Let’s suppose someone walked into your office and said, “I just did some math and it looks like we need to make a change.” At that moment, you should realize that the easy part of Change Management has just been completed. Yes, I’m saying that “Math is the easy part.” Putting pen to paper and […]
Click to read more...I just saw a post on LinkedIn where a LEAN expert mentioned that 20% of implementing LEAN is having the right tools. The other 80% is mindset. In other words, the table must be set in order for dinner to be served. It strikes me that this is an “oft-overlooked” phase of every project. I […]
Click to read more...Once upon a time, about 28 years ago now, nearly every 24/7 operation in the country was using some version of a rotating 8-hour schedule. Ten years ago, I used to ask large groups of employees if any of them have ever worked one of those outdated 8-hour schedules and inevitably, several hands would go […]
Click to read more...As unemployment drops and wage pressures rise, companies are scrambling to find ways to attract people. This is an especially challenging task for companies that work around the clock. How can they be expected to attract people to jobs that require work on nights and weekends? Here is an example of two schedules that work […]
Click to read more...This is a 31 minute presentation on the impact of sleepiness on your workforce. Included are some suggestions for improving the alertness of your employees. This presentation will run automatically when you click on the picture below and has sound so make sure you have the time and have your headphones ready.
Click to read more...Let’s start with the disclaimer that “I am not showing you the answer to scheduling for every distribution center in the world.” My intent is to show you what I commonly run across as an issue with many of the distribution centers I have worked with. That issue is an unbalanced workload. Consider the following […]
Click to read more...Shift work – The more you learn about it, the more you find out how much you didn’t know. I have friends that know very little about what I do for a living. When I say “I evaluate, design and implement shift schedules,” they will respond with “Aren’t all shift schedules basically the same?” I […]
Click to read more...After 26 years of working with hourly employees all the way up to senior corporate executives, one thing strikes me as a universal truth – We don’t like to be told what to do. Shift workers are no different. Knowing this, at Shiftwork Solutions, we have developed a process of communication and participation to help […]
Click to read more...We all knew this was coming. We watched and cheered as unemployment numbers dropped, month after month. This meant the economy was recovering. Manufacturing, in many industries, has reached the tipping point and is returning to the United States at a pace not seen in decades. One of the results of this “bountifulness” is a […]
Click to read more...In my last post I talked about shift workers’ preferred shift, which is day shift, and the implications of that preference on worker satisfaction levels. An obvious follow-on question to the preferred shift assignment is to understand shiftworkers’ least-preferred shift. Over the last 23 years working with shift work operations, I have observed that there is often […]
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