Conceptualization, design and implementation of a static capacity model

We describe the methodology used for development of a static capacity model. It is a well-known fact that no matter how sophisticated the dynamic models are, there is always a need for the simple spreadsheet model. The spreadsheet model helps one carry out simple and fast analyses whenever they are needed. At the Seagate Technology´s Recording Head Operations Wafer Manufacturing facility (Bloomington, MN) industrial engineers who worked on capacity planning devised their own versions of static spreadsheet models over the years. As useful as these individual models were, being highly custom-tailored and decentralized made them hard to cross-use and manage. To overcome this problem, the IE department designed and implemented a centralized spreadsheet based static capacity model with features that allow industrial engineers to create model outputs the way they want.