Spring 2009

Even if you're already using a labour optimisation system in your warehouse, Manhattan Associates reckons you should be able to make even greater savings with the release of a new product, Labour Schedule Optimisation. It says this is the first product in its field to tackle 'the unique and complex needs' of companies with distribution operations.

The system is said to go beyond other supply-chain products designed for store settings, taking account of factors such as number of workers, skill levels, individual performance levels, length of shifts, overall workload, break times and hourly rates.

Manhattan claims that this system could bring you cost savings you 6 to 9 per cent on top of the 15 to 20 per cent that are possible with its existing Labour Management solution.

The secret lies in the fine detail. It considers not just obvious parameters such as availability, walking speed and so on; it also goes down to the level of the smallest time period of work that can be assigned to an employee, the maximum number of employees that can work simultaneously, and the desire to keep employees working continuously in the same job function.

 

Apart from reducing labour costs, it is also said to cut down the scheduling task that managers have to confront.