Methodology: operations
Workload, capacity and workflow improvement
Find out how much work a team really carries, where the time goes and what capacity it needs, then redesign the workflow so it can do more with the same people. Application examples include back offices, financial services, professional services and aviation maintenance.
Measure, model, redesign
Workload by activity and person → Capacity against demand → Workflow, KPIs and roadmap
Decisions on people, processes and systems backed by data, not by impressions.
Who it's for
For teams that feel overloaded, or are about to grow
Back offices and shared services
Finance, control and administrative teams with overtime, backlogs or too many different tasks per person.
Operations with variable demand
From case processing to maintenance and repair, where volume peaks and unplanned work drive staffing.
External consultancies
Firms that advise on operations and want a structured way to offer workload and capacity studies under their own brand.
How it works
From workload to the right team and the right process
1
Measure the workload
At the level of detail the decision needs, from light to intensive:
- Perceived-workload surveys, when there is little data
- A small daily app: each person spreads the day in 30-minute blocks across a few broad activities per function, from the second level of the process taxonomy
- Process mining from ERP logs, with tools such as Mindzie
- Task mining, to the minute, where the detail is worth it
- Where there are no logs at all, simple workflows on a BPM platform such as Netoloji, Kissflow or Cflow to start collecting data
2
Model the capacity
Demand against supply:
- Volumes, peaks and forecasts
- The team by skill and contract, with absences and overtime
- Cost drivers, and where capacity is lost
3
Redesign and plan
What needs to change:
- End-to-end workflow maps, current and target
- Root causes, risks and KPIs benchmarked with APQC
- A capacity and workforce plan, and an implementation roadmap
- Where it helps, activity-based cost models: from small spreadsheet models built with AI to models connected to the ERP with CostCtrl
Guiding principles
Plan for the work you can see, and the work you can't yet
The right level of detail
The tool matters less than measuring at the right level of detail, so the diagnostic never costs more effort than the problem it solves.
Skills, not heads
Plan by skill and role: not every person can take every task.
The right lens for each process
Lean and workshop mapping where the work is manual. Process and task mining where it runs inside ERPs, workflows or bots, to see what no workshop can: the real flow and its bottlenecks.
Process before headcount
Fix the workflow before adding people: more people on a broken process only hides the problem for longer.
For your client
What you get
- A clear picture of workload by area, process and person
- Where capacity is lost: overtime, fragmented tasks, rework and peaks
- Target workflows, KPIs and a performance management model
- A capacity plan and an implementation roadmap
For consultants
Deliver it in your country
The know-how comes from our sister company EXYGE, from projects in very different settings: case processing at a professional services firm in the United States, document formalization at a financial institution, the finance and control areas of a business group, and aviation maintenance.
e-CGS is turning that experience into a standard method and tools. While that work is completed, it is available today as an engagement with our specialists, under your brand. The client relationship stays yours.
Is a team at one of your clients overloaded, or about to grow?
A 45-minute conversation to see if this method fits your market and the clients who already trust you.