Plan headcount needs by production forecast

Description

This functional area involves predicting the number of employees necessary to meet projected production levels. It factors in variables such as seasonal demand, This process ensures an optimal staffing level, reducing staffing costs while enabling the company to meet its production targets.

Example Use Case

Scenario: An olive oil manufacturing and packaging plant is bidding on a large white label deal with a major retailer. This would triple production requirements. They need to forecast out hiring costs in the event they win this business.

Solution: Using the CPM software, the company uses past production data, seasonal trends, and projected contract demand to forecast the production volume in gallons. The software then ascertains the corresponding headcount needs, breaking them down into categories like packaging labor, temporary seasonal hires, shipping and receiving, and so on. This allows the company to efficiently plan for recruitment, training, and workforce deployment, thus ensuring they can meet the increased demand.

Considerations

When planning at this level, it is helpful if the system can plan for hires in groups. In the previous examples we have gallons of olive oil as the driver. Assume for every 100,000 gallons of oil we need 10 people on the packaging line, 5 in preparation, 5 in blending, 1 forklift driver, 2 warehouse technicians and 1 quality control supervisor. The system can cut than in half for say 50,000 gallons of production.

Perhaps gallons isn't the metric - maybe it is filled bottles. Whatever that metric is, make sure it allows a multitude of staff to be assigned to it.

Another method is to assign a hiring driver to another group of hires. For example, hire 1 manager for ever 20 assembly line workers. Make sure the system has a method that matches your specific approach to forecasting.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Forecasting Capability: What pre-built functionality exists that will enable production-based headcount planning? If there isn't any, do you have an example of something that has been configured in the product?
• Manufacturing Types: Do you cover both discrete and process manufacturing use cases for production-based headcount planning?
• Rule Creation: Is there an ability to create a rule that adds headcount based on other headcount needs?
• HR Integration: Can these headcount hiring needs be pushed into an HR system for fulfillment?