Capacity Management: Managing a Company's Information Technology

Capacity Management Article Capacity management is used to manage a company’s information technology. The primary goal of capacity management is to make sure that the information technology capacity meets current and future business requirements in a cost-effective manner. Not all companies are familiar with capacity management but those that are familiar with the concept seem to be quite happy with the benefits it provides. One company that recently became familiar with the concept of capacity management is TI, otherwise known as Texas Instruments. Texas Instruments assigns colors to the different levels of capacity states. They use green for productive capacity, red for non-productive capacity, and yellow for idle capacity. One benefit from adding these colors of capacity states was that it initiated a company-wide campaign to get all the red colored capacity ones out. This campaign utilizes the capacity management model to show the need to reduce nonproductive uses of capacity throughout the company. For Texas Instruments the Operations team is in charge of changing red capacity to yellow capacity while the Management teams are in charge of changing yellow capacity to green capacity, thus creating additional sales. Another benefit that Texas Instruments gained from capacity management was their ability to do more things. Texas Instruments explains that their ultimate objective by implementing this system was to improve their ability to do things and thus make more sales and become more profitable. They were able to achieve this goal because of their successful capacity management implementation. Another company that has also recently become familiar with the concept of capacity management is Lexmark. Lexmark was going through a major transformation that took them from being a manufacturing and supply chain organization to a printing solutions and software provider. This transition called for a major organizational change. They realized that within

Cited: Stratton, A. F. (1996). Capacity management: Back to the future. CMA, 70(1), 31-33. Retrieved from http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/197818293?accountid=4485 (2013). Lexmark drives it transformation with ca service assurance solutions. Retrieved from http://www.ca.com/~/media/E719A5B16C6D40B3B0555FA1F3BA3529.pdf