Optimized Traffic-Driven Staff Planning Saves 40% of Time Spent Scheduling

Problem description

In 1995, MANOR purchased a software solution for the creation of labor rotas. Over the next decade the software underwent a multitude of individual adaptations to meet the needs of MANOR’s departmental units. Thus, over time, a heavily customized tool evolved that bore little resemblance to the original version, and which subsequently stopped being supported. The solution was also based on a technology which was costly to maintain from an IT perspective. By 2005, it had become essential for MANOR to review its planning processes, since the manual planning of individual activities using the current software was becoming excessively time-consuming. This problem was compounded by the software’s inability to properly establish future staffing requirements based on actual transactions and budgeted revenues.

In May 2005, MANOR established an entirely new planning philosophy which reversed the process which had hitherto been in use: now taking budgeted revenues and historical transaction data into account, the previous rostering principle of “who does what when” was transformed into a workforce management (WFM) solution which was geared towards customer footfall forecasts; in other words, demand-driven scheduling. Now MANOR required a software solution to support this new methodology.

Project description

InVision Software was selected to conduct a six-month pilot project in three department stores, following a detailed market analysis and a multi-stage selection process among providers of modern WFM systems. After successfully concluding the pilot phase and evaluating accurately the return on investment, MANOR’s project team made an unanimous decision to deploy InVision’s Enterprise WFM solution across the MANOR estate.
In addition to fulfilling the general business requirement for scheduling against demand, the InVision solution also fulfilled all functional criteria demanded by MANOR, which included:
- Flexibility of interface
- Multilingual capability (French, German, Italian) for the various locations in Switzerland
- Full coverage of Swiss labor laws
- Alignment of the solution with MANOR’s processes
- Release security maintained throughout customer-specific adaptations
- Automation of the planning process (“one-click solution”) as far as possible
- Localized use of the system by approximately 1,000 planners at around 70 locations
- Efficient and flexible labor utilization planning for a total of 8,000 employees, 30%-40% of whom are part-time workers

One of the main challenges in delivering a WFM system against the specific needs of MANOR was the requirement forecast. To calculate the staffing requirement, first of all a figure was set for the planned annual revenues, of which a specific percentage was set as a staffing budget. This was converted into a total hours requirement, and was fed into the WFM system as a work volume for constant activities (such as replenishment) on the one hand, and for customer-oriented activities (such as cashier duty) on the other, apportioned to the sales days throughout the year. For the expected number of transactions in a specific period, MANOR used historical data from external sources such as point of sale systems and merchandise management systems. Finally, the budgeted daily revenues were incorporated in the requirement calculation.
For scheduling the necessary staff in line with the forecast requirement, first the up-to-date staff master data, including all contractual agreements and employment law regulations, was automatically imported into the InVision Enterprise Server via an interface from SAP. Using the InVision AdminPro module, the planner or head of department added any data that could not be imported automatically; this included the qualifications and skills of the employees, planned absences and the number of evenings that the employees could work. Once this data was in place, InVision’s AutoScheduler module then generated rosters that ensure optimum coverage of the forecast requirements automatically, taking all the rules into account – with a single click. In addition to the defined activities such as "sales" or "point of sale", particular attention was paid to the lunch breaks. As there was always a higher customer frequency around lunchtime, the employees working in these traditional peak periods were automatically allocated on a staggered basis, to ensure maximum coverage.
Around 1,000 departmental planners in the MANOR department stores now receive a forecast of the expected customer flow in their sales areas as well as the corresponding work schedules of their staff, again, from a single click of a button. They can then use the tool to adjust these schedules manually in accordance with unplanned events, such as absences or lateness.

Results

With the successful roll-out of the InVision solution in all MANOR’s department stores, clear benefits have been identified. First, the planning effort at MANOR has been reduced by about 40%. The assessment of demand and allocation of shifts are carried out automatically with a single click of a button so that the planning process – in a four-week cycle with two weeks’ lead time – is achieved very rapidly.
In order to gain acceptance of the schedules among staff, their availability, private appointments and planned absences are now registered prior to the creation of the schedule and taken into account during the scheduling process. During the pilot project, it was recognized that this process resulted in a significant increase in staff motivation. The clearly designed and user-friendly interface also contributed to quick acceptance of the new processes by the users. In addition to the benefits of automated planning, MANOR department heads also benefit from the employee-oriented features, which allow them to factor in the specific conditions within their individual departments and amend schedules accordingly.
The solution includes a number of management tools such as the scheduling control tool, through which the budgeted, scheduled and actual staffing plans may be compared with one another. This enables the quality of scheduling to be continuously improved. A graphical representation of customer flow compared to the presence of staff on the sales floor enables periods of under- and over-staffing to be recognized quickly, and necessary adjustments to the schedule made. Specific key performance indicators such as the productivity ratio “performance per hour” are integrated into the scheduling output. Thus, all prerequisites to enable productivity increases and customer service improvements are provided. The system automatically delivers a clear overview of planned absences per area of responsibility, and what until now had been the time-consuming double counting of absences is now handled by an automatic data transfer from the InVision Enterprise Server into SAP. Time budgets and costs can now also be monitored more effectively.
Most important to MANOR, however, is that the InVision solution has been tailored to fit precisely with MANOR’s new planning philosophy; a workforce management system consistently geared toward customer flow and revenues.

MANOR continues to pursue the concept of demand-oriented workforce management and is planning further integration of staff preferences into their planning processes. The deployment of the InVision module Infothek Interactive Schedule is therefore now being planned. With this module, employees get access to their schedules via the Internet, and can use this interface to request new shifts, trade shifts with others and request vacations. It is one step closer to MANOR’s vision that the employees will eventually “schedule themselves”.