Bombardier achieves enhanced productivity with workforce solution

Bombardier Transportation, a global leader in rail technology, is able to retain the highest levels of quality and sustain its leadership position by continuously ensuring that it is at the forefront of technology — this includes workforce management.

Bombardier is required to have complete information in real time on the workforce and resources on the shop floor that are being used against each work order. And in order to maintain its competitive position, it needs a solution that helps control costs, provides effective workforce and resource management, and helps adhere to and maintain productivity on global standards/metrics.

Bombardier required a solution that would help: identify the status of the work order automatically without manual intervention in real time against the plan; effectively deploy the required workforce for achieving the output and within cost; measure workforce productivity in accordance with global standards; manage unnecessary costs such as overtime; and ensure compliance with the law of the land and other company policies.

SAP was deployed for managing the enterprise resources of the organization, but there were areas that could not be addressed by the deployed solution. This unaddressed requirement prompted Bombardier to search for a solution that would effectively bridge the gap between actual status on the shop floor and the ERP solution, and complement the complete IT and HR setup aspects by integrating seamlessly.

The company was specifically looking for a solution for its manufacturing site in Savli, Gujarat, India. Since it was a greenfield project, Bombardier wanted to have a comprehensive solution from day one that would plug the possible gaps in the current processes and automate the same. As Bombardier is a global entity, it was required that the deployed solution complement the existing ERP solution and extend to address requirements such as controlling the entry and exit of authorized personnel, as well as canteen management and visitor management.

Bombardier selected the Kronos 4500 terminal coupled with the Kronos Workforce Timekeeper and Workforce Activities applications to automate the punch-to-pay cycle, canteen coupon management, and access control, and most importantly enable real-time shop floor data collection for visibility into workforce and resource utilization and real-time data on status of work orders. The Kronos Workforce Connect application was deployed to integrate seamlessly with SAP and ADP for export and import of data.

The Kronos solution now provides real-time labour and workforce cost information at the fingertips of the supervisors. Managers can immediately know the status of customer orders in real time rather than wait for information to trickle through at the end of the day after manual collation of data. Supervisors can view the WIP using multiple tools such as My Genies, reports, etc., that are provided as a standard feature in Kronos. These functionalities help a manager know the completion status of work orders in his department. 

As a process, the work order is generated in the SAP and the same is printed in a barcode format, and the Kronos 4500 terminal is used to capture the shop floor information by reading the barcode information on the work order and the badge ID of the employee. The same terminal is capable of reading both the badges of employees and the work orders. This mapping of work order against the employee badge ID provides complete information on the status of who is working on which work order and for how long. This data helps in understanding the productivity of employees as well. The data captured is then exported into SAP for further planning in the ERP.

The Kronos solution provides the ability to optimize direct labour resources through waste reductions and to collect and analyse labour data across a wide range of criteria.

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