Automated workforce planning for the smart factory

Automated employee planning creates more transparency: Since the beginning of the year, the production plans for the total of 300 product variations of the Swiss chocolate wafer manufacturer Kägi Söhne AG in Lichtensteig, St. Gallen, which were created with the help of a mathematical model, have been loaded into the employee planning system, with which suitable personnel schedules are created in each case within three minutes on the basis of various components. For this purpose, work schedules are stored in the system that define how much time and how many employees are needed to produce a certain quantity of a specific product. In the next step of the automation process, a special matrix was stored with the qualifications and a corresponding role assignment, on the basis of which the defined requirements for the production of each product group can be met. 

Automated employee scheduling leads to higher satisfaction

Professional skills are one production component. Equally important is the availability of individual employees. The digitalized Kägi employee planning system therefore records working hours (full/part-time), hourly wages, availability for overtime, vacation days and specific blocked days, all of which can be automatically taken into account when planning for each order. The system also records the assignment of employees to the one to three shifts with which Kägi operates, depending on workload and product line. Numerical coding enables fair variation between shifts here.

The result: employee planning, which previously took up to one working day, is now available within a few minutes. "Especially when it comes to working hours, time balances and shift assignment, automated employee planning brings more transparency and fairness," explains Pascal Grin, COO of Kägi Söhne AG. "Comprehensible decisions ensure greater employee satisfaction in the long run. The feedback on automated workforce planning is positive, not least because our teams now receive their shift plans directly after completion of the production schedules and thus twelve hours earlier, without the previous one-day delay." 

First step: process of self-analysis

For automation to achieve such time savings and optimized processes, companies must always first go through a process of self-analysis. "Automation means questioning the system and finding a set of rules on the basis of which artificial intelligence works," says Memo Dener, CEO of axeed AG, which is accompanying Kägi on the path to "Smart Factory 2024." "The bottom line is that this leads to more than just the desired implementation of more efficient operations through automated processes. Companies get to know their processes, resources and opportunities better, which is an important basis for constant progress and further development."  

After production and employee planning, the next step at Kägi is real-time monitoring of machines so that the benefits of the automation processes already implemented can also be continued in this area.

Source and further information: axeed AG and Kägi Sons AG