Interactions between factors of availability

By balancing availability factors, the same capacity may achieve higher throughput leading to improvements in the overall operational effectiveness of the service operation. Controlling the flow of demand patterns can reduce the overall cost of service provision. Pricing and discounts can influence demand patterns. Customer s can self-select as business needs justify. Self-service options are generally available at lower charges than staffed options with more expensive resource s. In many countries, maintaining idle capacity of staff costs more than providing the equivalent capacity via self-service channels such as websites, kiosks, interactive-voice response units (IVR) and new forms of service robots.

Multiple channels of service increase the level of redundancy, increase the area of contact and distribute the workload across the system. Customer s value the convenience provided by a choice of multiple channels. When any one channel suffers outages or degradation in performance, it is possible to maintain the quality of service.

Underlying risks and unintended outcomes driven by feedback loops may influence the Capacity Management approach pursued. Socio-technical systems are complex with many interactions and trade-offs to be considered. The additional service channels increase not only the area of contact with customers but also the exposure to operational risks. Maintaining service level s requires additional continuity and security measures. The opening of new service channels may attract new usage patterns that need support. It is important to examine the interactions between the various factors of service availability (Figure 7.23).

Figure 7.23 Interactions between factors of service availability

Reinforcing and balancing effects are set up according to the feedback principle between factors of availability. The control levers of access, reliability and maintainability, applied in combination, provide the desired level of service availability. Considerations of capacity, cost and risk s constrain each type of advantage.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14