Operations and capacity review: grow without everything going through you

Who it is for

It suits companies that win work but struggle to deliver it smoothly or without the owner stepping in. Warning signs we hear often:

• Quotes go out days late because only one person can price them.
• Staff ask the owner the same questions every day.
• Jobs are finished but invoices go out a week or more later.
• The team is "flat out" but output has not grown in a year.
• The owner cannot take a week off without something stalling.

These patterns show up across trades, wholesalers, small manufacturers, clinics and professional firms alike, whether the business is a workshop in Big Bend or an office near Lougheed.

What we do

The review has four steps.

1. Map the flow. We list every step from enquiry to cash, who does it and what they need before they can start. Most firms have between 12 and 25 real steps.
2. Time the waits. For a sample of recent jobs or orders, we note how long each step took and how long it sat waiting. Waiting time usually dwarfs working time.
3. Find the decision points. We mark every step that cannot proceed without one specific person. In owner-run firms, that person is usually the owner.
4. Estimate capacity. We work out how much more volume the team can carry before the busiest role hits its limit, and what would raise that limit.

A worked capacity estimate

Capacity is set by your busiest role, not by headcount. Consider an illustrative Burnaby service firm:

The firm currently does 10 jobs a week. It believes the technicians are the limit, but the owner is close behind at 13. Adding a third technician would raise field capacity to about 17 jobs, yet the business would stall at 13 because every job still needs the owner's sign-off. Writing a pricing guide so the coordinator can quote standard jobs, cutting the owner's time to 0.5 hours per job, lifts that limit to 40. The coordinator, now spending a little longer on each job, becomes the next ceiling at roughly 30, which is still well above the field crew. The order of fixes matters more than the size of the fix.

What you receive

You get a workflow map, a capacity estimate and a short operating scorecard.

• a one-page map of the steps, with the decision points and longest waits marked
• the capacity table for your business, with the limiting role named
• three to five changes, ranked, with a cost in hours and dollars
• four to six weekly numbers to track, such as quote turnaround, jobs in progress, days to invoice and owner hours on approvals

Timeline

Four to eight weeks, depending on how many teams and locations are involved. A single-site firm with one main service line is at the short end; a company with a shop, a field crew and an office is at the long end. Change work can continue under monthly owner advisory.

How results are measured

By the operating numbers set at the start. Typical goals are quote turnaround cut from days to hours, days-to-invoice halved, or owner approval hours reduced by a set amount. We record the starting figures in week one so the comparison is honest.

Mistakes to avoid

• Hiring before mapping. A new person added to a broken flow inherits the same waits.
• Buying software to fix a decision problem. If only one person can approve a quote, a new tool will simply queue the approvals more neatly.
• Fixing the loudest problem. The visible complaint is often downstream of the real bottleneck.
• Ignoring pricing. Some jobs are slow because they were sold too cheaply to justify the care they need; see pricing and margin strategy.

Price and next step

Reviews are quoted as fixed-price projects from $3,500 plus GST. See the pricing page for the full range. If you would like a lighter first look, the business diagnostic includes a short version of this mapping. Call, text or email to start.