Declutter AI: things that matter!

A mature and well-integrated workforce planning system will bring about the right balance between cost efficiencies and throughput, and therefore contribute to your business's bottom line.

Workforce is one of the largest expense heads for industrial sites like factories, warehouses and depots, as also in sectors like hospitality and healthcare. We often come across sites where labour related locked-in costs are as high as 70% of the overall OpEx. Further, with automation and adoption of robotic technologies, there is a lot more variation in skill requirements needed from the human workforce.

Supervisors and managers are in need for better tools to plan the workforce.

Therefore, in this month's newsletter, we will discuss planning needs for shifts and daily rosters.

Finally, we will talk about how an AI based system would eliminate the tedium and inadvertent errors in planning, scheduling and optimising the personnel allocation process.

Why is workforce planning becoming more complex?

1. Magnitudes in manpower intensive businesses - Sectors like manufacturing, logistics, hospitality and healthcare need to manage a large workforce. A lot of managerial bandwidth is spent on organising these resources everyday, resulting in increased administrative overheads.
2. Compliance requirements - Workforce allocation decisions should also conform to compliance requirements such as certifications and maximum hours allowed in addition to skill sets.
3. Multiple sites - Balancing your workforce over multiple sites requires having a unified view of the workforce and the optimisation needs to be across all locations.
4. Labour mix - Challenges in labor supply and higher wages have forced business to shift from permanent to contractual employment models. Legacy systems often lack the flexibility to handle both full and part time workers.
5. Last minute requirements - Creating optimized rosters is not the hardest part but readjusting it while maintaining the same levels of effectiveness can be challenging for spreadsheet based models.

How does AI help?

Challenge #1 : Managing last minute changes and eliminating empty shifts.

Solution: Creating a centralized common point of contact for skill management and availability of workers. Having a system that allows your workforce to swap shifts between them, boosting flexibility and engagement.

Challenge #2 : Complying with local labor regulations and avoiding penalties.

Solution: Automated roster validation and configurable settings based on location. Addresses skill gaps and plans the retraining of your workforce in the most optimal manner. Safeguards your business from potential violations by keeping a track of the certifications of each and every worker.

Challenge #3 : Dealing with inevitable absenteeism and unsatisfactory performance.

Solution: AI based performance management systems to provide unbiased assessments and performance tracking. Dashboards instead of spreadsheets are emerging as the new way of tracking information at scale.

Challenge #4 : Forecasting labor requirements to avoid over hiring or workers and addressing labor shortages.

Solution: Handling labor shortages during peak seasons requires your demand plan to be integrated with your workforce planning systems. This helps you accurately identify when and where workers will be needed.

Challenge #5 : Managing employee well being and mental health.

Solution: Managing employee well being, through the use of data markers to identify stress points. Resulting in improved employee performance and engagement.

How can we get started?

• Review your data: Review the data and its infrastructure available to aid planning, tracking and reporting. Track meaningful KPI's and align workforce planning to organisation's goals. Use data to demonstrate the insights around planned and actual workforce gap.
• User friendliness for higher adoption rates. The business solutions should be easy to use by both supervisors and workers alike. Usability and acceptance of technology depends on the value it brings to the daily lives of your workforce.
• Integrated systems: The technology solution should not only provide the capabilities but also integrate with other enterprise systems like the ERP's, HR systems, or Warehouse Management Systems to realize maximum business value.

We will be happy to help with the assessment of your needs and bring about the solution that is right for your business. Talk to us today. Schedule a Consultation.

Further reading

1. https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/6-keys-to-strategic-workforce-planning-in-turbulent-times
2. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/smart-scheduling-how-to-solve-workforce-planning-challenges-with-ai
3. https://www.ignitehcm.com/blog/the-future-of-work-how-ai-is-revolutionizing-workforce-scheduling
4. https://www.oracle.com/in/scm/ai-supply-chain/
5. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321718305_Improving_workforce_scheduling_using_artificial_neural_networks_model