Online activity 7.1

How well is capacity managed around you?

Overview

Everywhere you go there will be capacity constrained operations – in car parks, in cinemas, and on trains.  This activity gets you to think about achieved capacity and how this could be improved.

Activity Description

Select a food outlet that you go to regularly.  Work out the following:

  • What is its design capacity? (Hint:  Count the number of seats and assume it could be open 24/7)
  • What is its effective capacity? (Hint: Total number of hours it is open for divided by the average time customers spend per visit, multiplied by the number of seats)
  • What is its achieved capacity? (Hint: Identify number of seats unoccupied at different times of day over several days)

Achieved capacity is likely to be much lower than design capacity.  Consider:

  • What capacity management strategies are adopted by the operator at the moment?
  • Now that you know how capacity can be managed, what else could the operator do?
Back to top