Labor Tracking

Labor tracking can help you plan your scheduled factory labor more accurately as well as now being able to compare your planned labor with your actual usage.

For the benefits of Labor Tracking see: Benefits

For a video explaining Labor Tracking see: Labor Tracking Video

General Information

Labor tracking is designed to forecast, collect, and report labor hours by machine, job, shift, or employee. Labor is collected and tracked by personnel logging in and out at a DCM. The same person, or people, can be logged onto one or many machines at the same time depending on the work being done.

For these reasons, it is not advised to be used as a time and attendance system. It will provide a window to where and how labor is used on the shop floor.

Management will receive a much more detailed picture of the time spent on setup, maintenance, idle time, wait time, and other assigned labor categories. It can also report time spent at the machine by support personnel.

And as job history is developed the Job History Labor Reports can be used to forecast staffing requirements on a shift or weekly basis.

*Please Note: To make this feature available you must open your Configuration Software Program, select the 'Shop Floor' item menu and select 'Machine Setup'.

For the Machines you wish to track Labor History on you must insure that the "Labor History Size" setting is NOT set to '0'.

Configuration

NOTE: Creation and Editing of both Labor Categories and Employees can be done from the Shop Floor Configuration program, selecting the Labor menu item and then Labor Setup. You must define the Work Center you wish to edit from the drop down menu. Additional Work Centers can be created from the 'Groups' menu item and selecting 'Work Center Setup'.

Labor Categories - Creating and Editing

Once the Labor Categories tab is selected there five(5) options that can be set; Category Name, Forecast Type, Auto Logout, Multiple Logout, and Cost Per Hour.

Category Name: Simply the name one wishes to use as delimiter.

Forecast Type: This is a record for the report, something to help differentiate an employee between a Setup technician and an Operations technician.

Auto Logout: If this option is selected to 'Yes' any Employee assigned to that category will automatically be logged out at the end of a shift, or at the start of an Idle period. If 'no' is selected then employees will remain logged in until they manually log out.

Multiple Login: This features, if 'Yes' is selected, lets any employee assigned to the Labor Category have the option of signing in to multiple machines. If no is selected, an employee who is currently logged in to a machine will automatically be logged out if they logs in to a different machine.

Cost Per Hour: This is simply an option to track the cost it will be per hour for each category.

Employees -Creating and Editing

Selecting the 'Employee' tag gives you a table much like the one used for 'Labor Categories'. There are two columns that can be edited, 'Employee ID' and 'Employee Name'. The rest of the columns are created by the 'Labor Categories' tab.

Employee Name: Enter the name of the Employee(s), one on each line.

Employee ID: This is the number that employees will use in order to log in at the DCM of a machine. If badge readers or bar code scanners are to be used at the DCM, this must be the number that is contained on the card to be scanned.

Labor Categories: Select the categories that the employee is in using the check boxes.

CAUTION: Employee lists must be created manually for every Work Center. You cannot share lists between Work Centers.

Monitoring Labor

Labor Status -Viewing and Logging Out

Labor Status is a screen that allows the viewing of current employees that are logged in to the system. To view a list of currently logged in employees:

Launch the Monitor Software
From the Monitor menu item select Labor Status
Select a work center from the drop down, in the upper left hand corner of the Labor Status screen. This will fill the grid with a list of current employees logged in, for the selected work center. The grid then displays several factors; the machine the employee is on, the name of the employee, the Labor Category they're in, the start date and time, the hours they've been logged in, the Operator Utility, and then the Down Time, Net Pieces, Rejected Pieces, and Operation Efficiency numbers of the machine.

Note: You can also view employees that have logged out, and past shifts that employees have been logged in/out on. The drop down box next to the Work Center gives you access to those past shifts.

Labor History - Editing and Deleting

Labor History is a screen that allows the viewing, modification, and deletion of labor records for shifts that have already completed. To edit labor history:

Launch the Monitor Program.
From the History menu item select Labor History.
Select a valid Work center from the drop down in the top left corner of the screen. Once a valid work center has been selected the machine drop down will be filled with a list of machines for that work center.
Select a valid machine from the machine drop down list. Once a valid machine has been selected, the job drop down will be filled with a list of jobs for that machine.
Select a valid job from the Job drop down list. Once a valid Job is selected the shift drop down will be filled with a list of shifts for that job.
Select a valid shift from the shift drop down list. Once a valid shift has been selected, the grid will display the employee records for that selection. The grid displays the employee name, labor category, date/time logged out, down time, reject count, and part count.
To edit an employees' history records, edit the columns data that corresponds to the employees' record. All fields, except for 'Employee Name' and 'Total Hours' can be edited.
To delete an employee record, select the delete check box in the grid next to the desired record.
To save the changes made, select the 'Save' button at the bottom of the Labor History screen.
To back out changes, select the 'Restore' button at the bottom of the Labor History screen.

View & Print - Viewing and Printing of Labor Records

View and Print is a program that allows the viewing and printing of various shop reports. Three new reports were added for Labor Tracking.

Labor by Job - Labor history by job. Selection by job and job ending date range. To view or print this report:

Launch the View and Print program
From the 'Reports' menu item select 'Print Job Reports'
Select the 'Print' button at the bottom of the screen.

Labor by Shift - Labor history by shift. Selection by display group and shift starting date range. To view and print this report:

Launch the View and Print program.
From the 'Reports' menu item select 'Print Shift Reports'
Select the 'Print' button at the bottom of the screen.

Labor Definitions - Labor category and employee definitions for all work centers. To view or print this report:

1.Launch the View and Print Program
From the 'Reports' menu item select the 'Print Shop Floor Definitions'
Select the 'Print' button at the bottom of the screen.

DCM Operation -Viewing and Logging In/Out

The DCM's have a display screen for entering and viewing Labor data. This screen allows login/logout and viewing the current employees logged in on a machine-by-machine basis.

To login/out:

From the main DCM menu select the 'Production' button at the bottom of the screen
Select the 'Labor' button near the top of the screen
-A screen will appear with all of the currently logged in employees to that machine
Type employee ID number in to the pin-pad and hit 'Enter'. OR Scan barcode on employee ID badge.
To logout an employee, reenter the employee ID and hit 'Enter' OR rescan employee badge.

NOTE: It is possible, if the Labor Category allows, for a employee to select what category they are logging in to a machine under. Example: When John Smith logs in he may choose to log in under 'Material Handler' and/or 'Engineering'. This depends on the settings made for the Labor Categories.