Capacity and demand management

Introduction

Good decision-making relies on having the right information presented in the right way. That information comes as data that we obtain either through extraction from existing records or newly collected information that we have gathered for the purpose of decision-making. This makes data analysis one important skill when decision-making. In this course you will take a look at capacity planning decisions as an example of effective data use.

It seems obvious that resource plans should not be created without an understanding of the demand for resource, but you will find that demand is not always measured, or collated in a way that is not helpful to decision-making. This course provides a range of perspectives of how data can be understood, in the context of managing capacity and demand.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• understand how useful data can be to inform practical decision-making
• see how demand patterns are derived when looking at data
• understand how seasonal patterns in demand are caused and how this impacts on resource planning
• understand different perspectives of how demand for services can be assessed
• see how demand data can be used to plan capacity requirements.