The winter holiday season is the busiest time of year for retail. To meet increased demand, shops often need to hire hundreds, or even - as in the case of logistics centres serving the e-commerce industry - thousands of temporary workers. However, ensuring the assumed level of efficiency then requires very good management and organisation of work. For this purpose, companies use dedicated software such as Time & Attendance (T&A) systems connected to the HR modules of ERP systems. Employers may also be assisted by modern Internet of Things technologies, such as Real-time Location Systems.
The demand for this type of solution is very high, as temporary workers play a key role for companies facing seasonality of demand. They can even be a source of competitive advantage for logistics centres or manufacturing plants that need to find staff quickly for a new project or seasonal work - including the busy festive period. However, both hiring and properly managing such workers poses many challenges.
Three main problems
Employers face three main problems when hiring temporary workers. These involve the day-to-day management of a much larger and inexperienced team, verifying the quality of the work of new hires and fairly accounting for their hours. It is particularly difficult to manage an increased number of employees when orders increase, existing processes perform less well and time pressures prevent them from improving. This leads to a decrease in average productivity and an increase in errors
To at least partially solve these challenges, employers often rely on technology. For example, they use time and attendance (T&A) systems, which collect attendance data by reading it from an access control system. This is certainly a big help in accounting for working time, but the big downside is that the data obtained by the T&A system, is not helpful for real-time management. However, there are already solutions on the market that use modern technologies of the Internet of Things - including RTLS (Real-time Location Systems) based on precise location measurements.
RTLS systems monitor the location and analyse the movement of workers throughout the plant and in real time. Such knowledge is particularly useful in large plants or warehouses where it is difficult to have a complete picture of operations based on observation alone. Data from RTLS systems can identify bottlenecks, misallocation of workers to tasks, and workers who need additional training - by comparing their work mode to the standards developed by permanent employees. Employers can also obtain reliable data in the case of piecework.
From theory to practice
RTLS solutions are particularly useful for logistics centres serving e-commerce shops that need to efficiently handle large numbers of orders in the run-up to Christmas and employ hundreds or even thousands of seasonal workers to do so. For example, a centre that starts recruiting seasonal workers in October to supplement its permanent team of warehouse workers needs to develop hiring and workflow plans several months in advance. Indoorway's solution allows this process to take place based on real data. The system can continuously monitor the movement of workers, scanners and trucks - so that all the main processes (receiving goods from suppliers, picking, sorting, loading onto trucks) can be precisely mapped - and know how to operate in the best way. In addition, the integration of Indoorway's data with the WMS also makes it possible to model the number of resources required for different order levels, which helps to plan the number of temporary workers. Then, each such employee will be given a location card and, after training, their area of responsibility will be added to the system. On this basis, we can see by how much and in what way the work of a newly arrived person differs from the standard set by permanent employees. With this knowledge, it is easy to select the team that needs additional training and build a better incentive system.
Reliable use of UWB in Industry 4.0
It is worth mentioning that the UWB solution itself is a radio communication technology designed for applications requiring short-range, fast and stable data transmission. Due to its unparalleled accuracy, speed and reliability, UWB was originally used in military applications. It is now becoming the preferred technology for locating objects moving in difficult manufacturing and warehouse spaces. It is also an essential solution for accurate distance measurement in asset and personnel control systems.
Indoorway is at the same time the first and only developer of a location measurement and resource movement analysis system for manufacturing companies based on UWB technology. Our goal is to provide such a solution to help manufacturing plants and warehouses further improve their competitiveness and realize multi-million dollar profits. In the changing business reality, only companies that can quickly react to changing conditions win, and without real data on production processes, this battle is hard to win.
Want to find out more? Visit the Indoorway solution page and see where the technology for asset movement location and process monitoring is performing well, or email us at indoorway@aiut.com.