Workforce Scheduling for Warehouse Operations
Aligning tomorrow's workload with the labor capacity is a challenge every warehouse planner will immediately recognize. Efficiently deploying the workforce across multiple warehouses, and multiple warehouse zones within a site is an aspiration every warehouse operations manager can identify. ORTEC’s cloud-native solution, ORTEC Workforce for Warehousing (ORTEC WW), is designed to address the unique industry requirements for workforce scheduling warehouse operations in manufacturing and retail. The challenges of warehouse resource scheduling, or labor management, stem from:
- demand fluctuation, over time
- last-minute changes to forecast workloads
- Incomplete visibility and flexibility across large and often-siloed operations
Read further to learn more about workforce scheduling for warehouse operations.
The Central Scheduling Flow
While some departments may face staffing shortages, others might have availability. Collaborating across decentralized units to facilitate employee exchanges presents several challenges. For example, regarding skills management, especially when less formal or secondary skills become crucial for identifying suitable employees for reassignment between zones. Another challenge may arise from a reluctance to transfer employees, as there is a preference to keep them for unforeseen circumstances or internal operations. Additionally, time pressure can hinder effective collaboration in resolving tomorrow’s schedule.
ORTEC Workforce for Warehousing facilitates a central scheduling flow with an optimizer algorithm that automates the borrowing and lending between departments. ORTEC WW’s algorithm can optimize a schedule of hundreds and thousands of employees in one process. By optimizing the assignment of your employees across zones, you can make the most of the employees on your payroll, before hiring external workers.
Task Assignment at Crunch Time
Maintaining recurring working patterns, availabilities and absences, and shift scheduling are only part of the warehouse scheduling process. ORTEC Workforce for Warehousing also manages task scheduling based on expected workload information. ORTEC WW’s AI-powered algorithm provides visibility into anticipated staffing surpluses and shortages on a task level without the need for actual task assignments. This proactive insight, based on workload analysis, empowers effective task allocation even before tasks are publicly assigned. The efficiency and accuracy of the algorithm enables you to delay this process step, ensuring it runs with the most up-to-date demand insights.
Streamlined Temp Agency Scheduling
Even when your in-house capacity is optimized across various warehouse areas and across warehouses on your site, shortages may still occur and hiring temporary workers becomes a necessity. In warehouses where this is common practice, there is often a close cooperation with temp’ agencies or even an on-site presence of temp’ agency planners. To facilitate this process, ORTEC Workforce for Warehousing supports subcontracting shifts and tasks to temp’ agencies. The solution features an in-built collaborative platform where the temp’ agency can fulfil these requests. This collaborative platform accommodates both furnishing ad-hoc daily additions and delivering longer-term contracts spanning multiple days, weeks, or months. This platform enables the selection of the most suitable temporary worker from the agency's pool, based on historical performance, skills, and individual preferences.
Learn more about workforce scheduling for warehouse operations.
5% Increase in Productivity
Competently scheduled employees increase productivity, and a better-balanced workload leads to higher employee satisfaction.
10% Reduction in Overtime Spending
Better optimization of workload needs versus scheduled capacity decreases the need for overtime.
3% Reduction in Labor & Interim Expenses
Centralizing the scheduling process enables the optimization of imbalances between departments.
80% Reduction in Time Spent Creating Rosters
The application enables a shift from decentralized planning to centralized planning. This affects the number of planners required and the total planning time invested.
Solution Benefits
An effective workforce scheduling solution plays a pivotal role in enhancing warehouse productivity, streamlining operations, and minimizing labor costs.
- More Insight, More Control
Empower managers to construct workforce schedules and assign tasks for optimal efficiency and productivity. Schedules and task assignments can be easily adjusted in response to changes in demand or employee availability, ensuring ongoing efficiency. - Raise Warehouse Productivity
Optimized workforce scheduling boosts productivity by aligning the right employees, to the right shifts and the right tasks, at the right times. Employees are scheduled based on their skills and experience, leading to improved overall workforce efficiency. - Employee Satisfaction
Empowering employees to leverage their strengths leads to greater job satisfaction and a more balanced workload, contributing to overall employee contentment – and significant reductions in unplanned absence. - Flexibility
The highly flexible nature of the workforce scheduling solution allows for swift adaptation to changes in warehouse workload, seasonal variations, and employee availability. - Minimize Labor Costs
Optimizing internal capacity reduces the demand for temporary workers. Deploying the right employees in the right roles enhances productivity and streamlines planning and communication processes.
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