How Manufacturing Companies Build Their Strategic Advantage With Workforce Management

Optimize workforce management in manufacturing with wmf software
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Manufacturing companies often run at breakneck speed and paper thin margins. Competition and market changes keep manufacturers on the lookout for incremental advantages.

Workforce management (WFM) has become the industry’s secret sauce for success.

Manufacturing success boils down to how well you can manage your workforce. Commodity pricing and job-sweeping automation put financial success in the seat of efficiency. Without the right WFM software, your manufacturing company will spiral into the red.

Workforce inefficiency is the most avoidable problem facing manufacturing companies today.

WFM software is surprisingly inexpensive. It’s also remarkably useful. It makes good on its promise to optimize time and attendance and scheduling.

Workforce management is the Achilles’ heel of manufacturing, but it doesn’t have to be. It can be your strategic advantage.

The Problems Facing Manufacturing

Every manufacturer knows that sales come down to cost. Your customers search every option to make their widgets for as little as possible.

Quality standards are part of every bid, so there are no corners to cut when it comes to the assembly line. Material costs leave little room for markup and are often specified in advance as part of the design. Packaging and shipping costs leave some wiggle room, but not enough to make it worth your while.

Most manufacturing companies look to long-term volume for profitability. This gamble will only pay off if your customer maintains momentum. If orders stagnate and volume declines before you hit the crossover line, you’ll lose money. It’s an area of concern every manufacturing company wrestles with.

The real problem facing manufacturing is that we’re pressed to provide more for less. There’s not a lot left over for growing the business.

The safe bet is workforce management. Payroll is a leading expense. It’s also an area where refinement and efficiency can make exponential differences. Those differences can turn a mediocre job into a profitable opportunity.

Workforce management offers a strategic advantage that can improve your manufacturing success.

Why WFM Software Is The Key

Like many other manufacturing processes, workforce management has come a long way in recent years. Automation and built-in efficiency are what make modern WFM software such a strategic advantage.

Today’s WFM software is the modern equivalent of adding robotics to the assembly line. Automation is only the beginning. Pretty soon you will realize savings and refinements you never knew were possible.

Human capital will always be your most valuable resource. WFM software is how you can manage this capital asset in the most efficient manner. Investing in your workforce is a strategic move that will become your leading advantage with WFM software.

Streamline Your Onboarding Process

When it comes to saving money, onboarding is a great place to start. WFM software can help you track employee onboarding requirements so they happen more efficiently.

You’ve heard the saying that “you can’t make improvements to something you aren’t measuring.” WFM software will help you measure the onboarding process. It can also help you identify bottlenecks that slow your onboarding process down and cost you money.

Tracking your onboarding process with WFM software means you can follow prescribed processes. Processes can be refined as you go. Eventually, your onboarding process will improve and make for better-prepared employees.

End Employee Time Theft and Scheduling Waste

Another big area where WFM software can help you save is in employee time theft. Manufacturers don’t realize how much employee time is leaking away. Managers don’t often see this problem because they aren’t tracking the losses.

WFM software can help you measure employee time theft with advanced time tracking. Most manufacturers are losing an average of 4.5 hours per week, per employee. That’s a huge expense that doesn’t have to come off the bottom line.

WFM software can help you track the numbers. It can also help you enforce clock in times, clock out times, and other time-based policies. With lockout enforcement and accurate time tracking, you can save that 4.5 hours per week per employee.

You can also optimize scheduling so gaps, overlaps, and missing shifts don’t occur.

When employees miss gaps in their schedule, production slows and goals are missed. That’s a costly expense. On the other side, when employees overlap too far, you are paying more than you need to for too many people.

Things go from bad to worse when employees miss a shift altogether. Time spent chasing replacements can be eliminated from your budget with WFM software.

Managing employee time with modern WFM software can bring new life to your bottom line. It can also add a competitive advantage to your business strategy.

Delegate Scheduling Changes To Employees

Another strategic area where WFM software can make a big difference is in scheduling. Schedule automation can take a big chunk of time off your bottom line.

Managers don’t need to reinvent the wheel with every new period. WFM software makes it easy to create new schedules from templates.

Overtime alerts and job roles make it easy to monitor employees, too. Stop unplanned overtime before it hits your bottom line. With WFM software, most of your scheduling burden can be automated.

These features alone can provide significant savings and thus a newfound competitive edge. Employee self-service takes this advantage a step further.

Employee self-service empowers your employees to manage their own schedules. With management oversight, employees can submit change requests online and even swap shifts. When gaps or open shifts become available, employees can grab them up on their own terms.

The result is less manager time and more employee satisfaction. Both go a long way to improving your bottom line.

Let The WFM Software Handle the Details

Workforce management doesn’t have to be as much work as it sounds. WFM software can handle most of the work and includes automation that saves time and money.

Recurring schedules can be automatically loaded for each new pay period. Automated overtime alerts will tell you when you are in danger of accumulating unplanned overtime. Alerts can even warn you when you don’t have the right employees to fill specific job roles, or when employees are approaching overtime limits.

WFM software automation can take a lot of the work out of workforce management. That saves you a lot of time, and ultimately a lot of money, too.

Workforce Management Is Your Strategic Advantage

It’s not as hard as it sounds to gain a competitive advantage in manufacturing. Workforce management software allows you to optimize your workforce without spending a lot of time or money.

The savings you can realize by refining the way you manage your workforce can be significant. The can be the difference between failing on meager margins or growing a profitable company.

Simplify HR management today.

Simplify HR management today.

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