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Using the Capacity Planning Insights
Track key metrics and optimize resource allocation with the Capacity Planning dashboard.
Required Editions
Available in: This feature is available in Lightning experience in Einstein 1. Einstein 1 access includes the necessary permissions to customize dashboards. This feature is also available in Lightning Experience in the Unlimited edition. |
Using the Capacity Planning Insights
Use the capacity planning dashboard to proactively monitor and analyze capacity to enable informed decision-making regarding resource allocation, staffing levels, and service delivery. Ensure that your organization is adequately prepared to meet fluctuating customer demands while optimizing resource utilization and minimizing waste.
Service Capacity vs. Demand Trends
Meet customer needs without overbooking or underutilizing your staff. Compare your service capacity with the duration of service appointments scheduled over a given time period. Get the perfect level of detail by using the daily, weekly, or monthly time intervals.
By using the Service Capacity vs. Demand Trends Chart to visualize the upcoming demand and compare it to your team's capacity, you can make informed decisions to optimize your staffing levels, prevent overbooking or underutilization of your technicians, and ensure timely and efficient service delivery to your customers.
You're managing a field service team responsible for appliance repairs. You notice that in the upcoming week, the demand for repairs (represented by the number of service appointments) is significantly higher than your team's available service capacity.
Insight: indicates a potential issue where you might not have enough technicians to meet customer needs, leading to delayed appointments or customer dissatisfaction.
Actionable Steps:
Using the chart's insights, you can proactively take steps to address this issue. You could:
- Reallocate Resources: If you have technicians available in other service territories with lower demand, you could temporarily assign them to the high-demand area to balance the workload.
- Hire Additional Staff: If the high demand is expected to continue, you might consider hiring additional technicians to ensure you can meet customer needs.
- Optimize Schedules: Analyze the scheduled appointments and see if any can be rescheduled to spread the demand more evenly throughout the week and align it better with your available capacity.
- Outsource: As a last resort, you could consider outsourcing some of the work to third-party contractors to handle the overflow and prevent service delays.
Capacity Gap Trends
Pinpoint times when your service capacity is not meeting customer demand to optimize your workforce and resource utilization. View the difference over time between the number of appointments and your service capacity. See potential over or under-capacity situations and the capacity gap (Capacity - Demand). Available capacity is represented by positive values, whereas a capacity shortage is shown by negative values.
You’re looking at the Capacity Gap Trends Chart for your service team over the next month. You notice that in the week of March 15-21, the chart dips significantly below the 0 line.
Insight: Indicates that during that week, the demand for service appointments is higher than your team's available capacity.
Actionable Steps:
- Reallocate Resources: See if you have team members in other areas with lower demand during that week and temporarily shift them to the area where the capacity gap exists.
- Schedule Overtime: Ask your team if anyone is available to work extra hours during the week of March 15-21 to meet the increased demand.
- Hire Temporary Workers: If the gap is significant, consider bringing on temporary staff to cover the increased workload for that specific week.
By identifying this capacity gap in advance, you can take steps to ensure that you have enough resources to meet customer demand and prevent service delays or customer dissatisfaction.
Demand by Skills
Optimize workforce allocation so that you can optimize workforce allocation, identify skill gaps, and prepare for future staffing needs through training or recruitment. See a breakdown of service appointment demand by skill. Each slice tells you what percentage of the total demand is for that skill. Analyze the chart to gain insights into the most sought-after skills and the overall distribution of skill requirements for service-related tasks.
As a field service manager, you’re reviewing the Demand by Skills chart for your team over the next quarter. You notice that a significant portion of the chart, around 40%, is dedicated to "Electrical Repair" skills.
Insight: Indicates that there's a high demand for service appointments requiring this specific skill set. Highlights that a considerable portion of your service demand necessitates technicians with electrical repair expertise.
Actionable Steps:
- Evaluate Staffing: Assess whether you have enough technicians with electrical repair skills to meet this demand. If not, consider hiring or training additional staff in this area.
- Prioritize Training: If there's a shortage of technicians with electrical repair skills, prioritize training programs to upskill existing staff in this area.
- Resource Allocation: Ensure that technicians with electrical repair skills are allocated to service appointments that require those skills to optimize resource utilization and customer satisfaction.
- Forecast Future Demand: Analyze historical data and market trends to forecast future demand for electrical repair skills and adjust your staffing and training plans accordingly.
By using the Demand by Skills chart to understand the skill requirements of your service appointments, you can proactively manage your workforce, ensure you have the right skills available to meet customer needs, and optimize your service delivery.
Demand Trend by Work Type Chart
Reveal trends and patterns in work demand to ensure you have service resources with the right skills at the right time. See how demand for different work types (measured in hours) changes over time. Each bar on the chart represents a specific time period (e.g. day, week, or month). The different colors within each bar show the breakdown of demand for each work type during that time period.
You're examining the Demand Trend by Work Type Chart for your service team over the past quarter. You notice that the demand for "Installation" work (represented by the blue segment) has been steadily increasing over the past few weeks, while the demand for "Repair" work (represented by the green segment) has remained relatively flat.
Insight: Indicates that there’s a growing demand for installation services, which might require different skills or resources compared to repair work.
Actionable Steps:
- Skills Assessment: Evaluate if your team has the necessary skills to handle the increasing installation work. If not, consider providing additional training or hiring employees with relevant expertise.
- Resource Allocation: Ensure that you have enough resources, such as equipment and vehicles, to support the growing installation demand.
- Staffing Levels: If the installation demand continues to rise, you might need to increase your staffing levels to meet customer needs and avoid delays.
- Marketing and Sales: Align your marketing and sales strategies with the growing demand for installation services to attract more customers and optimize revenue.
Service Territory Summary Table
This table provides a detailed breakdown of capacity-related metrics for each service territory.
- Name: The name of the service territory.
- Assigned Appointments: The number of service appointments currently assigned within that territory. ]
- Total Capacity: The total available capacity (in hours) of resources within that territory for the selected date range.
- Available Capacity: The remaining unassigned capacity (in hours) within that territory.
- Utilization: The percentage of capacity currently utilized within that territory.
- Resourced Appointments: The number of appointments in that territory with assigned resources.
- Unresourced Appointments: The number of appointments in that territory without assigned resources.
Number of Resources by Skill Chart
Quickly assess the availability of resources for different skills to aid in resource allocation and planning. Get a visual representation of the distribution of service resources based on their specific skill sets. Each horizontal bar represents a distinct skill. The length of the bar corresponds to the number of service resources possessing that particular skill.
As a field service manager, you're reviewing the Number of Resources by Skill chart for your team. You notice that the horizontal bar representing "Plumbing" skills is relatively short compared to other skills, indicating that you have fewer service resources with plumbing expertise.
Insight: Highlights that you have a limited number of technicians with plumbing skills.
Actionable Steps:
- Evaluate Staffing: Assess whether the current number of plumbers is sufficient to meet the demand for plumbing-related service appointments. If not, consider hiring or training additional staff in this area.
- Prioritize Training: If there's a shortage of plumbers, prioritize training programs to upskill existing staff in plumbing skills.
- Resource Allocation: Ensure that technicians with plumbing skills are primarily assigned to service appointments that require those skills to optimize resource utilization and customer satisfaction.
- Forecast Future Demand: Analyze historical data and market trends to forecast future demand for plumbing skills and adjust your staffing and training plans accordingly.
Capacity by Skill Chart
Understand your potential capacity for different types of work. View the total available capacity in hours for each service skill. The different service skills are listed, and the total available capacity for each skill is represented by the length of the corresponding bar.
As a field service manager, you're analyzing the Capacity by Skill chart to understand the total available capacity for each skill in your team. You observe that the bar representing "Electrical Repair" skills is significantly longer than the bar for "Plumbing" skills.
Insight: Indicates that you have a higher capacity for electrical repair work compared to plumbing work, likely due to having more technicians with electrical repair skills or those technicians having greater availability.
Actionable Steps:
- Optimize Job Assignments: Prioritize assigning electrical repair jobs to technicians with those skills to leverage the higher capacity in that area. For plumbing jobs, ensure efficient scheduling and resource allocation to manage the limited capacity.
- Training and Upskilling: Consider cross-training some technicians with electrical repair skills in plumbing to balance the capacity for both skills.
- Hiring Decisions: If the demand for plumbing work consistently exceeds capacity, consider hiring additional technicians with plumbing skills to meet customer needs and avoid delays.
- Performance Tracking: Monitor the utilization rates for technicians with different skills. If some skills are consistently underutilized, consider reassigning or upskilling those technicians to areas with higher demand.
