Planning & Resource Optimisation

When forecast, capacity and resourcing don't talk to each other, the operation pays for it every week - in cash.

Overtime that wasn't budgeted. Agency cover plugging gaps the rota should have caught. Capacity sitting idle on quiet days and buckling on peak ones. A demand plan finance trusts, an ops plan the warehouse trusts, and a resourcing plan HR runs, none of which agree.

You don't need a new planning system. You need someone to connect the forecast, the capacity model and the resourcing plan into a single framework, and to fix the data underneath so it actually holds.

That's what this service does.

The engagement runs in two integrated phases. A Planning Diagnostic of two to three weeks: forecast accuracy review against actuals, capacity and resource audit, demand-to-supply gap analysis across the operation, and a quantified view of where reactive cost is leaking, delivered as a written findings report with a prioritised redesign roadmap. Then Build & Embed over six to twelve weeks: an integrated planning framework, rebuilt forecast and capacity models, redesigned resourcing and shift patterns, governance cadence with KPIs the leadership team can run from, and a structured handover so the new way of planning sticks after the engagement ends.

You exit with a forecast-led operation: lower reactive labour cost, predictable resourcing against demand, a defensible productivity baseline, and clean planning data ready for the analytical tools and AI investment that come next.

Drawing on twenty years of frontline operational leadership across parcel and courier networks, automotive logistics, healthcare supply chains, and military, including planning under conditions where misjudged capacity carries real consequences.

Planning Diagnostic from £15,000 fixed fee. Full engagements from £60,000.

Case Study: Public healthcare workforce redesign

How a major public healthcare trust saved 20% in labour costs through a three-stage consultation

The situation

A public healthcare provider was facing sustained pressure on workforce cost following a hospital merger. Two organisations had been combined on paper, but the workforce running them hadn't been: rotas, shift patterns, skill mixes, and clinical schedules still reflected the legacy operating models of the two separate hospitals. Agency spend was elevated. Substantive staff were carrying overtime. Patient flow bottlenecks were appearing in places the data didn't yet explain. Leadership knew the merged organisation was over-resourced relative to demand, but the workforce model was too complex, and too politically sensitive, to fix from the inside.

The intervention

Engaged to lead the workforce redesign programme, working alongside clinical leads, operational managers, HR, and finance.

The work ran across three integrated tracks. Workforce modelling — building a demand-led view of clinical and operational staffing requirements, mapped to actual patient flow and activity data rather than to legacy headcount assumptions. Scheduling redesign — rebuilding rotas and shift patterns site by site, role by role, to align contracted hours with the demand profile and reduce reliance on agency cover. Lean process design — mapping the clinical and operational processes that drove staffing requirements in the first place, removing the wasted steps, handoffs, and duplication that were inflating workforce demand artificially. A weekly governance cadence was introduced to keep the three tracks aligned and to give clinical leadership a defensible evidence base for the changes.

The results

  • 20% workforce cost reduction delivered against the merged operating baseline

  • Agency spend reduced through scheduling redesign and substantive cover restoration

  • Demand-led workforce model built and handed over, replacing legacy headcount assumptions with activity-based planning

  • Rotas and shift patterns rebuilt site by site, aligned to actual patient flow rather than legacy contracts

  • Lean process redesign removed duplication and waste, reducing the staffing required to deliver the same clinical outcomes

  • Weekly planning cadence introduced across operations, HR, finance, and clinical leadership

The outcome

The provider exited the engagement with a workforce sized to clinical demand, a planning framework the team could maintain, and the evidence base to defend the redesign clinically, operationally, and financially. The integrated approach — modelling, scheduling, and process redesign delivered together rather than sequentially — was what made the saving possible: each track on its own would have delivered a fraction of the benefit.The situation

A global e-commerce marketplace was missing on-time delivery promises by a 20-percentage-point margin against target across a major merchant cohort. Customer experience scores were dropping. Carrier partners were being blamed in escalations, but the data wasn't conclusive. The operations team had several competing theories about the root cause, inbound carrier scan delays, sortation centre handling, last-mile coverage, and was weeks away from Peak.