Pilkington North America
Pilkington North America is a major manufacturer of building products and automotive glass. U.S. operations include nine plants, a corporate office, and 5,000 employees. PNA had to centralize and update the labor management processes across its multi-site system. “The systems and processes at each plant were decentralized, obsolete, non-supported, and functionally inefficient,” said Gary D. Williamson, technical systems associate. “It was time for a change.”
An external study recommended reengineering the whole process.
To resolve the situation, an off-the-shelf, flexible, Y2K-compliant,
enterprisewide system was sought. After two failed attempts with
other vendors, Kronos delivered the required functionality with
its Workforce Timekeeper™ system.
Third time is the charm
As it prepared for the change, PNA and its employees were skeptical about the forthcoming process. Their apprehension could be understood, considering the two previously unsuccessful attempts.
To combat skepticism, PNA compiled a team of “power users” and had them define system requirements, processes, and responsibilities. Manual processes were documented for rules too complex for configuration. Kronos Educational Services worked with IT representatives to customize training classes and material by focusing the end users on their specific job responsibilities and realistic data scenarios. In short, Pilkington North America wanted the transition to be flawless.
Step one: Standardization
The bulk of PNA’s problems came as a direct result of its non-standardized payroll practices. Standardizing pay code definitions, grace periods, rounding, and exception limits were critical steps in simplifying the rules.
Pilkington also received other benefits from the standardization process, beyond simplification. “Standardizing the rules gave us a much-needed consistency for measurement,” Williamson said, noting that PNA was previously unable to use labor information productively. “Finally, we could see and use crucial, accurate labor information.” Improved access to this labor data opened the floodgates for future tangible benefits.
Step two: Expanding to leave management
With Workforce Accruals®, PNA could now track vacation and personal hours efficiently. Administrators could eliminate double entry for some plants and reduce unqualified paid time off at others. Using data from its Kronos system, management could now demonstrate that overtime shift scheduling was a major cost factor. Armed with this information, PNA decided to negotiate new labor agreements and even eliminated overtime in some plants. This was no small accomplishment, resulting in savings of more than $20 million. Pilkington North America’s success led to a Kronos Best Practices Award for having “Achieved Measurable Improvements through Frontline Labor Management Technology.”
Major software upgrades that previously would have taken as much as 12 people one full day to perform can now be accomplished by two people in only a few hours. “We have developed an internal system of monitoring which provides immediate problem notification to specific plant personnel, system operations, and even Kronos engineering,” says Williamson. The monitoring system allows quick and efficient problem response, assuring data integrity and system stability.
Strengthening standardization
The final step was integrating NexTrak® and Workforce Timekeeper™. “Integrating
NexTrak and Workforce Timekeeper will considerably reduce data entry,
and automatically generate disciplinary, leave management, and perfect
attendance documents. This will allow plant attendance policies
to be customized where necessary while providing PNA with the opportunity
to standardize the leave management process. HR will have a standard,
supportable tool to evaluate and manage work absences.”
Further improvements, further savings
But the streamlining did not stop there. “By automating the data collection process and system interfaces,” Williamson said, “we were able to save significant amounts of time and money.” PNA was able to reduce costs in the areas of timecard auditing, lost time improvements, and reduced data entry errors.
“Conservatively, we estimate that, through automation, we can expect to save $1.8 million per year,” says Williamson. “We consider that to be real savings.”
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