Resource and
Workload Management
In today’s highly competitive environment, the challenge for organizations is to achieve high productivity from scarce resources. In many cases, the volume of work placed on each employee requires individuals to complete a variety of different tasks. The pressure placed on the individual employee to “juggle many balls” concurrently leads to high levels of inefficiency represented by multitasking, expediting within the organization, and work-in-process (WIP) inventory.
For example, consider the condition of the workstation depicted in the graphic. By observing a workstation like this, a number of questions come to mind:
- Does this person have too much work?
- Is the person a bottleneck in the process?
- Is this person expediting?
- Would you be concerned about this person’s ability to
manage their work?
A workstation in this condition in no way implies this person is a poor worker in the organization. Conversely, this person may very well be an outstanding employee for the company. However, a workstation in this condition is a visual indicator and may represent a signal from this employee regarding issues associated with workload management.
Eliminating multitasking, expediting, and WIP are the primary objectives of Resource and Workload Management. Not only for improving the efficiency of employees associated with product development, but improvements related to workload demand and resource capacity can be applied to virtually every process and employee in the company.
Resource and Workload Management represents a key fundamental for process improvement within the company. Consequently, it represents a stabilizing element in the APD System.
Due to the potential impact on every employee, Resource and Workload Management also represents an excellent starting point for initiating the cultural transformation needed within the organization for sustained improvement.
Accelerated Product Development has assisted companies in developing processes and tools that have proven to be highly successful for improving Resource and Workload Management. As a result of this work, companies have demonstrated increases in productivity and reductions in operational costs by as much as 20%!
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