Workforce management solution helps Joy Global improve performance

Joy Global, a leader in high-productivity mining solutions, previously had no standard time and attendance or labour collection tool for its facilities around the world. Its locations, which span six continents and more than 20 countries, used a mix of decentralized manual and legacy automated solutions. With time and attendance practices localized, the company wanted a global solution that could provide consistent processes across the organization, and consistent interfaces with its HR system.

Joy Global selected a Kronos automated workforce management solution to meet its needs. 

Global standard for workforce management

Joy Global has made its Kronos solution the global standard for timekeeping, attendance and shop floor labour tracking for its hourly workforce of shop floor union, non-union and contractors at its manufacturing and service centres, as well as field services personnel at locations around the world. The Kronos solution has the flexibility to accommodate local variances, including union and statutory requirements of the country or area.

Labour data visibility supports continuous improvement

“Our directive is to create a globally consistent labour reporting process supported by Kronos Workforce Activities and our SAP system, which are tightly integrated,” says Chris Wright, Joy Global’s project manager for Kronos labour. 

Every hour, SAP sends open confirmations — each representing an order, part number and operation — to Joy Global’s Kronos solution. Using barcode scanners attached to Kronos time clocks and PCs, shop floor employees post their hours and the quantity completed against a specific confirmation. Joy Global tracks the time spent working on production orders and captures in which business unit, location, cost centre and work centre the work was performed. This information is fed back to SAP every 15 minutes.

Employees at the service centres capture actual hours worked on a service order, which is posted against the order in SAP, helping increase accuracy in billable hours. Time spent on plant maintenance is measured as well.

“With the labour data collected in Kronos, we now compare actual hours to the standard, which we weren’t able to do before because we didn’t have visibility to the actuals,” says Lynne Schreibel, global Kronos manager for Joy Global.

This information is used to support continuous improvement. 

Utilizing labour data for informed decision-making

Global performance metrics — productivity, efficiency, utilization and idle or non-productive time — are reported weekly. Finance staff pull the weekly report, post it to the intranet, and email it to operations management, helping them determine how to improve operational performance.

Shop floor managers view real-time reports to see which employees are working on each production order. This real-time visibility supports day-to-day operational decision-making. 

For example, Joy Global uses its Kronos solution to measure all indirect time (i.e., time not spent on direct production). Employees allocate their time to specific job codes, such as waiting for a crane to become available. At the end of the year, a report shows how much time was spent on each indirect activity. If an excessive amount of time was spent waiting for a crane, the data can help justify purchasing an additional crane for the site.

Mining data to improve performance

The company can now compare performance from site to site, which supports production decisions. If it takes longer to build a part at one site than another, by analyzing data the company can determine why and make changes to improve performance or elect to build the part at the more efficient site.

Joy Global’s Kronos solution has become a critical financial and operational tool. 

“Our goal is to collect actual time and compare it to standards, which leads to more accurate routing and standard costs,” notes Schreibel. “This will help increase profitability, because we have a better handle on our cost structure.”

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