Identifying and measuring capacity and true capability

When we have a clear idea of the true demand for a service we can then ask, "How capable is the process of actually delivering that demand?"

In the Health Service we are familiar with the word 'capacity', but capacity does not necessarily mean true capability. We define capacity as the resources available to do the work. To arrive at a figure for capacity we multiply the number of pieces of equipment by the time in minutes available to the people with the necessary skills to use it. For example, 2 treatment machines x 480 minutes (8 hours) of session time = 960 minutes (16 hours) of capacity each day.

Although capacity is a very important number indeed, it does not necessarily tell us how well we are actually meeting demand. Are the two machines actually operated by human beings for 960 minutes every day? Is every patient given only one session on a machine, or is it sometimes necessary to carry out the treatment a second time, or a third time? When these sort of questions are asked and answered we start to get a clear picture of true process capability.

True capability is concerned with how many patients the process is actually able to treat each day (to their satisfaction, of course). This is the number that we need to identify and measure, and we must spend an appropriate amount of time ensuring that we get it right. It is easy to fool ourselves into believing that a process is more capable than it really is. For instance, we could say that the process can deal with 100 patients per day. But maybe the reality of the situation is that we can only achieve this figure by having to rush, by not 'doing the job right first time' and therefore having to treat the same patients again on future occasions. When we take purpose and value into consideration we discover whether or not the process is capable of actually doing what it is supposed to do - maybe only 50 patients per day.

If you think about it, though, this figure is unlikely to be the same every day. There will be day to day variation, and this variation will obviously be a problem. However, if you take this measure over time and understand a bit more about the variation in capability - by learning from past and current capability - you will be able to predict future capability, within limits, and plan for it. You may also find ways of reducing this variation and therefore minimising the problem.

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