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Team Capacity Simulator

Headcount questions are queueing questions. Change the demand, the team and the automation, and see what happens to waits, backlog and overtime over a full day.

A simulated day with illustrative numbers, calculated in your browser.

Industry
The work

Customer support contacts

Open 8 am to 10 pm. On time means answered within 5 minutes.

With automation, the same 20 people answer 100% of requests within 5 minutes, up from 56%.

TodayWith automation
Requests a person answers2,4001,777
Work for the team241 staff hours160 staff hours
Answered within 5 min56%100%
Average wait7 min 30 s2 s
Longest wait33 min2 min 14 s
Overtime to clear the queue54 min ($33)36 min ($22)
Team for 80% within 5 min22 people16 people
Average wait by hour Today With automation Target, 5 min
Hour by hour
Hour Requests Wait today To people, automated Wait, automated
8 am 73 0 s 54 0 s
9 am 157 6 s 113 0 s
10 am 185 1 min 21 s 136 3 s
11 am 200 6 min 154 0 s
noon 213 7 min 31 s 153 1 s
1 pm 206 2 min 11 s 151 0 s
2 pm 188 1 min 34 s 133 1 s
3 pm 153 0 s 116 0 s
4 pm 199 2 min 30 s 155 0 s
5 pm 226 10 min 163 9 s
6 pm 252 24 min 194 5 s
7 pm 167 27 min 136 1 s
8 pm 114 6 min 50 s 73 0 s
9 pm 67 4 s 46 0 s

What this means for your business

  • You can see what a service level costs before hiring for it, and what automation does to that cost.
  • Peaks stop setting the headcount: automation absorbs the surge, so the team you have keeps up.
  • Overtime and long waits shrink together, which customers and staff both notice.

How it works

  • Every request in the day is simulated: when it arrives, how long it takes, and who is free to take it. The same requests run through both versions, so the comparison is fair.
  • Arrivals follow a typical day for the industry, with random variation, and handling times vary around the average.
  • Automation does two things here: it handles a share of requests end to end, and it prepares the rest so a person finishes them faster.
  • Waits count only requests a person answers. Real schedules flex by the hour; this model keeps one team size all day.

Want this working in your operations?

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