Constraint
Packing is the constraint. Despatch still has headroom. Adding loaders will not raise outbound throughput.
Key numbers
- Pack available capacity
- 797
- Pack utilisation
- 106.7%
- Despatch available capacity
- 1020
- Despatch utilisation
- 83.3%
- Pack FTE required
- 5.33
- Despatch FTE required
- 3.33
Assumptions
- One order is the unit through pack and despatch.
- Cut-off is inside the same shift — no next-day backlog in the base case.
- Process times are observed averages, not MTM standards.
Method
- Run the capacity/FTE identity on each outbound step.
- The bottleneck is the step with the highest capacity utilisation.
- Size the hall from the constraint, not from the average of the two steps.
Proposed solution
Add one packer, or take 15 seconds out of pack work content, before touching despatch. Present both options.
Limitation
If a large share of orders are multi-line or value-added, pack time is understated.