labor planning
Challenge
Our client, a leading global defense company providing solutions and products for aerospace, electronics and information systems industries, was also one of the largest shipbuilding firms in the world, employing over 13,000 individuals at one facility. The manpower planning process at this facility was extremely laborious and complicated, with shipbuilding projects spanning over twenty years and utilizing resources from more than thirty divisions. Per specific government regulations, project schedules were updated weekly and remaining work reforecast for these multi-decade projects in order to allow the company and its government clients to be informed of any delays or cost-over-runs. This process required six full-time resources and a week to complete leaving little time to actually make any decisions with the information before the cycle began again.
We were engaged to accelerate and streamline the planning process via the development and implementation of an Enterprise Planning system. Through in-depth analyses and extensive discussions with the client, it was determined that the system would need to meet the following objectives:
Solution
To meet these complex requirements, the company selected IBM Cognos Enterprise Planning Software. IBM Cognos Contributor served as the web-based information gathering tool, with field employees planning and predicting their time via a multi-dimensional solution displaying time, division and labor categories. This information was then uploaded into a management model that was used by the finance department and senior level operations staff. Numerous challenges were faced and resolved in the development of the system. The original design had been developed using traditional methods but it was quickly realized that the sheer size of the system was going to be a significant issue. Working closely with the client, the calculations were divided into multiple cubes, and the data movement was streamlined to shorten the calculation cycle and to meet the business requirements. After several final design iterations to allow for advanced functionality, the final solution provided all the necessary calculations, validation reports and generated the actionable reports and metrics needed to manage the workforce.
Results
Exceeding expectations, the solution tremendously increased organizational agility and significantly lowered costs. The client, for the first time, could accurately collect project performance data, analyze it and react to it within hours instead of days. As a result, the application allowed the client to actively manage its costs and directly increase its operating margins. Revenues were also increased as this information was provided to stakeholders to keep them apprised of performance to milestones and to inform the sales department of available bandwidth to accurately solicit new business.
Our client, a leading global defense company providing solutions and products for aerospace, electronics and information systems industries, was also one of the largest shipbuilding firms in the world, employing over 13,000 individuals at one facility. The manpower planning process at this facility was extremely laborious and complicated, with shipbuilding projects spanning over twenty years and utilizing resources from more than thirty divisions. Per specific government regulations, project schedules were updated weekly and remaining work reforecast for these multi-decade projects in order to allow the company and its government clients to be informed of any delays or cost-over-runs. This process required six full-time resources and a week to complete leaving little time to actually make any decisions with the information before the cycle began again.
We were engaged to accelerate and streamline the planning process via the development and implementation of an Enterprise Planning system. Through in-depth analyses and extensive discussions with the client, it was determined that the system would need to meet the following objectives:
- Create intuitive reports on resource allocation so that work progressed as quickly and efficiently as possible
- Enable timely analysis of performance data at week-end with results and changes available to distribute to all appropriate staff at the start of the next week
- Provide employees with specific objectives for the current week and a workload overview for the upcoming months
- Enable usability for non-technical employees through an intuitive, flexible and fast design
- Incorporate a combination of bottom-up and top-down planning to cascade communication throughout the company
Solution
To meet these complex requirements, the company selected IBM Cognos Enterprise Planning Software. IBM Cognos Contributor served as the web-based information gathering tool, with field employees planning and predicting their time via a multi-dimensional solution displaying time, division and labor categories. This information was then uploaded into a management model that was used by the finance department and senior level operations staff. Numerous challenges were faced and resolved in the development of the system. The original design had been developed using traditional methods but it was quickly realized that the sheer size of the system was going to be a significant issue. Working closely with the client, the calculations were divided into multiple cubes, and the data movement was streamlined to shorten the calculation cycle and to meet the business requirements. After several final design iterations to allow for advanced functionality, the final solution provided all the necessary calculations, validation reports and generated the actionable reports and metrics needed to manage the workforce.
Results
Exceeding expectations, the solution tremendously increased organizational agility and significantly lowered costs. The client, for the first time, could accurately collect project performance data, analyze it and react to it within hours instead of days. As a result, the application allowed the client to actively manage its costs and directly increase its operating margins. Revenues were also increased as this information was provided to stakeholders to keep them apprised of performance to milestones and to inform the sales department of available bandwidth to accurately solicit new business.