In the manufacturing and distribution space, it’s exceptionally rare to see a business execute perfectly on getting the right amount of labor each day. While there are plenty of reasons for this, it typically stems from the operations team not having the right tools and software in place to accurately calculate an optimal labor plan. Even when they do get it right, they may not have the capacity to properly execute that labor plan. The reason being is that the labor planning process has always been disassociated with the labor sourcing process. This is where Veryable can help.
In this article, we'll cover how using both Veryable's Workforce Management Tool and On-Demand Labor Marketplace together provides a one-stop shop for giving your team the tools and resources they need to meet business objectives and deliver maximum value for the customer.
All too often, operations leaders rely on old habits by staffing to averages and using excel spreadsheets to manage their labor. While this may look desirable at first due to the low upfront cost and perceived simplicity, it isn't sustainable in a high-growth environment. In order to meet ever-changing operational demands, leaders have to be proactive and agile - using static staffing and spreadsheets with siloed information won’t cut it. The result of relying on “the way things have always been done” is wasted time, inflated labor costs, and lost productivity.
With Veryable’s Workforce Management tool, say goodbye to wasted time and money spent managing your workforce with outdated spreadsheets, and hello to a more efficient and cost-effective solution. As a company of former operations leaders, we understand the unique challenges you face, and that’s why we’ve built a solution that puts you in control. By integrating with your existing systems (ERP, WMS, MES, HRIS, etc.), WFM does the busy work for you by using real-time data to help you monitor your daily production demands, optimize your labor plan, and monitor performance. Gone are the days of costly forecasting inaccuracies, manual spreadsheet updates, and back-of-the-napkin estimates – here to stay is automated labor planning and performance-based decision making.
Between PTO and mid-week adjustments to the production schedule changing labor needs, the time spent on identifying and filling labor gaps can be significant - this is why we've introduced the Text to Schedule feature in our Workforce Management Tool.
Need to add or remove additional labor hours to a shift? Simply send out a message to the appropriate workers with the Voluntary Time-Off or Voluntary Time-In request and allow them to accept the offer with a simple text. The system will then add them to the schedule and update your planned output for that shift. This means that you can say goodbye to group chats, verbal communications, and time-consuming manual schedule updates.
While Workforce Management will help you predict upcoming labor needs and identify gaps in your operation, addressing these with a fixed amount of labor is impossible and cost-ineffective. Within WFM, you'll have direct access to thousands of ready-to-work operators, helping you create flexibility in your operations and fill labor gaps at a moment's notice.
By building a labor pool, you gain the agility to scale labor up and down on a daily basis to mirror changes in demand. Having this capability will help you drive out excessive overtime costs and poor service during high demand periods, and lost productivity during low demand periods. By being able to match headcount to demand on a daily basis, you’ll also be able to maintain a lower more constant cost per unit.
When Workforce Management tells you that you’ll need 10 additional people on Friday to keep up with orders, you can deploy your flexible capacity from within this tool to tackle the extra volume and you won’t have to ask your full-time crew to stay late and work overtime. On the flipside, when the upcoming week is projected to be slow, you can taper down platform usage to rightsize your headcount and ensure you aren’t paying for unneeded labor.
You may say “the way we’ve always done it is by using overtime” – but this isn’t margin friendly, and too much of it will only burn out your employees. Leveraging on-demand labor helps keeps your labor costs low and can actually help you increase morale and retention among your full-time workforce and make them feel like they’re part of the elite crew. The ability to bring in on-demand labor to tackle demand spikes gives your full-time employees more predictability in their schedules and a better work-life balance. Now when there’s a sudden increase in demand, your full-timers don’t have to wonder if they’ll get a chance to see their family that week. Having this operational flexibility also means your full-time employees can use their PTO without feeling like they’re putting the whole facility behind and giving their coworkers more to do.
Leveraging both Veryable’s Workforce Management Tool and On-Demand Marketplace truly provides a one-stop shop for giving your team the tools and resources they need to deliver the maximum return for the business and the most value for the customer.
Instead of spending hours juggling multiple tools and spreadsheets each week, let Workforce Management do the hard work for you. Then, when the need arises, leverage Veryable’s on-demand labor marketplace to respond immediately and fuel your desired output. This makes you faster, more efficient, and gives you an edge over the competition in numerous ways.
To get started with on-demand labor, take 5 minutes to create your free business profile. Our team of operations experts will reach out to you shortly after to answer any questions you may have and ensure that your team is equipped for success.
To learn more about our Workforce Management Tool, schedule a demo.
Create a free business profile today to explore our platform.
