How do you handle resource conflicts and trade-offs in resource leveling and smoothing?

Capacity planning is only as good as your effort in understanding what goes into each resource's utilization from day-to-day. For example, if you expect your team members to spend 90% of their time focused on client-facing services, you need to ensure that internal meetings and other recurring activities will take 10% or less of each resource's time. You also need to build in an expectation around intermittent impacts that will constrain time more than normal. Without taking these types of impacts into account, it is quite easy to over-allocate your resources.

The types of resources and their associated skillsets have a lot to do with whether you can successfully resource level across an entire project. I find that it is easier to resource level when the skills required are broad -- when folks can be utility players in various phases of a project. When specialist skillsets are needed, it is much more difficult to maintain consistency in allocation throughout a project. For these resources, rolling in and out mid-project may make the most sense.

I find resource smoothing works well with both utility players and specialists on a project. This approach supports folks working at their own pace, and it assumes that ebbs and flows in productivity will naturally happen during a project. In my experience, this is a more effective approach than resource leveling on large projects. However, guardrails around utilization and overall time allocation are needed in both resource leveling and resource smoothing to ensure optimal results for the resources and project outcomes.

In an omnichannel setup, balancing resource allocation involves inherent trade-offs. Flexibility in scheduling might lead to increased administrative efforts and complexities in managing various shift preferences. Cross-training employees can offer versatility but might necessitate additional training time and potential skill disparities. Leveraging technology aids efficiency but demands initial investment and ongoing maintenance costs. Additionally, while smoothing resources helps maintain consistency, it might entail higher overheads to sustain flexible staffing during low-demand periods. Balancing these trade-offs ensures optimized resource utilization while navigating the challenges of an omnichannel environment

I find that two variables are important to success in determining how to prioritize and where to make trade-offs. First, it's important to understand the dependencies within the project and any interdependencies that could impact the project that may be just beyond your purview. Second, review the risks to the program and their likelihood of occurring during the projects. Mitigating these two areas will drive decision making regarding trade-offs and prioritization around resources throughout a project.

Nice summary, but I think this process should be tied to Integrated Business Planning and S&OP. How do the resource constraints impact sales requirements? Ideally value of unmet constraint should be known at average selling price and standard cost so you can determine the sales impact due to resource constraints. If capacity is underutilized, that is an opportunity to increase sales with available capacity. It can be possible to sell at a discount if you are increasing use of underutilized capacity. Time Frame needs to be understood. How long will constraint last, and when can you get additional capacity? This would notify sales when pent up demand can be met.