Processes – Page 2 – Time and Attendance

UK Manufacturing Is Data-Rich – Five Principles for Turning Manufacturing Data into Better Decisions

Part 2 of a 2 Part Series……….

Most manufacturers already hold a significant amount of operational information.

The challenge is converting that information into something managers can use to improve productivity, control cost and sustain Continuous Improvement.

A dashboard containing dozens of measures may look impressive. But if it does not help the organisation make a better decision, its commercial value is limited.

Manufacturers can improve the value of their operational data by applying five practical principles.

1. Begin with the decision, not the dashboard

A data project should not begin by asking:

What information can we collect?

It should begin by identifying the decisions the organisation needs to improve.

For example:

Should another shift be introduced?
Is a particular product commercially viable?
Which machine is creating the greatest constraint?
Why does one production line outperform another?
Is overtime increasing output or compensating for inefficiency?
Which contracts are failing to recover their true labour cost?

Once the decision is clear, the manufacturer can determine which information is required to support it.

This prevents the business from collecting data simply because it is available.

2. Connect planned performance with operational reality

Most manufacturers already hold production plans, estimates, standards and expected costs.

The difficulty lies in comparing them consistently with what actually happened.

A production order should not remain an isolated record within an ERP system.

It should become a live operational entity against which the business can attribute:

Labour
Activities
Machine usage
Output
Downtime
Waste
Rework
Work in Progress

This enables the manufacturer to compare:

Estimated cost with actual cost
Standard hours with actual hours
Planned output with completed output
Expected margin with developing margin
Scheduled completion with likely completion

Planning information then becomes a tool for operational control rather than simply a record of what was expected.

3. Capture information where the activity takes place

Operational data becomes less reliable when it depends on memory or retrospective entry.

Employees may be asked at the end of a shift to remember when a job started, why it stopped or how long they spent on an unplanned activity.

Supervisors may reconstruct events from paper records, spreadsheets and conversations.

Information should instead be captured as close as possible to the activity.

This may involve:

Shop-floor touchscreens
Barcode scanners
Mobile devices
Machine and PLC signals
Automated data feeds
Simple employee declarations
Supervisor validation

The objective should not be to create more administration.

It should be to make accurate data capture a natural part of completing the work.

4. Translate operational variance into financial value

Operational measures become more influential when they are expressed commercially.

A reduction in downtime is positive.

An increase in recoverable production capacity creates a business case.

A shorter changeover is useful.

Demonstrating that the reduction creates an additional production run each week gives the improvement strategic relevance.

Manufacturers should therefore connect productivity, downtime, waste and efficiency measures with:

Labour cost
Production cost
Capacity
Work in Progress
Customer service
Cash flow
Margin

This creates a common language between operations, finance and senior management.

It also helps improvement teams demonstrate the real commercial value of their work.

5. Close the improvement loop

Continuous Improvement should operate as a complete cycle:

Define the problem
Measure current performance
Identify the causes
Implement the change
Measure the result
Control the improved process

Too many improvement projects reach the implementation stage without establishing how the result will be monitored and sustained.

Reliable operational information allows the manufacturer to determine:

What changed
Why it changed
Whether the improvement has continued
What commercial value has been created

This distinguishes a temporary improvement from a permanent change in performance.

Technology is only part of the answer

Advanced technology can support stronger manufacturing performance, but technology alone does not create a data-driven organisation.

Artificial intelligence, robotics and automation all depend on structured management, reliable information and clearly defined operational objectives.

AI cannot compensate for:

Inconsistent job codes
Unreliable standards
Disconnected systems
Poor labour attribution
Missing downtime reasons
Incomplete operational context

Before a manufacturer asks what AI could predict, it must first be able to explain accurately what has already happened.

The foundation of industrial AI is not the algorithm.

It is trusted operational data.

From data collection to operational intelligence

For many manufacturers, the answer is not to replace every existing system.

It is to create a connected operational layer between those systems, the workforce, machinery and the production environment.

That layer should be capable of:

Receiving orders, routings, standards and cost information
Presenting relevant instructions to employees
Capturing activity as work takes place
Combining employee, job, process and machine data
Applying operational and financial rules
Calculating performance at the required level of detail
Returning meaningful information to managers and authorised systems

Ceequel® Operational Intelligence has been designed around this principle.

It connects operational activity with information from existing business systems, machinery and the workforce.

The platform can convert job, employee, process and machine information into measures such as:

Labour productivity
Job cost
Work in Progress
Actual versus standard performance
Downtime
Overall Equipment Effectiveness
Cost variance
Margin performance

The purpose is not simply to produce more reports.

It is to create a consistent operational record that helps manufacturers understand what is happening, why it is happening and what it means commercially.

The next productivity improvement may not require another system producing another isolated set of figures.

It may begin by connecting the information the manufacturer already has—and using it to make better decisions.

How Can I Love You More?

L.O.V.E that little ‘Four Letter Word’ that is out in force around the middle of Feb and thanks to clever advertisers, very much in your face!

Now we know that being the romantic lot that you are, you wouldn’t have forgotten but just in case you have, here’s a gentle reminder; Valentine’s Day is just around the corner……

The most amorous time of the year brings out the romantic in many of us, especially the ‘Starry-Eyed’ personnel on the shop floor.

It must be said that the build up to February 14th can for some, be a distracting time on the production line. Amused anticipation is on open display, as your very own ‘Tim and Dawn’ are observed blushing their way around ‘The Office’.

But with all the ‘Endless Love’ flowing, what of the ‘bemused’ boss that not only has to manage his or her ‘Hopelessly Devoted’ team members but plan and schedule their last-minute ‘Love Rendezvous’?

It’s widely accepted that the most popular place to meet your ‘significant other’ is in the workplace. You spend more time there than anywhere else, so it makes ‘Perfect’ sense that ‘Love Is All Around’ doesn’t it?

Whilst opportunities present themselves more easily on the shop floor and when the time is right, ‘L.O.V.E’ is not always a surprise but after the first flush of romance, what happens when ‘Tim and Dawn’ request the inevitable time off together?

Planning staff holidays for any manager can be a headache, if not a vast military exercise; nothing works, nothing gels, nothing fits! Throw in an eleventh hour mini-break request from ‘John’ in sales and ‘Kayleigh’ in accounts and you get the idea. Two employees who not only work on the same team but the same project.

Here at ELF, we understand the situation completely when ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’ with your current processes but be assured, with the right software in place, not only will Ceequel® become ‘the one that you want’ this Valentine’s Day but it will render everything ‘Perfect’ for both you AND your team.

Staff planning a last-minute get-away? Forget Booking.com as nothing books or confirms a holiday request faster than Ceequel® Employee Self Service.

Deployed on a kiosk or via an employee’s PC, smart phone or tablet, Employee Self Service completely removes the paper trail and gives total administration control to employees. Staff can immediately establish who on their team has already been granted a leave of absence.

So, with that in mind and apart from ‘The One’ make Ceequel® software the additional ‘significant other’ that you #Love this Valentine’s Day.

If you are interested in a Biometric Time and Attendance system to work with your Human Resources department, contact ELF Productivity Ltd today for a free no obligation quotation and demonstration of Ceequel® software.

Alternatively, our brochure catalogue can be downloaded here.

Creating an Effective Human Resources Strategy

Creating a successful Human Recourse strategy that pleases all of your employees can be an impossible task for many organisations. In order for your strategy to work, all stages need to piece together and each section requires thorough planning. A Human Resource strategy should always consist of four stages.

Are you struggling to implement a successful Human Resource strategy that keeps all your employees happy? Follow these simple guidelines to create a flexible strategy that works in many situations.

Human resource strategy encompasses four different stages: focus, flow, maturity, and execution. The focus of a human resources strategy concerns its goals and end result. For example, you may want to create a reward system for successful employees to improve morale. That can be your strategy’s “focus”.

Then, you need to worry about “flow”, or the process of implementing this focus. Let’s say you want to give your employees £50 restaurant gift cards if they work overtime to finish a project. Flow helps you decide what cards to get, how to pay for them, and how they will be distributed.

Maturity is the stage where you have to deal with any changes, good or bad, that affect your original strategy. Let’s say that a workplace poll reveals that almost none of your employees like the particular restaurant you’ve chosen. During the “maturity” stage, you deal with problems like these and solve them. Most of the difficult work will be accomplished in this stage, especially if you continue to run into problems.

Once your strategy concept has matured, you can move to execution. Sticking with the gift card idea, this stage might consist of purchasing the gift cards, deciding who gets them, and distributing them. While this stage can have its own problems, in a well-planned strategy, it’s often the easiest.

If you have any more information about human resource strategy, please contact us today.

The Latest Advancement in Keeping Time and Attendance

For many years Employers have been trying to find a way in which they can accurately record and track their employees time and attendance data. Old fashion methods such as mechanical punch cards were often time consuming and resulted in the loss of money for many organisations. Modern day technology has revitalised the way in which companies can now track and record their employees time and attendance data.

Ever since hourly wage was invented, employers have been looking for a reliable, tamper-free way to keep track of what hours each employee worked. Originally, there were simple write-in time cards, and in time those were replaced by mechanical punch cards. These cards made it impossible to simply alter your time, but they also take valuable minutes off of workers’ productivity as one shift lines up to clock out, and the other lines up to clock in. The bigger the crowd, the more minutes are wasted on time clock rigmarole. While technology has advanced, and many businesses have adopted ID cards with swipe-in features, those cards are little more than a computerised version of the punch clock.

Elf Productivity Ltd. has decided to offer businesses a different option, one that’s simple, effective, and which eliminates the shift change bottleneck that older methods create.

Time and Attendance Software

The way our time and attendance software works is that employees log in to your business’ network, and sign in from their own devices. This means that any connection capable device, from a workstation to a smartphone, will allow an employee to clock in. There’s no wasted time standing around a clock, and even better, there’s no need to buy a peripheral device for employees to “clock in” with at all. Not only that, but this software makes it possible for employees to work from home or in the field without losing track of how many hours they’ve been on the clock.

It’s simple, straightforward, and best of all, it’s only one of dozens of features that will help streamline your business’ network. If you’d like to know more about the features we offer, simply contact us today!

Is it Time for your Business to seek additional help for its Human Resource Operations?

In this day and age many businesses outsource at least a few of their business processes, the most common being their human resource functions. This is often because businesses feel that the outsourced company can provide them with a higher level of expertise.

When you are evaluating which business functions should be outsourced, you should ask yourself if you can get the same results when you hire someone internally to do the job. If you do not think you can get the same level of expertise, you may want to consider outsourcing. Today, you will find that many businesses outsource at least a few of their human resources functions. Even the companies who have a department filled with quality HR professionals are likely to outsource at least one of their human resources functions.

Every company will give you different reasons on how they knew when to seek help with their human resource operations. However, you will find that many of their answers will have common explanations.

Lower Costs

Businesses are always looking for ways to cut down on expenses. One of the largest expenses that a business can have is the salaries of the staff, but as expensive as this may be, if there are no employees, then the business cannot operate. Businesses want to find solutions that are affordable, but still allow their business to continue flowing smoothly; one of the best solutions is to outsource human resources.

Minimising Mistakes

UK Labour Law enforces many regulations, these regulations have an impact on millions of employers and employees every single day. When you combine those regulations with other laws and regulations, it can definitely cause plenty of headaches for professionals to ensure the company is following all the rules. By outsourcing your HR functions, you will have help in understanding the laws and regulations that must be followed.

It does not matter if your business is looking for a complete solution or if you just need a solution that will supplement the processes you already have, outsourcing your human resources functions will be sure to lower your expenses, minimise the mistakes, and improve your business’ overall production.

If you want to take better care of your business and your employees, contact us for additional information.

Access Control should be your Number One Priority

Access Control is a vital part of any organisation. If a business doesn’t have an access control system in place then potentially your property and sensitive information is at risk. Securing your sensitive data decreases this risk and also protects your employees and visitors.

Access control is one of the biggest buzz words in business right now, and for good reason. Why, you ask? Well, you wouldn’t give the brand new cashier the combination to the CEO’s personal safe, would you? Of course not, because the cashier doesn’t need that kind of access to do his or her job. The reality, though, is that when your business runs on an unsecured network where there aren’t enough safety measures taken there is nothing to stop employees on the shop floor from getting access to information they don’t need, and probably shouldn’t have. Performance reviews, personal information, company meeting minutes, client information, and so on, are all at risk.

The fewer people who have access to sensitive data, the smaller the chances are that someone may mess it up. And if something does happen, there’s a very small pool to draw from regarding who is responsible for it.

Access Control For The Modern Business

Just because you’re not a computer wizard, that doesn’t mean you can’t put reasonable, simple controls on your business’ network. Elf Productivity Ltd. has designed a simple software suite that lets anyone maintain their controls, keeping sensitive information in a place where only those who need it can get to it. In addition to access control features, though, this software also comes with a built-in time clock, employee self-service features, and it’s user-friendly. It’s meant to work with any business at any level, so regardless of whether you’re a sprawling multi-national corporation, or just a local store hoping to expand, this software will help you achieve your goals.

If you’d like more information on how Elf Productivity Ltd. can help your business achieve more, then simply contact us to find out about all the options we offer you.

Employee Self-Service puts the Power back in your Employees’ hands

For many years now the updating of employee data has been a task for your human recourse department. Modern day software such as employee self-service now makes it possible for your employees to manage and update their own personal data. It’s simplistic to use and works by providing each individual employee with their own web based profile that they can sign into.

The more people you employ, the harder it is to keep track of everyone; even a mid-sized enterprise of a hundred people or so is going to experience constant change as people get married, divorced, change banks, move to new addresses, and make a thousand other little adjustments from one year to the next. In the past, keeping up on all these changes was the Human Resources department’s job. Thanks to advances in software, though, you can implement employee self-service.

What is Employee Self-Service?

Employee self-service is when you put the responsibility of tracking employee information back in the hands of your employees. Rather than filling out forms, handing those forms to Human Resources, and then having them input the changes, why not cut out the middle man and let your employees fix their own details?

It sounds like a revolutionary idea, but in a world where Facebook is old hat, and social media has altered the way software works forever, it’s actually quite simple. Every employee has his or her own company profile, and when that information is changed it goes right into the system. There’s no need to fill out any paperwork, and no need to waste time by stacking a task onto someone else’s shoulders (especially a task that can be completed in minutes).

Employee self-service does more than save time and money, though. It lets employees take control of their own information, and it gives them the ability to do tasks for themselves. This simplifies your infrastructure, and it means that more people can spend more energy on the job at hand instead of on making sure you have their updated direct deposit, married name, new address, or any other details.

For more information on how we can help your business, simply contact us today!

Shop Floor Data Capture gives you Instant Access to Data you need

Making sure your company constantly hits its production targets is crucial if you want to remain in business. That’s why the implementation of a shop floor data capture system is imperative. Having accurate information to hand on production numbers during every part of the process allows you to identify where and when you’ve fallen short.

Numbers make the world go round, and they can be a matter of life or death for your business. If you need to fill orders, but find out too late that you haven’t completed enough of the product, then you’re in serious trouble. That’s why it’s important to get regular updates on your numbers by using shop floor data capture to keep tabs.

What is Shop Floor Data Capture?

The simple answer is that shop floor data capture is when you use sensors and computers to keep track of your production numbers. Say you were making lengths of pipe, under normal circumstances your machinery can produce 100 lengths in an hour, but due to a worn-out gasket that needs to be replaced you only produce 95 an hour. That isn’t a problem in the short-run, but over days and weeks that means you’re producing a lot fewer pieces of pipe than you thought. Shop floor data capture would notify you of the slower production, and you’d be able to fix the problem in time to keep your orders filled.

Shop floor data capture gives you instant updates on your numbers, making sure that if there’s a discrepancy between what you think you’re producing, and what you’re actually producing, then you can catch it quickly enough to fix the problem. Shop floor data capture keeps you up to date, and it ensures that you know exactly where you are in minutes rather than in hours or days.

For more information on how shop floor data capture can help your business succeed, simply contact us today!

Accurate Time and Attendance: Never Experience A Problem Again

Recording your individual employees accurate working hours on a day to day basis is often a difficult task. The information recorded has to be precise in order to avoid paying your employees the wrong amount. A simplistic way to record this data is through the implementation of a time and attendance system.

Paying workers for their time on the clock is a tradition that’s gone on for generations. While the system is fine in theory, there have always been problems presented by the time clock. Perhaps the biggest is creating a simple system that everyone can use, and which doesn’t take five minutes for the previous shift to clock out, and another five minutes for the next shift to clock in.

In order to make sure every worker gets paid for their time accurately, Elf Productivity Ltd. created a better system.

The Future of Time and Attendance

What Elf Productivity Ltd. did was create a digital time clock that every employee can access with ease from any device that’s signed into your company’s network. There’s no need to stand in a back hallway in a single file line, because everyone can sign in using their employee identification numbers and passwords. Everyone can do it at 9 on the dot if that’s when the shift starts, and work can get started immediately.

Even better, if there are mistakes in the amount of time someone worked (say that they forgot to clock out, or had computer issues and couldn’t clock in), then those mistakes can be fixed with a few strokes of a keyboard. There’s no need to get a new paper time card and re-punch it, or to make a mark with a pen showing the time you really clocked in or out. As far as your business is concerned actual, physical time cards should be as relevant to your day-to-day operations as stone tablets thanks to Elf Productivity Ltd.

For more information on how our fully integrated software suite can help make your business more efficient, simply contact us today!

The Access Control of the Future

Choosing the right method to keep your information secure can be a difficult task for any organisation and with so many to choose from the task can often seem like an impossible one. Not securing your data however is out of the question as unsecured data can be accessed by anyone, thus increasing the risk of sensitive information landing in the wrong hands.

Access control is one of the oldest business practices known to mankind. The earliest developments involved guards and bars, but as technology advanced we invented everything from lock boxes to secret panels. In today’s digital world, we have access to more methods of access control than ever before, but the sheer variety of options can sometimes seem like a burden. After all, how do you choose the right lock to keep your business safe?

Flexible Digital Access Control

This is a question that Elf Productivity Ltd. has pondered over quite a bit, and the answer it created is both simple, and elegant. That answer is a software suite that integrates every function a business needs to get through the day, but which is simple enough that even those who don’t consider themselves tech savvy can use with little instruction.

So what does it do? Well, a little of everything. This particular software suite has an integrated time clock, for example, and it also provides different levels of accessibility depending on an individual’s clearance. A standard employee can sign into his or her account, clock in, and access all of the programs needed to do the day’s work. Employees can even access their personal information, changing it as needed in the event that they have a name change, move, or make any other alterations. At the same time, though, the system makes sure that only people with clearance can access employee write-ups, look at work history, or gain access to financial data.

In short, the software provides a flexible system that will handle anything your business can throw at it, while at the same time making sure you can lock any digital doors you need to. For more information on this software suite, and how it can help your business, simply contact us today!