and maintain an operations plan. Not just in manufacturing, you see this also with hospitals, service providers, event planners and sports leagues.
- It once took 30 person-years to plan a one week NASA mission. They invested in tools that cut that figure by 90%.
- A major youth recreation organization says it takes about a person-week to plan a single league schedule. And there are dozens of leagues to plan and maintain. And then the rainouts happen!
- Hospitals have many people planning surgeries, lab procedures, nurse assignments, and maintenance activities.
It is easy to see how a 50% reduction in staff time is possible with good scheduling tools.
There are also savings available from better strategic analyses. Capacity and ‘What-If’ planning are easier to do with the right tools and the results are more accurate. Expansion and down-sizing supported by accurate plans of how critical resources will be used result in both savings and smoother transitions.
With exceptional scheduling tools, you can save by the fives!