Schedule Manufacturing Workers with Snap Schedule

Manufacturers schedule manufacturing workers on-demand so labor cost control has always been a constant struggle. Poor shift scheduling on the shop floor can lead to increased operating costs, decreased sales, high worker turnover, and soaring grievances. Factory managers often spend countless hours on shift scheduling, trying to get their shifts and work schedules just right. Over-staffing wastes payroll dollars while under-staffing results in late deliveries and lost sales.

Manufacturing shift scheduling presents many challenges. Most manufacturing and production factories operate around the clock (24/7), having many job positions to schedule and multiple shifts to cover. Within each shift, factory workers must also be assigned to various tasks or work orders. Union and FLSA rules may place restrictions on work hours, overtime compensation, and the types of shift rotation that can be implemented. The schedulers must also consider time-off requests, labor rules, and worker availability when developing schedules for manufacturing facilities. Snap Schedule has robust features to help manufacturing companies manage all facets of their employee scheduling.

Using spreadsheets, documents, online calendars, or paper to schedule manufacturing workers and production staff may be familiar. Perhaps it’s the way your organization has always done shift scheduling. While these methods may be sliding by, they lack the capabilities and features needed to increase efficiency, reduce labor costs, and promote employee work-life balance.

Watch this video to see how Snap Schedule can help you easily schedule manufacturing workers. Migrating from the old method to Snap Schedule is simple and painless. You’ll wonder why you didn’t switch sooner.

Schedule Manufacturing Workers Video Transcript

Staff scheduling for manufacturing plants, is moving to the cloud. Whether you’re making popular snack foods, consumer electronics, or automotive parts, you can manage your whole team in a snap, with Snap Schedule 365.

You can log in from anywhere: on your desktop, on your laptop, even on your tablet.

Some manufacturing companies only use a handful of shifts, like a Day shift, a Night shift, and a Swing shift. You can drag and drop to add an employee to the right shift. Or, see all of your employees, and all of their assignments, and then drag and drop to assign a shift to the right person, on the right day. Or, you can see one employee’s schedule for the whole month, and assign some time off, like a paid training session or vacation time.

Or perhaps your schedule is a little more complex. You can describe the different kinds of employees you need, like Production Workers, Machine Operators, and Quality Engineers. Define the locations where they work, like different plants within your company, or even the individual assembly lines within each plant. And then, set up your own custom shifts, like a maintenance shift for Line 2.

You might also add shifts for any seasonal changes, like the big push to release a new product. When the launch is complete, you can deactivate this shift with a single click—and reactivate it for your next launch.

Likewise, you might deactivate a seasonal employee, and reactivate them when they come back. And you can also specify each employee’s hourly wage… the locations where they’re authorized to work… how many hours they’re willing to work per day, and per week, and more.

Now, check our planning tools. You can easily see how many production workers or supervisors you need for each shift, and how many you’ve assigned, so you can maintain proper coverage without overstaffing. And, see how many hours you’ve assigned to each employee, and their total pay with overtime, so you can easily stick to your budget. Snap Schedule 365 can even flag any problems automatically. For instance, this part-time employee has too many hours, so we’ll give one of their shifts to somebody else.

Or maybe you’d like a more detailed schedule. You can define the individual tasks that need to be done during a shift, like packing, shipping, and inspections. Specify which tasks each employee is authorized to perform. And then, assign those tasks within each day’s shift. For instance, one production worker might pack orders all day, while another might install refrigeration units in the morning and assemble electronics in the afternoon. Again, we’ll automatically flag any problems, like a task an employee isn’t authorized to perform. And at the bottom, you’ll see how many people you’ve assigned to each task, and how those assignments change through the day. You can even click “Configure,” and then select any task you like, to instantly highlight that task on the page. Now, you’ll always know who should be at each station, moment by moment throughout the day.

When your schedule is complete, you can send it out to your staff by email—or, just post it online, and invite your employees to log in from their web browser, or using our mobile apps for iPhone and Android. And you can also allow them to request time off, trade shifts with one another, punch in when they start their shift, and more.

You can even share Snap Schedule 365 with your senior staff, and use role-based security to easily control their access. Perhaps a supervisor can assign shifts and approve trades… and an administrator can add new employees and run reports. It’s all up to you.

Thanks for watching. To learn more, please visit www.SnapSchedule365.com, and request a free, live demo—or sign up for a 30-day free trial. With just a few clicks, you can create a sample manufacturing company, complete with employees, shift assignments, time-off requests, and more. And then, you can explore all of our features, share Snap Schedule 365 with your senior staff, and try out our mobile apps and employee self-service features, for free. Sign up today, at www.SnapSchedule365.com.