There are very few people or organisations that don't have more work to do than they can possibly execute.
Because of this there is often a very strong desire to overestimate the amount of work that they can achieve in any given time.
For work execution organisations this manifests itself in setting unrealistic resource capacities in both plans and schedules.
Whilst the reason for doing this is understandable and is often supported with phrases like "stretch targets" etc, just scheduling for more work does not mean that more work will get done. Unless effort is undertaken to identify and eradicate inefficiency, people can only do what they can do.
They are also very rarely sitting about twiddling their thumbs. (People really don't like lazy people so workers themselves will often normally correct quickly when one is in their midst.)
Given this, scheduling above realistic capacity simply introduces administration and waste into an organisation.
For example, if you schedule 100 work activities and only complete 80, that's 20 activities you have to reschedule. If busy you're probably included them as close to the point they have to be done as possible.
As you weren't able to get it done, you now need to do it urgently and can't move it right out. This means you need to drop it into next week's schedule, however, if you're scheduling above capacity in the first place you're also likely doing so a number of weeks in the future as those that subscribe to the stretch target mentality also frequently subscribe to the "there's no reason we can't schedule 6 weeks out and stick to that" trope (which is equally flawed). This means you have to take something out of that week's schedule and find a place for that which repeats the above cycle etc etc.
All of the above is a costly waste of effort which is compounded by the fact that considerable effort has already been expended agreeing each schedule week that is impacted as they will have been reviewed in weekly planning meetings which will be attended by a number of already busy people.
Scheduling to excessive capacity is the organisation avoiding tough decisions in the hope that all the work will be executed despite all evidence to the contrary. Hope isn't a strategy.
You have to schedule to the capacity, level of efficiency and typical level of reactivity that you have otherwise you're just setting yourself up for failure.
SRCN Solutions is a Scottish-based global work management consultancy. Specialising in optimising work management systems for the oil and gas, renewable, utilities, and power sectors, SRCN help organisations manage and execute their work with maximum efficiency, freeing up the resources they need to focus on the bigger picture SRCN.
Visit www.srcnsolutions.com to find out more.