MHI Solutions Improving Supply Chain Performance
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Amid low unemployment and stubbornly high turnover, many material‑handling companies have grudgingly concluded that there just isn’t enough talented labor available. Across industries, employers have stepped up recruiting efforts and increased wages but still lack sufficient manpower for their growing operations.
It’s easy to presume that “no one wants to work anymore,” as the familiar refrain goes, but Rahil Siddiqui, founder and chief executive of Wilya, believes there are deep pools of capable job seekers hidden within local communities. The trick, he said, is to make workplaces more attractive by offering workers the scheduling flexibility that they prioritize.
Many working‑age people are juggling childcare, eldercare, schooling, athletics, multiple jobs, relationships and hobbies that they’re passionate about, so a rigid 40‑hour workweek doesn’t work for them. But that doesn’t mean they’re unwilling to work, Siddiqui said.
Just look at the gig economy, where companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash have leveraged smartphone technology to build enormous fleets of drivers. For many gig workers, convenience and flexibility are the key factors driving them to show up, Siddiqui said.
“Many people want the flexibility to choose when or even if they work,” he said, “so when employers say there aren’t enough workers, that’s often based on the old‑school construct of people who are going to show up every day for an eight‑hour shift, instead of having a closed pool of flex labor that will jump in when and if they can.”
Wilya is among a group of tech startups with digital scheduling tools to help businesses ditch their Excel spreadsheets and optimize their labor utilization. Most operate under the software‑as-a‑service subscription model, including apps like Jolt, Connecteam, Trello, Homebase, Hitask and When I Work.
At MODEX 2024, Wilya won the Startup Pitch Competition, beating out two other young companies with innovative tech solutions. Back then, Wilya was known as Gig and Take, but the Mechanicsburg, Pa.‑based company was subsequently rebranded.
These software programs digitize the skills matrix or competency matrix—the visual tool managers use to map their employees’ skills, knowledge and behaviors to the core competencies required for their jobs.
Each employee in a manufacturing plant or warehouse will have a digital profile listing his skills, such as picking, packing, driving a forklift, product assembly, equipment maintenance and machine operation. Employees can use their smartphones to input their availability, request time off, call out sick and update their preferences whenever they please. and which types—of labor they’ll need for each shift based on past sales figures, current promotions and other business dynamics. By rightsizing staffing levels according to order volume, businesses can avoid excessive labor costs from overstaffing and production shortfalls from understaffing.
“A lot of work happens within the four walls of a factory or warehouse that doesn’t require weeks of training,” Siddiqui said. “If you’re thoughtful and granular about the skills that are needed for various jobs, then you can build an on‑call pool of workers fairly easily.”
Boosting Customer Satisfaction
Kevin Reader, vice president of marketing at MHI member KNAPP, said digital scheduling tools powered by artificial intelligence can make staffing recommendations in real time based on current business dynamics. With a deep pool of part‑timers, companies can call in reinforcements whenever they’re behind schedule, enabling them to meet consumers’ expectations for fast order fulfillment.
“The new tools give managers the ability to look at the total pool of labor, including part‑timers, and integrate them into the planning process at the last possible moment,” he said. “There are some workers who want that flexibility, especially young people. Flex scheduling gives you access to a different type of worker who may be willing to come in on short notice or for a shorter period of time.”
Digital profiles help to ensure that employees are scheduled to work only when they’re available and when their skills are needed, and that they’re assigned only to tasks they’re trained to perform. The profiles also help managers to see what types of training employees need in order to progress in their careers and become more valuable to the company, according to Ann Marie Jonkman, vice president of industry strategies for MHI member Blue Yonder.
The digitized skills matrix allows companies to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction when it comes to complex tasks such as customized engraving or gift wrapping, where workers have to get it right the first time, she said.
“First‑time quality matters to customers in those instances, so it doesn’t help companies to just throw labor at those situations if they’re not meeting those first‑time requirements,” Jonkman said. “You’re looking to forecast your labor needs, but not just the people and the hours; it’s also the skillset that you need to meet your customer-service levels.”
If a manager sees that he’ll need 10 pickers and packers to work Wednesday night, for example, he can create a digital work order and publish it in the software system. Employees who have the skills to work that shift will get a notification through the smartphone app that work is available and can choose to accept or decline that shift.
The leading scheduling apps can be customized to a company’s individual labor preferences. For example, unionized manufacturing plants can offer available shifts to qualified employees in the order in which they joined the company. Only after long‑tenured employees pass on available shifts will those opportunities be offered to newer hires.
Alternatively, companies can offer available shifts on a first‑come, first-served basis, rewarding those employees who show the most initiative. Conversely, if some workers aren’t getting enough hours, making them more likely to quit, managers can give those underutilized workers first dibs on available shifts, distributing the available hours more evenly.
Yet another option is to leverage performance data from the warehouse execution system to rank employees according to productivity, then give top performers first access to overtime and available shifts. That practice can spur average employees to improve their performance if they want to gain access to lucrative overtime shifts.
By making those staffing decisions more transparent and data‑driven, companies can promote a sense of fairness in the workplace, which boosts morale and decreases turnover, said Siddiqui, of Wilya. Workers no longer will wonder whether they didn’t get overtime because their manager has a personal grudge against them.
Shifting on the Fly
Scheduling apps enable managers to move quickly whenever order volume significantly exceeds projections or when workers call out sick or have family emergencies. When managers get an app notification that a scheduled worker can’t show up, they can immediately publish a digital work order. Workers are notified that work is available and can decide whether that shift fits into their schedule.
If a full‑time employee calls out sick, companies can use multiple employees to piece together a full day’s work. If one worker can stay for five hours and another for three, for example, managers can quickly offer abbreviated shifts to both of them.
Without the scheduling tool, managers often have to call employees on the phone or send text messages seeking a replacement, and employees who can’t work the full shift often miss out on chances to earn money.
When employers advertise flexible positions instead of standard shifts, they typically get three to 10 times more applicants from online job postings, according to Wilya. In addition, overtime costs are reduced by as much as 50% and recruiting costs decrease by up to 35%, the company said.
Managers benefit from the software too since they no longer have to address staffing shortages through “brute force,” according to Siddiqui. When managers pepper workers with phone calls and text messages urging them to work or force them to work overtime and unplanned shifts, employee morale suffers and turnover stays high.
Scheduling tools allow managers to fill available shifts without working their way down a long list of phone numbers or sending texts to dozens of workers to fill a single position. The apps can automatically generate schedules based on worker availability and company needs, taking the manual labor out of scheduling.