Capacity Planning consists of two tasks namely, Production Capacity planning and Logistics Capacity planning. Logistics Capacity planning is undertaken to determine requirements like vehicle numbers and capacity, route and lane requirements, etc. The output of such planning activities is subsequently used as an input for carrier bidding in case of outsourced logistics or fleet planning if logistics are in-house.

Organizations incur significant cost when they add capacity to their operations in the form of increased equipment, manpower, floor space, etc. Hence supply chain planners strive to achieve a balance of capacity to avoid loss of business due to undercapacity or extra costs due to overcapacity. As with most planning problems dealing with optimization, capacity planning becomes difficult due to the large number of constraints and variables which have to be accounted for to arrive at the optimal capacity.

Harapa’s Capacity Planning solution leverages the power of an advanced planning engine to facilitate capacity planning by organizations. The user friendly interface allows users to enter a number of constraints to model real world problems. It leverages demand forecasts to determine fleet size and capacity requirements and manpower requirements to reduce freight costs and maximise asset utilization by determining the optimal mix of hired and owned vehicles.