In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, fluctuating demand, ever-changing business conditions, and shifting employee dynamics, manufacturers are digitally transforming their businesses and tapping the full potential of their people to achieve operational excellence with a connected workforce experience from UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group).
More than 5,500 manufacturers — including ADVICS North America, Inc., Argos USA, Butterball, Climate Control Group, EDP Renewables, General Motors, Hoyt Archery, Komatsu Limited, Mosaic, ProcessBarron, Roseburg, Weir ESCO, and Yamaha Corporation of America — leverage UKG to optimize people operations and provide a streamlined day‐to‐day technology experience at work. Automation and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven insights powered by UKG Pro, UKG Dimensions, UKG Ready, and UKG HR Service Delivery are improving the quality of operational decisions and helping to meet a diverse and demanding series of needs across every aspect of manufacturing.
“In today’s labor market and changing world of work, employee enablement technologies are fundamentally essential to building and strengthening our culture,” said Darlene Womack, corporate HR manager at ADVICS North America, Inc. “Our UKG solution delivers intelligent automation and easy-to-use tools that give all of our team members the mobility, empowerment, and flexibility they deserve in a workforce management system.”
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With human capital management (HCM), payroll, HR service delivery, and workforce management solutions from UKG, manufacturers are empowering all members of their workforces — from corporate to frontline plant employees — to make faster, smarter decisions that fuel ongoing operational excellence. Managers can deploy intelligent scheduling strategies to accurately align labor to demand, increase productivity and efficiencies, and control labor costs, while eliminating manual tasks, streamlining back-office processes, and helping to simplify compliance. Additionally, tailor-made solutions for the industry, including UKG Dimensions Activities, provide manufacturers with real-time visibility into shop-floor labor activity data and insight into how operations are performing against productivity goals and benchmarks.
In other instances, the power of AI provides intelligent recommendations aligned with pre-defined work rules that empower employees to independently manage their own schedules (i.e., post, swap, or pick up a shift) without manager approval — including from a UKG mobile app, if they choose. This also gives managers freedom to spend time on important team and business initiatives, such as sharing regular feedback with hourly team members and helping them understand how their performance contributes to company goals.
“The UKG mobile app and direct access have revolutionized the way employees think about their jobs,” said Christina Goins, compensation and benefits manager at ProcessBarron. “Although many of our employees have been with us for more than 20 years and aren’t accustomed to new technology, more than half of our employees adopted the mobile app within the first year of launch.”
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As the industry’s labor gap widens in the wake of the pandemic and manufacturers increasingly commit to improving the team member experience as a means to competitively recruit, retain, and motivate skilled workers, UKG Wellbeing at Work solutions help lay a solid foundation for HR leaders and frontline managers to communicate with transparency, build trust in the workplace, protect their people, and design and adapt flexible business strategies to ensure long-term organizational health.
“Plant- and production‐related technologies play a critical role in modern manufacturing amidst ‘Industry 4.0,’ yet it’s people who deliver the most value and remain the #1 factor in any organization’s ability to achieve its operational and financial objectives,” said Kylene Zenk, director of the manufacturing practice at UKG. “To create an environment where all team members, regardless of level or department, want to work and develop their careers, manufacturers need to expand the scope of their digital strategies to develop a technology-enabled employee experience where people feel empowered, supported, and valued.”
“Achieving operational excellence is not a one‐time event but rather a continuous cycle that evolves every day as conditions change and involves many different layers,” said Chris Todd, president at UKG. “If we’ve learned anything over the past year, it’s this: How a business plans for and responds to change is what enables it to thrive. Technology on its own isn’t enough — manufacturing organizations must combine people‐centric policies and processes with technology to truly transform their business and, more importantly, strengthen their culture.”
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