Thursday, February 28. 2008
Shift Worker Productivity Issues and Employee Scheduling
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
Comments
Display comments as
(Linear | Threaded)
I am the Vice President of HR for a large food manufacturer. I guess my largest question is what are the best practices for labor management. We have issues with idle time, overtime, and turnover but doesn't everyone?
We went to http://www.corepractice.com and downloaded some case studies. They were helpful, but what else can we do to see where we stand compared to everyone else. We have tough goals this year to reduce costs. I am just not sure that labor is the place we should be looking. Comments?
We went to http://www.corepractice.com and downloaded some case studies. They were helpful, but what else can we do to see where we stand compared to everyone else. We have tough goals this year to reduce costs. I am just not sure that labor is the place we should be looking. Comments?
Comment (1)
Marg:
I appreciate your concerns. No one wants to go down a road that is emotional and potentially disruptive unless it is going to be worth it! One thing that Core Practice Partners has done (http://www.corepractice.com) is offer a labor strategy workshop for free. Kraft Foods has done about 15 of these with CPP and they continue to use them for labor strategy work. This workshop allows potential customers to assess if there are opportunities before trying to make changes. They share best practices and create a workshop environment so that your maanagement team participates in the discussion. We recomend this course of action. They only charge travel to your location so the cost is low and they don't try to sell you anything at the workshop
SD
I appreciate your concerns. No one wants to go down a road that is emotional and potentially disruptive unless it is going to be worth it! One thing that Core Practice Partners has done (http://www.corepractice.com) is offer a labor strategy workshop for free. Kraft Foods has done about 15 of these with CPP and they continue to use them for labor strategy work. This workshop allows potential customers to assess if there are opportunities before trying to make changes. They share best practices and create a workshop environment so that your maanagement team participates in the discussion. We recomend this course of action. They only charge travel to your location so the cost is low and they don't try to sell you anything at the workshop
SD
Comment (1)
When you talk about shift worker productivity isn't that just a clever way of saying make people work harder? It seems everytime we have some sort of study at the plant it means less people to do the same or often more.
Comment (1)
Productivity is a wide-sweeping term that can relate to a lot of different areas. When we talk about productivity improvements in scheduling, there are two key areas. The first is equipment upgrades that both run more efficiently, have more uptime, and require fewer people. The second is looking at productive time as part of each labor hour. The key area of improvement isn't typically asking employees to work harder or faster. Instead, the elimation of employee idle time from unplanned downtime, seasonal spikes and troughs in volume, and excessive non-core activities can increase productivity while production standards stay the same. The difference is that standards are met more often and less erratically. So, what is typically the culprit? Traditional, rigid 8 hour schedules typically cause a lot of these issues. Staffing maintenance Monday - Friday also has its share of issues.
In the end, there are a lot of little things that can be improved to take one large step forward. There are too many in this category to mention them all. The few big things include flexible scheduling and a careful look at adverse labor costs. Call me with questions. My direct is 212 534 0539.
John
In the end, there are a lot of little things that can be improved to take one large step forward. There are too many in this category to mention them all. The few big things include flexible scheduling and a careful look at adverse labor costs. Call me with questions. My direct is 212 534 0539.
John
Comment (1)
More and more businesses are asking how they can learn more about employee scheduling and shift work productivity issues. Take the time to go to http://www.corepractice.com and click on the "labor strategy workshop" page in the middle of the page. Companies like Kraft and BMW have found this useful and it is free. Unlike software companies that can send a demo disk, consulting firms need to prove their worth before and share some knowledge before trust is earned. That is how we came up with the workshop - educate first, earn the right to sell later.
Comments (2)
I am a supervisor at a food plant and we go from trying to get people to take vacation (or lay them off) to forcing them to work 7 days a week and hiring all we can in the peak season. We used to produce more evenly over the year but now we are running full out or only running a few lines. How can you schedule something when the demand is so uneven and unpredictable?
Comment (1)
Our answer team is in Hong Kong at the 2008 Chinese Labor Forum, but I hope this answer suffices for now.
Setting the right employee scheduling baseline is a good place to start. You almost never want to go below 40 hours because it increases benefit costs. The exception is in environments with seasonality that is so high that other efforts fail to manage the entire issue. Part time and temporary employees can be helpful, but skill balance and quality become an issue when they are overused. Flexible shift schedules can take you a long way to improving your situation. There are lots of ways to make costly mistakes, so don't hesitate to call Ethan Franklin if you have questions. He is probably the best at this in the entire world. His office number is 312 255 1646 and he doesn't mind the calls (USA Today and the New York Times quote him regularly).
John
Setting the right employee scheduling baseline is a good place to start. You almost never want to go below 40 hours because it increases benefit costs. The exception is in environments with seasonality that is so high that other efforts fail to manage the entire issue. Part time and temporary employees can be helpful, but skill balance and quality become an issue when they are overused. Flexible shift schedules can take you a long way to improving your situation. There are lots of ways to make costly mistakes, so don't hesitate to call Ethan Franklin if you have questions. He is probably the best at this in the entire world. His office number is 312 255 1646 and he doesn't mind the calls (USA Today and the New York Times quote him regularly).
John
Comments (2)
To add an additional comment to all of these questions, many of our customers see that we have worked on shift schedules for General Electric or employee schedules for Kraft Foods. They want to know how we were able to make 12 hour shift schedules successful at a mine in Canada. The truth is that every situation is different and employees are different everywhere we go. Just because a 12 hour shift schedule was successful at one facility does not in any way indicate it will be successful somewhere else. This is true even if they make the same thing and have the same equipment.
Comment (1)
Calendar
|
October '08 | |||||
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
Quicksearch
Categories
Syndicate This Blog
Blog Administration
Powered by
