The bias for or against point solutions ebb and flow over time. Broadly speaking, many software applications deal with large volumes of data, but have fairly narrow purposes. For example, time & attendance systems focus on paying each worker for time worked. The data collection is important, but at the end of the day the… Read more »
Workforce Scheduling
Staffing Level Planning & Job Bidding
January 26, 2012 One of our General Mills customers recently re-bid 96 jobs. This was due to installation of some new equipment. When they’ve had to do this in the past, with a workforce of over 400, this was an administrative nightmare: the workers filling out individual bid sheets, sorting through the bids, ranking them… Read more »
From Workforce Level Planning to Job Bidding
Amongst pressures faced by manufacturing operations today, matching the size of one’s workforce to their projected production requirements is a growing challenge. Tugboat’s new job bidding tools include a labor planning interface that manages the desired number of jobs for each department and shift. Users can develop a list of minimum jobs required during both… Read more »
Implementation – Early Payback
Even if an application appears to really meet one’s needs, there is always the challenge of implementation. A financial manager for Coca-Cola recently asked, “This application looks like it will do the job but answer this: how much trouble will we uncover when it comes to implementation?” He was specifically referring to the resistance that… Read more »
Extra Man? Right or Wrong
In large manufacturing facilities, it’s not hard to find managers who’ll acknowledge, on any given day, there may be extra workers on the floor. Sometimes referred to as redundant manning this sounds like an easy target when looking for labor waste. But is it? Yes and no. Here’s the difference. Under certain circumstances having an… Read more »
Labor Scheduling Best Practices / Past Practices
What are the “Best Practices” (BP) for workforce scheduling? Most managers in operations and HR would like to see these documented. But what is BP? BP is a method, process, or activity, which conventional wisdom regards as more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other method, process, etc. when applied to, in this… Read more »