Category: Shop Floor Data Capture

Performance-Based Incentives need Hard Data to Work

Paying employees bonuses for hard work is a system that has come under scrutiny for many years now. People believe that if employees are aware that they will be getting paid more money if they work harder, then they are more likely to do so. However the truth behind this is much more complex as there are many potential issues with performance based pay.

Performance-based pay has come under a lot of scrutiny in recent years. There appears to be a basic logic in tying pay or incentives to performance – if you promise rewards for hard work, people will work harder – the truth is much more complex.

The Real Story Behind Performance-Based Pay

There are many potential issues with performance-based pay. True high-achievers are often driven by motivations other than money, and offering money for achievement can actually decrease a person’s internal motivation to work hard and well. But on the other hand, good employees expect to be paid fairly for their work, and rewarding employees with raises or bonuses is a common way to acknowledge and show appreciation for them.

Given these contradictory facts, is there a right way to use performance-based pay?

Performance-Based Pay That Matters

A key to creating a performance-based pay system that actually works is to make sure that the system for giving rewards is fair and transparent. Many employees have become disgruntled by a perception (true or otherwise) that one employee is rewarded because he or she is liked better by management, not because of actual performance. Other employees become unmotivated because management sets production goals that are out of touch with reality.

In order to work, performance-based pay systems need to be absolutely fair and administered according to clear guidelines: here’s where using hard data on performance can help.

Shop Floor Data Reveals True Performance

Our Shop Floor Data Capture system can provide the data needed to make a performance-based pay system work. Data captured by the system doesn’t depend on a manager’s perceptions of employee performance. It provides a true picture of productivity. This makes assigning performance-based raises or bonuses more fair and transparent.

Also, capturing shop floor data gives management a clear picture of what is actually being produced in a given time period. Setting a realistic goal with a clear reward for meeting it is a proven way to increase motivation for both individuals and teams. Using real shop floor data can help management set realistic goals based on past performance.

If your organisation uses performance-based pay and incentives, you need to have hard data backing up your rewards, or your incentive system could do more harm than good. For more information about the benefits of shop floor data capture, please contact us.

Razor-Thin Margins demand Shop Floor Data Capture

A business’s biggest expense is the paying of employee wages and tracking these hours should not become the second biggest. That is why it is crucial for businesses with multiple shops to implement an efficient shop floor data capture system, specifically designed to effortlessly record hours worked meaning less time is spent processing information about individual employee wages, saving you both time and money.

Do you know what the biggest expense is for most businesses? Wages and compensation. Don’t let the costs of tracking employee hours become the second highest! When you have a shop that requires employees to clock in and out, the only way to keep costs down is through an efficient method of Shop Floor Data Capture.

A good program designed to effortlessly log and store hours an employee has worked translates to less time processing payroll, and an immense cost-saving to you. These programs provide comprehensive coverage of the following:

  • Shifts and Roster Scheduling
  • Holiday & Absence Management
  • Payroll and Exceptions Reporting
  • Calculations

Profit margins in retail and manufacturing can be slim enough. The technologies you need to keep the production line moving shouldn’t have to compete with payroll. Endless data entry, editing, and payroll complications can keep you from seeing the revenues you deserve.

Don’t you want to know the performance of your employees in real-time? A great Shop Floor Data Capture program delivers near-instantaneous reports on:

  • No Clockings
  • Missed Clockings
  • Hours More than Expected
  • Hours Less than Normal
  • Late Clockings
  • Unplanned Attendance

With Ceequel® Time and Attendance software, you’re able to sift through to the pertinent details you need to keep your production moving smoothly. Employees are an essential part of your business plan and you can now manage them effortlessly and spot any gaps in coverage due to vacation, holiday, or any other event that brings one of your employees off the line.

There are many advanced features that Shop Floor Data Capture adds onto this versatile software suite to enable you to capture your shop floor data in real-time. Don’t hesitate – contact us today so we can identify your business’ needs and keep you on your track to success.

Accurate Shop Floor Data enables Targeted Training

Having accurate information about your employees productivity levels through every task can be massively beneficial when it comes to implementing training days or development programs. Knowing who needs what, help saves your business time and money. Without an accurate system in place, management will often only have a rough idea of where the slowest parts of the manufacturing processes are and often have no idea how to improve it.

Shop Floor Data Capture gives companies the most accurate data possible for measuring productivity across all workers, as well as productivity of individual workers. As well as knowing what’s getting done, and by whom, smart companies can use real-time data from their shop floors to create targeted training and development programs for increased worker productivity and flexibility.

Identifying Key Points for Improvement

Without an accurate data capture system, management may only have a fuzzy sense of where the slowest parts of manufacturing happen. With a good data capture system on the shop floor, any issues with productivity quickly become clear, which enables management to take direct action; for example, if the data captured by the system shows that all new employees tend to take the longest period of time to come up to speed on one particular task, or in using one work station, that’s a clear bottleneck to focus on for overall performance improvement. Maybe more training, or a new training program, would help employees gain proficiency faster. Perhaps a mentoring system which pairs a new employee with an experienced one to learn that task would be beneficial, enabling experienced workers to demonstrate any “tips and tricks” which speed up the process.

Individual Evaluation and Improvement

As well as making improvements in overall productivity, a good data capture system is beneficial for evaluating and training individual employees. Individual worker data can be used by managers during performance reviews, to acknowledge where workers excel and find the places where they most need improvement. Using this kind of data can help managers train and mentor workers to reach their best personal levels of achievement.

Good training is necessary for good productivity. Using real time shop floor data to enable targeted training can help managers design and refine the most effective training systems to get workers up to speed fast and working at their best.

For more information about how shop floor data could work for your business, contact us!

Keeping it Real with Shop Floor Data Capture

All businesses need to be prepared for change, the reality is that at some point consumer interests will change and the marketplace likely to shift. Shop floor data capture systems have been designed as a way for businesses both large and small, to monitor worker productivity as well as providing real-time information on the production and profitability of ones business.

In today’s business climate, one must plan for uncertainty, for the reality that consumer interests will shift, and with it so will the marketplace. Fortunately, an enterprise-level solution is available for large and small businesses, in the form of Shop Floor Data Capture. The knowledge provided by Shop Floor Data Capture can help to keep business running “lean” by monitoring worker productivity. It can also provide real-time data on the goings-on and profitability of one’s business in a dynamic and ever-changing business climate.

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Are your ID Badges Simplifying Shop Floor Data Capture?

Smart ID cards are slowly becoming paramount for companies who wish to simplify their shop floor data capture process. The ID badges that are provided when you implement the Ceequel time and attendance system allow your employees to accomplish a number of important day to day functions such as the ones listed below.

It used to be that the multi-purpose ID pass was the stuff of science fiction. These days, however, smart ID cards are becoming a common tool for simplifying the process of shop floor data capture. With the ID badges that come standard with time and attendance systems from Ceequel, your employees can accomplish a number of important daily functions with the same clip-on badge.

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Shop Floor Data Capture: Enabling continuous improvement

If within your organisation you would like to implement a formal lean or six sigma program having accurate data from your manufacturing process is key. Invoices and purchase orders lay the trail for analysing your inventory costs. The costs associated with labour needs to also be collected.

It is a frequently cited management truism that “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” From the earliest days of the quality movement within manufacturing, from Taylor to Ford, or Deming and Shingo, and on to Womack and Jones – the simple premise of “measuring everything” has been at the root of continuous improvement. Without a vehicle for enabling Shop Floor Data Capture, however, the amount of labour expended in any manufacturing process is either subjectively measured or likely to experience wide variation and anomalous data.

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Using Software to Solve Common Problems with Shop Floor Data Capture

Having the ability to switch between tasks can often be a huge headache within manufacturing companies as it makes it almost impossible for the employer to track which of their employees is doing what task and for how long. Implementing a shop floor data capture system will allow you to track what your employees are up to at all times as well as help to solve the common problems that appear when workers often switch between tasks.

Technological advances and shifting market demands have made flexibility more important than ever before for manufacturers. Your employees’ ability to switch quickly from one task to another is an incredibly valuable feature of your company. However, this flexibility can be a double-edged sword. Keeping track of which employees are working on what projects, and for how long, can be a nightmarish task in the modern manufacturing shop. Fortunately, the right Shop Floor Data Capture technology can make it easy for you to solve a few of the most common problems that arise when employees must frequently switch tasks

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Elf Productivity. A Ceequel Overview

Managing your employees time and attendance is crucial when it comes to the making or breaking of your businesses. Time and attendance systems allow you to monitor your employees total hours worked or number of hours worked on a single project. These hours can then be compared against standard hours and if employees have worked over their contracted hours bonuses can be calculated easily.

Time Management

Time management is a key area of any business and can make or break a new or developing organization. Time and Attendance systems are there to assist the monitoring of employees time, this can be as simple as calculating the total amount of hours worked or actually calculating the number of hours worked on a particular project, job or activity. These hours could then be compared to a standard and potentially a performance and bonus could also be calculated.

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