Kronos for Manufacturing

Manufacturing & Logistics IT spoke with a number of leading spokespeople from the Workforce Management solutions community about current trends, recent developments and possible future innovations within a technology world dedicated to facilitating greater staff efficiencies.

Workforce management applications are increasingly popular and offer a surprisingly high ROI , finds Malcolm Wheatley.

A new global survey commissioned by Kronos Incorporated and conducted by IDC Manufacturing Insights revealed that labour productivity ranked the highest among all 11 countries surveyed as the most important factor for achieving manufacturing success. Factors such as modern infrastructure, government support, and foreign direct investment ranked in varying degrees after labour productivity.

This white paper presents findings from joint research conducted by Kronos Incorporated in conjunction with IDC Manufacturing Insights, an independent research analyst firm. It is designed to provide insight into global trade, investment, and workforce trends and best practices as well as to provide recommendations on workforce strategies that UK manufacturers can employ to improve their global competitiveness.

Manufacturing & Logistics IT spoke with a number of leading spokespeople from the Workforce Management solutions community about current trends, recent developments and possible future innovations within a technology world dedicated to facilitating greater staff efficiencies. Simon Macpherson contributes.

This piece contains questions that were posed by Kronos Incorporated to Robert Parker, group vice president at IDC Manufacturing Insights, on behalf of Kronos' manufacturing customers.

These processes include administrative tasks, sales and marketing, information technology, engineering, product development, and other "white collar" operations. By expanding proven Lean methods from your manufacturing operations to your back-office processes, your organisation can continue to extend the benefits of Lean across the entire organisation.

Employee engagement is much more than just the latest HR buzzword. Typically defined as an individual’s degree of positive or negative emotional attachment to the person’s organisation, job, and colleagues, employee engagement is an important HR metric that has real bottom-line impact — perhaps now more than ever.

Manufacturing organisations face unique challenges when it comes to managing their workforce. In an environment where keeping costs down is paramount, and productivity is a top goal, how the organisation manages its people and delivers Core HR services can play a critical part in achieving both.

Hozelock faces the same challenges as many manufacturers with fluctuating material costs and the threat of cheaper products from the Far East. Added to this, the business is highly seasonal with peak production time from January to June and spikes in demand throughout the year when weather conditions are favourable. Having made substantial changes to the business over a five year period, the next phase in the company’s continuous improvement plan was to implement a more up-to-date people performance management system.