Manufacturing Workforce Scheduling
Intellicate workforce scheduling for the manufacturing industry.

Manufacturing companies rely on sophisticated, high-tech machinery to maximize production. Skilled maintenance technicians are constantly on high alert to ensure smooth operations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Even the slightest malfunction can wreak havoc on the most finely tuned production lines.

For maximum efficiency, staff deployment should be matched to machine production capacity, usually in combinations of 8– and 12– hour shifts. In an ideal world, everyone shows up on time and there are seamless shift changeovers with no staffing gaps—but any plant manager knows that doesn´t always happen. People get sick, go on vacation, have schedule mix–ups, or underperform–all of which can have a major impact on productivity. Although you can´t control unexpected absences or delays, a workforce management solution can help you compensate with extended shifts, overtime, short–term replacements, and multi-role capacity for supervisors.

Another key staffing factor is fluctuations in consumer demand. Manufacturing companies often find that their level of output must change at different times, requiring adjustments to shift patterns and assigned processes. A workplace management solution seamlessly accommodates these changes.

By incorporating an Intellicate solution, you can enjoy a range of benefits, including:

• Proactive management of vacations, training, and leaves of absence
• Quick reaction to sicknesses and other unpredicted absences
• Higher levels of staff morale and availability
• Minimal interruption to production cycles
• Seamless adjustments to match fluctuations in consumer demand

In the manufacturing and production industry, planning and foresight are critical to success. Our streamlined solutions enable production and operations managers to eliminate guesswork and deliver measurable results.

Deliver What You Promise
The number of staff production hours directly correlates to production capacity. Even the slightest error in judgment can result in late deliveries and missed deadlines, which can quickly derail the profits and reputation of any manufacturer. Monitoring the number of full–time staffers, anticipating absences, and double–checking schedules can be tedious and time–consuming–not to mention subject to human error.

Through comprehensive, precise management reporting, our solutions accomplish this process in just a few seconds. You´ll have instant access to realistic and workable information–production hours by process, teams, and date ranges, including breaks abstractions–empowering you to deliver accurate production targets.

Failing to Plan = Planning to Fail
There is a big difference between recording staff absences and planning for staff absences. All too often, production managers suddenly realize several employees are planning vacations a couple of weeks later, sending them scrambling for replacement workers. Leave planning should start months–or even a year–ahead of time, not weeks. This enables managers to get a more holistic overview of team, group, and department availability, avoiding the common problems that drive up costs and reduce capacity.

Maintaining a constant and predictable output doesn´t mean everyone works the same way. Various manufacturing teams will have different responsibilities that require different functions and skill sets. Even so, the right workforce solution can help you combine these different working arrangements to eliminate overtime overhead.

Reducing Workplace Risk
Intelligent planning is important, but execution is where the real results emerge–and where risk can be elevated. When managers make changes to staff schedules to compensate for sickness or leave, there is a heightened risk due to increased working hours and reduced rest periods.

Our unique Active Monitoring Control (ACM) provides instant feedback about threshold breaches for working hours and rest periods, including cumulative effects over time. Businesses that deploy our workplace solutions are not only meeting their production goals, they´re meeting them safely.