Workforce management solution helps Joy Global improve performance

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

Joy Global selected aKronos automated workforce management solutionto meet itsneeds.

Global standard for workforce management

Joy Global has made its Kronos solution the global standard for timekeeping, attendanceand shop floor labour tracking for its hourly workforce of shop floor union, non-union andcontractors at its manufacturing and service centres, as well as field services personnelat locations around the world. The Kronos solution has the flexibility to accommodatelocal 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 byKronos Workforce Activities and our SAP system, which are tightly integrated,” saysChris Wright, Joy Global’s project manager for Kronos labour.

Every hour, SAP sends open confirmations — each representing an order, part numberand operation — to Joy Global’s Kronos solution. Using barcode scanners attached toKronos time clocks and PCs, shop floor employees post their hours and the quantitycompleted against a specific confirmation. Joy Global tracks the time spent working onproduction orders and captures in which business unit, location, cost centre and workcentre 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, whichis posted against the order in SAP, helping increase accuracy in billable hours. Timespent 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,” saysLynne 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 theintranet, and email it to operations management, helping them determine how to improveoperational performance.

Shop floor managers view real-time reports to see which employees are working oneach 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., timenot spent on direct production). Employees allocate their time to specific job codes, suchas waiting for a crane to become available. At the end of the year, a report shows howmuch time was spent on each indirect activity. If an excessive amount of time was spent等待一个起重机,数据可以帮助证明咕噜咕噜叫chasing an additional crane for the site.

Mining data to improve performance

The company can now compare performance from site to site, which supportsproduction decisions. If it takes longer to build a part at one site than another, by分析数据,公司可以决定和m的原因ake changes to improveperformance 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 moreaccurate routing and standard costs,” notes Schreibel. “This will help increaseprofitability, because we have a better handle on our cost structure.”

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