The 7 challenges of industrial workforce planning

[AlainBolyn]

NECESSARY CHALLENGE OR REAL OPPORTUNITY ?

Between HRM (Human Resources Management) and Production Management, the allocation of staff on the production lines is a poor relation of the MES (Manufacturing Execution System). This is not true, because scheduling management, as it is often called, is in fact a considerable productivity lever for the company that takes a closer look at it.

For you, we will highlight the 7 challenges that a good management of this task, often time consuming, meets.

Making a schedule is a permanent headache. It is also a dangerous balancing act, because the day the person in charge of planning is absent, the company finds itself helpless, like a plane without a pilot at the controls.

Synthetis has developed an innovative solution in the world of production, to efficiently manage staff schedules. This innovation takes up the 7 challenges faced by production workshop scheduling managers when it comes to better managing job assignments.

Challenge #1 – Controlling your budget

To meet labor budget standards, a company needs to have indicators, otherwise it will be like a car driving through the night with its headlights off. One example of an indicator is the number of working hours per ton produced. This makes it possible to calculate the direct and indirect labor requirements as closely as possible in order to adjust workshop resources. It is also possible to pool the resources of several workshops to better match the needs. And human resources mean costs. This is therefore a significant source of potential savings on a daily basis.

Challenge n°2 – Assume its legal and social responsibility

The company and, more particularly, its manager, are legally and socially responsible when they put their employees to work in their workshops. They have legal constraints to respect, which are becoming increasingly complex. They run a legal risk in case of accident. And they are accountable for the social peace among their workers, which includes equity in its various forms (hours, hardship, vacations…). Implementing an effective and efficient management of staff assignments prevents any legal and social drift which is the responsibility of any industrial company manager.

Challenge n°3 – Preventing MSD

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) can be very costly to a company, either directly or indirectly via an insurance premium that continues to rise. One of the factors contributing to MSDs is the assignment of personnel. With good management of who does what when on which machine, we can distribute the hard work fairly to prevent the appearance of MSDs. An anti-MSD vaccine of sorts!

Challenge n°4 – Managing skills

If there is a trendy subject, it is this one: skills management. And yet, even though it is overused, it is a powerful tool for optimizing the functioning of teams. Assigning personnel according to their skills allows you to place operators where they will be most effective, to reduce training costs by ensuring that training is in line with actual current and short-term needs and, moreover, to maintain full production capacity during critical periods, such as vacations or peak seasons.

Challenge #5 – Managing the realized

A gold mine that is too rarely exploited! This is the best way to sum up the abundance of information available on the shop floor. Of course, this information is disparate, but true management of staff assignments makes it possible to gather all this data and use it. These analyses will benefit those in charge of management control, production, training, personnel delegation, payroll management, etc., so that each person has accurate information to make his or her decisions and actions objective.

Challenge n°6 – Anticipate variability and seasonality

Unfortunately, production is not a long quiet river. It is made of meanders, turbulence and rapids! Once again, good management of the allocation of personnel to the production workstation allows you to see these variations coming, whether they are due to seasonality or not, to prepare for them as well as possible, and even to avoid some of these variabilities, for example, by better managing vacation schedules and the hiring of temporary staff. The result is an increase in performance.

Challenge #7 – Reduce administration to focus on core business

Too much paper! Too much administration! Production staff are often overwhelmed by administrative tasks, far from their core business. How much time is wasted on scheduling, managing vacations, and managing temporary workers? Implementing a good management of production staff assignment allows staff members to focus on their real job, where they are most profitable for the company.

Synthetis’ offer: an automated, simple and efficient scheduling software!

Synthetis has developed “PeopleForce”, a software solution that allows for easier and more efficient allocation of personnel on the production floor.

PeopleForce allows you to quickly create production staff schedules, taking into account the many constraints of the workshops: opening of lines and machines, skills of each person, multi-skilling animation, staff scheduling, rest and replacement equities, management of arduousness and prevention of MSDs, productivity objectives…

In addition, PeopleForce allows you to manage the allocation of time and the distribution of hours in the workshop and to identify the needs in overtime, temporary staff and training.

In a very short time, PeopleForce saves time and increases efficiency, reducing risk and unnecessary direct labor and increasing productivity.

🌐 Read more about our personnel planning software for the industry

 

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