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Demand picked way up, but staffing isn’t going to be adjusted.

Last updated by Jeff Hajek on September 11, 2019

The total workload for a team is directly related to the demand, and demand tends to change over time. On occasion, the demand rises faster than planned, and suddenly a team feels shorthanded. For a variety of reasons, there can be a delay in getting more people on the staff to handle the additional work. 

Problem

Demand picked way up, but staffing isn’t going to be adjusted.

How this affects you

Demand has picked up more quickly than expected. You feel overloaded, but management isn’t going to add a new team member to pick up the extra work.

Action to Take

Staffing plans and budgets go hand in hand, and they are usually done far in advance. Managers generally consider two things when preparing them: the demand forecast, and projected productivity growth.

Most Lean organizations set an improvement target each year—let’s say ten percent. If demand is expected to grow by ten percent, it’s a wash, and headcount stays the same.

If demand growth is projected to exceed ten percent, the budget would likely include a few extra people on the staff. If the demand growth is below ten percent, though, you’ll eventually end up with fewer people on the team than when you started.

Don’t worry—Lean leaders understand that they can’t lay people off and still get them to work hard at improvements. This reduction will come in the form of attrition—retirements, transfers, or resignations. Really good Lean leaders will also try to keep a buffer of temporary workers on their teams. This gives them even more flexibility to match team size with demand.

So, what happens when things don’t go according to plan? Generally, on large teams, adding a person only changes capacity by a small amount. On a twenty person manufacturing team, a twenty-first person only adds five percent to the capacity. If demand goes up by five percent more than expected, the extra person makes sense.

So, what’s the problem? Well, there are really two issues. The first is that sometimes, even if demand rises, executives and senior managers may be reluctant to hire more people. They may be concerned that the demand increase is temporary or may have other reasons for not wanting to hire more staff.

The second problem occurs when a team is small. Let’s look at a four person team that experiences the same five percent demand growth. If your boss adds a person, capacity increases by twenty-five percent—five times as much as your team needs! You’d be hard pressed to get a manger that would choose twenty percent overstaffed instead of five percent understaffed.

Okay, that’s a lot of background information, but it is important to know why your team won’t be hiring anyone else. It lets you move on to other, more creative, options.

Know Lean fundamentals—especially standard work. Sit down with your boss and ask him to help you come up with a specific plan to get your work done in the face of increasing demand. Use your Standard Work Sheet during the discussion.

More Actions To Take Are Available in the Print Version of Whaddaya Mean?

Why this works

The Why this Works section is only available in print copies of Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean?


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