Case Study: 1

Gained efficiencies through managed staffing

A JIT manufacturing facility with annual sales of over £12 million, relies on temporary staffing for 90% of it's workers. Their production schedule is volatile, with frequent peaks and troughs. To remain competitive, they needed to reduce their defect and wastage rates and improve plant efficiency. Quality improvements were difficult to implement due to high worker turnover. This client decided to consolidate their supplier base and selected us as their staffing partner to gain greater control over the quality and productivity of their supplemental workforce.

Our Solution

We established an on-site staffing Partnership Program. To improve the quality of assignment employees, we developed customized recruitment, orientation and training programs, created a video to help them understand the company and the job they would be performing, instituted a career path for growth and established formal employee recognition and reward programs to build morale and retention.

Results

• Temporary staff turnover reduced from 300% per month to less than 10%.
• Reject rate reduced from 10% to 1%.
• Waste rate reduced from 7-8% to 5%.
• Plant efficiency raised from 90% to nearly 98%.
• Now able to handle a 20% increase in business within a week

Case Study: 2

Control Turnover - Improve Operating Results

A clothing distribution center receives branded apparel produced around the world for distribution to retail customers throughout the UK. The facility uses a flexible staffing approach to keep fixed costs at a minimum and to manage fluctuations in demand. A temporary workforce performs the receiving, forklift, selecting, packing and shipping functions.

As the local labour market tightened, the client started experiencing high turnover in the temporary workforce. During that same year, management made a number of material handling enhancements to help reduce cycle time and cost-per-unit. However, the investments made in automating the facility did not yield the desired results because of the high turnover the client was experiencing in its temporary workforce. Management decided to consolidate its staffing suppliers.

Our Solution

We established an on-site office with a manager to oversee the entire process. After "working the floor" themselves, our on-site managers now provided training, supervision and counselling to our assignment employees and participated in the client's operational meetings. To help reduce turnover, we customized selection, screening and evaluation and put in place pre-assignment "real-world" orientations and tours. We also set up quality assurance and employee recognition and reward programs.

Results

• Turnover was reduced from 60% to 5% over a 45-day period.
• Cost per unit dropped by 25% over a four-month period.
• The client's operations managers have more time to focus on strategic issues.