Customer Success Story

Summary

A Big 3, Fortune 50 auto manufacturer with over 100,000 employees in North America and generating $150B+ in annual revenue needed a complete overhaul of its manual staff scheduling process, which was time-consuming, inefficient, and error-prone. In addition, the manufacturer required a simple, streamlined way to ensure proper staffing for its numerous 24/7 facilities, as well as address union grievances.

Challenge

This major auto manufacturer has numerous 24/7 facilities and was relying on manual, time-consuming staff scheduling process. They developed an in-house solution to schedule a large number of employees, with their team spending up to 40 hours a week managing staff rosters. It was critical to ensure multiple locations were properly staffed with the required skills and certifications. They also had received numerous union grievances due to non-compliance with United Auto Workers Union rules for employee scheduling.

Solution

The manufacturer chose Shiftboard’s employee scheduling software because its tailor-fit platform saves valuable management time, reduces labor costs, and virtually eliminates compliance issues related to staff scheduling. The company’s extensive work with manufacturers demonstrated a deep understanding of how to simplify the complex needs of the industry

The team at Shiftboard met and exceeded our expectations in terms of delivery time, degree of customization, and quality of customer care. They provided us with a comprehensive scheduling solution, not just a service.

Plant Engineer Manager
Big 3 Auto Maker

Results

Within three months, the manufacturer reduced the time spent on staff scheduling by 80 percent—from 40 hours a week to just eight hours. In addition, instead of eight supervisors managing scheduling, it’s now just one. This has greatly freed up management time to focus on driving higher productivity for their plants.

Keeping an eye on the bottom line is critical for all major manufacturers. This manufacturer was able to utilize the solution’s “candidate finder” feature to automatically place the most cost-effective employee and create custom reports to monitor progress, saving $1.5 million in overtime costs in just the first year. Since Shiftboard automates the exact employee assignment required by their union, scheduling efficiency dramatically increased while union compliance was ensured. Integrated worker-friendly scheduling saved the manufacterer $800 per employee per year on penalties associated with wrongful overtime assignments.

Because Shiftboard’s software platform adapts to every unique business rule, industry regulation and union requirement regardless of location, this auto manufacturer reduced scheduling complaints by 93 percent. Team leaders now spend more time managing people and less time managing scheduling.