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Manufacturing capacity planning system

A multi-site capacity planning system for Johnson & Johnson MedTech — replacing a 350MB, 143-sheet spreadsheet with a live Power Platform model across two sites and six departments.

Medical Devices · Manufacturing Operations · Johnson & Johnson MedTech (Shockwave Medical) · May – Nov 2025

20+
Products planned
2 + 1
Sites, one pre-modeled
6
Teams, one model
FY26–30
Planning horizon
01 The problem

A spreadsheet was running capacity for two factories.

After the Shockwave Medical acquisition, J&J MedTech planned production for two sites in a single Excel file so large it could barely be opened — every recalculation took minutes. Six teams each kept their own tabs, so the numbers leadership saw were only as fresh as the last manual update, and every planner lost the better part of two days a week just keeping it alive.

143
Spreadsheet tabs
5 min
Per recalculation
15–20 hrs
Lost per planner / week
6
Teams, no shared truth
02 The design

We drew it before we built it.

Before any software, every screen was wireframed by hand and reviewed with the people who'd actually use it — agreeing exactly what each one had to answer (are we hitting the plan?) before a line was built. The planners signed off once, and the finished system matched the sketch without a single layout debate.

The Product Report wireframe — the same one handed to stakeholders before the build. Open full wireframe →
03 Made real

From sketch to a system the team runs on.

In about three weeks the design became a live dashboard (shown above), backed by an automated model that does the heavy lifting on its own — pulling every team's inputs into one place, recalculating instantly, and reminding each department when it's their turn to update. The math even follows J&J's real fiscal calendar, so the capacity numbers reflect the days the lines actually run.

04 The payoff

One model the whole operation runs on — and leadership trusts.

15–20 hrs
Per planner, per week — reclaimed
5 min → live
Recalculations, gone
6 → 1
Teams on one source of truth
~3 weeks
From sketch to shipped dashboard

Time given back

Planners stopped rebuilding spreadsheets by hand and got 15–20 hours a week back — for planning, not maintenance.

One current truth

Every team writes into one model, and leadership reads live numbers — not last week's manual refresh.

Grows without a rebuild

A new product or site is a few new rows, not a new spreadsheet. The third factory was modeled before it opened.

No new software to buy

It runs on the Microsoft tools the team already owned — so there was nothing new to license or learn from scratch.