Is your business suddenly booming? Do you need help keeping up with the demand? As your business experiences sudden growth, it’s important to know a few practical ways to manage increased workload and demand. In this article we’ll explore the concepts of workload automation, dynamic capacity planning, and on-demand staffing solutions. Learn how these strategies can help you maintain quality, meet deadlines, and satisfy your team and customers during high volume or unexpected growth periods. Applying the strategies in this article is like using a surge protector for your home office setup.
Dynamic Capacity Planning
Let’s examine dynamic capacity planning, a strategy for real-time resource allocation optimization. Businesses use this strategic process to optimize resource allocation and usage in real-time based on the company’s changing demands or conditions. It involves analyzing data and adjusting resources to be sure that the right amount of capacity is available to meet workload requirements. It’s an excellent way to avoid overprovisioning or underutilization of resources.
Performing dynamic capacity planning properly results in cost savings, improved performance, and better responsiveness to changes in demand. It’s a lot like switching up your lineup in a football game. As the game progresses, some team members might be stronger than others for specific tasks, or perhaps your quarterback got injured. You want to swap a player out and put in a fresh one in real time. Look at your dynamic capacity plan like a call sheet for when players are tired or need to shuffle to finish the play. This type of planning leads us to workload automation technologies.
Workload Automation Technologies
Now that you have a dynamic capacity plan, it’s time to incorporate workload automation technologies. Let’s imagine that you run a manufacturing company called MachineWorks. It’s been operating at full throttle all season. You have already allocated all your resources to run the operation, and every gear in your warehouse is in motion. Suddenly, a massive order lands on your desk after a famous pop star endorses your product on television.
A surge like this could quickly derail you if you didn’t have workload automation technology. Thankfully, you’ve kept your workload automation software up and running, and now you need to find some resources. So, you decide to run the automation. The software juggles resources, shifts priorities, and allocates tasks with precision. It redistributes tasks intelligently, preventing bottlenecks and keeping the production process flowing smoothly. Your workload automation has now turned your operational constraints into opportunities, and you can handle high-demand situations gracefully. Now your business is thriving and not just surviving.
While this is an hypothetical example, workload automation software really can save you in a bind. Once set up properly, it is simply a software package that serves as automated workflow management. There are plenty of options out there that range from expensive to more expensive, but the return on investment is well worth it. Some popular workload automation options are IBM Workload Automation, BMC Control-M, Cisco Workload, and Microsoft System Center Orchestrator. Research them to determine which is the best fit for your company. What happens if after dynamic capacity planning and workload automation, you still need help finding more capacity or resources to allocate to the demand? Let’s explore on-demand staffing solutions.
On-Demand Staffing Solutions
With capacity stretched and a surge in demand, it’s good to have a secret weapon ready to save the day. This is where on-demand staffing solutions come into play. If you have a spike in demand at the same time year after year, it’s easy to anticipate when extra staffing will be needed. If not, it’s still good to have a working relationship with some on-demand staffing solution company. These companies offer flexible instant workforce solutions or, in more familiar terms, reinforcements when the battle is getting challenging.
On-demand staffing solutions provide businesses with access to skilled and qualified workers when needed on-demand, enabling companies to quickly scale up or down based on fluctuations in demand. It’s a temporary or short-term staffing option allowing organizations like yours to address immediate staffing requirements without a long-term commitment. On-demand staffing solutions generally provide agility and cost-efficient pricing. It can take a little time to hash out the details of this arrangement, so it is best to have this conversation with the on-demand staffing company before the spike in demand comes. It can take weeks or months to do it right, so be preemptive about this strategy and work with the leadership team to iron out the details.
Let’s look at a quick example: Amazon Fulfillment Centers. They hire temporary workers in peak seasons, and then when the season is over, they release the workers back to the agency they came from. Amazon does this in-house in some places, but they will often use the human resources of an on-demand staffing agency because it’s easier for the management team.
Another organization that does this is the United States Postal Service. Many logistics companies go through this process around the holiday season, using on-demand staffing solutions just like the ones we are describing. The trick is to have these conversations early and have a working relationship with one before the floodgates start.
Conclusion
The key here is to implement these strategies before the surge comes. Build a working relationship with an on-demand staffing company so you have the resources you need when you need them. Resource reallocation is the swiftest way to free up resources and handle that new bid or order that just came in. When that’s not enough, it’s time to rely on your relationships with on-demand staffing companies.
