Overstaffing & Demand: Where Excel Fails Workforce Planning
Overstaffing by just 3% can lead to US$119,100 in extra costs every year, according to a whitepaper from MHP.
A single manufacturing site with 5,000 employees could save millions of dollars every year by using integrated planning tools.
They can also support faster reactions to production changes.
MHP’s Industrial Cloud Solutions integrate relevant data sources for transparent, agile planning across all time horizons.
Workforce planning in Excel
While Excel is a tool that can feel familiar, MHP’s whitepaper argues it has become a “bottleneck” and “budget killer”.
Manual inputs increase the risk of errors, which can lead to production downtime costing up to US$23,800 per line per day.
When demand drops suddenly, Excel is too slow to adjust staffing plans because the sheets often need to be rebuilt from scratch.
Lack of precise planning in Excel can also lead to costly overstaffing.
The whitepaper explains that Excel functions as a "silo solution" that fragments data across different devices and versions, preventing a clear view of the overall status.
It lacks robust data integration from central systems like ERP, MES or HR systems, leading to misaligned files and manual rebooking.
Excel cannot support rolling or scenario-based planning effectively, forcing planners to rely on estimates.
Boosting production performance
Management, the whitepaper says, expects top performance across three competing pillars:
- Cost reduction, targeting overstaffing and downtime
- Increased productivity, optimising production processes through better staff utilisation
- Agility, creating faster and more flexible planning routines.
When using a unified system, leaders across manufacturing businesses can all benefit.
Production controllers can shift from static plans to ones tied to real production goals.
Plant management can gain transparency by combining budget, productivity and absence planning in one tool.
Shop floor team leads can replace manual coordination, such as through the phone or WhatsApp, with full transparency on worker availability.
HR planners can make use of real-time data for scenario planning, instead of relying on estimates.
Better workforce planning
MHP’s whitepaper explains that specific capabilities beyond scheduling can bring even more benefits.
Skill management can be achieved using a qualification matrix, ensuring the right people are in the right roles.
This can be particularly impactful for complex setup or inspection processes.
By setting up a structured way to borrow and lend employees, businesses can fill gaps without creating new bottlenecks.
The ability to test different staffing models allows budget impacts to become visible before implementation.
MHP’s Industrial Cloud Solutions
MHP has three decades of expertise ready to deploy through its integrated Industrial Cloud Solutions.
It combines both deep industry and IT expertise in a modular solution portfolio designed to digitise production and logistics.
The open cloud architecture solutions have been developed and tested in demanding manufacturing environments.
Every solution is based on real-world best practices and proven in production, alongside being continuously refined.
The platform’s modular design helps to ensure seamless integration into existing IT landscapes and allows for scalability across the shop floor and control of complex supply networks.
Read the full whitepaper to learn how to replace manual effort with transparency, agility and control.
