Automaker controls labour costs and improves productivity with workforce management solution

Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. – Manufacturing Division (MMNA – Mfg.), located in Normal, Ill., was looking for a new workforce management system that did more than just collect time and attendance information. It had to support and quantify daily improvements in the productivity of its workforce to help ensure future competitiveness. A workforce management solution from Kronos had just what MMNA – Mfg. was looking for.

With Kronos, MMNA – Mfg.’s managers are able to compare actual labour information with real-time data from the budgeting system. And they’re able to identify excess headcount in various areas throughout the plant. Having the right number of associates on the line has contributed to an impressive improvement in the plant’s HPV (hours per vehicle): a $1.3 million savings over a 12-month period.

Before Kronos, MMNA – Mfg. relied on a manual system for timekeeping, payroll, labour reporting and other workforce management needs. Paper timecards were collected by supervisors, and they were totalled and processed for payroll. Then they were sorted and compiled to produce labour reports. The process was labour-intensive, time-consuming and ineffective as a labour-reporting tool.

Enter Workforce Timekeeper. 

“We selected Workforce Timekeeper along with Kronos’ data collection devices,” recalls accounting manager Andy Whaley. ”Now our employees only have to swipe their ID badges through these terminals, and their labour information is immediately captured and stored. It’s fast. It’s easy. And it helps us make management decisions for each shift.”

Consistent application of numerous pay rules has made addressing the needs of a unionized workforce much easier for the company.

”As an automotive assembly operation, we must comply with the MMNA – Mfg./United Auto Workers (UAW) Collective Bargaining Agreement,” says Whaley. ”Our Kronos solution has streamlined this process and made it easier to support these requirements.

”We began by documenting all of the pay rules, including third shift maintenance, seven-day operations, and other issues like 24-hour rules,” Whaley explains. ”Once these rules were documented by payroll and verified by HR, we worked with our Kronos consultant to configure the pay rules to our system. With Kronos, we are assured the pay rules are applied consistently with minimal exceptions.”

MMNA – Mfg. also upgraded the way it uses labour data for reporting. With Kronos, the company can now access real-time, on-demand labour reports. This means the end of picking up reports in a central location and distributing them around a 2.5-million-square-foot facility. 

MMNA – Mfg. also enjoys its ability to easily access high-quality, granular information to generate reports on overtime hours. Managers use Workforce Timekeeper’s sorting capabilities to see which employees are working overtime. A single, accessible report is quickly generated and helps management make better labour decisions. 

”We can easily generate these reports each day, and they help us keep the appropriate amount of associates on the line,” explains Whaley. ”This has enabled us to save between $50,000 and $100,000 in labour costs each month — a major part of the overall savings we have realized with Kronos.

”The results are very exciting,” Whaley concludes. ”Accountability is way up, and excess hours are way down. Workforce Timekeeper has given us the labour reporting tools we need to support operations management and continue implementing productivity improvements.”

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