WorkLens Capacity health check Capacity Health Check · USD 59
You do not need a ninth engineer. You need Tuesdays to stop happening.
Six months of jobs, schedules and completion data, against the capacity you actually have.
You are about to hire a ninth engineer because the team is overloaded. Across six months the team runs at 74 percent utilisation, which is not overloaded. The problem is that demand arrives in a shape your rota does not match, and three days a week are at 96 percent while two are at 51.
Average utilisation is 74 percent. Monday to Wednesday runs at 96 percent and Thursday to Friday at 51. Levelling the week would release about 1.4 engineers of capacity, which is most of the hire you were about to make.
Shape
Demand against capacity, by day
Scheduled capacity is a flat line because the rota is the same every day. Demand is not flat and never has been. The gap on Thursday and Friday is 61 engineer hours a week, which is 1.5 people.
Cause
Why the week looks like this
| Source of demand | Share | When it arrives | Movable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planned maintenance contracts | 44% | Scheduled by your team | Yes, entirely |
| Reactive callouts | 31% | Unpredictable | No |
| Follow-up visits | 14% | Scheduled by your team | Yes, entirely |
| Installations | 8% | Booked with the customer | Mostly |
| Quotes and surveys | 3% | Scheduled by your team | Yes |
Sixty one percent of demand is scheduled by you rather than imposed on you, and almost all of it is currently booked Monday to Wednesday because that is when the office is busiest and it feels natural to book early in the week.
Distribution
And it is not even across the team
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engineer 1 | 98% | 100% | 97% | 71% | 68% |
| Engineer 2 | 96% | 100% | 94% | 64% | 61% |
| Engineer 3 | 99% | 100% | 98% | 58% | 54% |
| Engineer 4 | 94% | 98% | 91% | 49% | 47% |
| Engineer 5 | 97% | 100% | 96% | 44% | 41% |
| Engineer 6 | 98% | 100% | 99% | 38% | 36% |
| Engineer 7 | 95% | 99% | 92% | 34% | 31% |
| Engineer 8 | 99% | 100% | 98% | 28% | 24% |
The left three columns are uniformly dark and the right two fade down the list. Engineers 1 to 3 hold their Thursday and Friday work because they are the ones coordinators call first; Engineer 8 is at 24 percent on a Friday. That is a dispatch habit, not a skills difference.
Options
What levelling the week is worth
| Action | Capacity released | Cost | Time to effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Book planned maintenance Thu and Fri first | 0.9 engineers | None | 4 to 6 weeks |
| Move follow-up visits to Thu and Fri | 0.3 engineers | None | Immediate |
| Rotate the dispatch order weekly | 0.2 engineers | None | Immediate |
| All three together | 1.4 engineers | None | 6 weeks |
| Hire a ninth engineer | 1.0 engineer | About USD 64,000 a year | 3 months |
Three scheduling changes release more capacity than the hire, cost nothing and take six weeks. If demand keeps growing you will still need the ninth engineer, and you will need them from a base of 96 percent utilisation rather than 74.
- This week
Tell both coordinators to offer Thursday and Friday first
For planned maintenance only. One sentence of instruction, the largest single item in this document.
- This week
Rotate who gets dispatched first
A weekly rota rather than the same three names. Engineer 8 at 24 percent on a Friday is a dispatch list, not a capability.
- Six weeks
Re-measure before deciding on the hire
If Thursday and Friday are above 75 percent and Tuesday is under 95, you have your answer and you have saved a year of salary.
- Also
Look at the overtime separately
Three hundred and forty hours in six months, concentrated on two days. Some of that is unavoidable reactive work and most of it is the shape of the week.