Johnson Matthey Ensures Payroll Accuracy with Kronos®

5 June 2008: Johnson Matthey, the speciality chemicals company, has completed the first phase of its implementation of Kronos for Manufacturing. Johnson Matthey selected the solution from Kronos to manage the time and attendance of approximately 1,200 UK-based employees across two sites and to improve efficiency for managing overtime payments. Streamlining the collection of frontline labour data and providing central visibility to this information were also crucial aspects of the project. Kronos will interface with Johnson Matthey's payroll system as well as the existing swipe card access control system. The project is due for completion in July 2008.

Commenting on the successful completion of phase one, Garry Tobiss, Group IT Projects Manager at Johnson Matthey said: "The implementation went almost exactly according to the plan developed by Kronos."

With the planned expansion of the company's Royston site, shift patterns were set to increase and become even more complex. Therefore the company took the decision to streamline the collection of time and attendance data and take control of accurately monitoring overtime, attendance, holiday entitlement and absence. This would ensure that staff would be paid correctly. Johnson Matthey began searching for a time and attendance solution in November 2006 and narrowed its selection down to three vendors. Tobiss comments: "Kronos was selected based on the best-fit to the company's processes and requirements and the flexibility that Kronos offered to the end users."

Johnson Matthey is already seeing benefits as a result of phase one completion, in terms of efficiency, overall visibility, accuracy of data and streamlined procedures. Staff tracked with the time and attendance system are pleased with the system accuracy. The union fully supported the project, and site supervisors have given a very positive response to the Kronos implementation. "Users are fully committed to the Kronos solution and understand our anticipated benefits," said Tobiss. "The supervisors report that the monthly task of calculating overtime, which previously took each of them up to one day every month to prepare, can now be completed within ten minutes. Accurate timesheets are loaded directly into the payroll system and supervisors are also able to easily identify which members of staff are late, absent or sick at the touch of a button. This allows them to proactively manage staff coverage in all areas of our business, improving our productivity. "

Another benefit Johnson Matthey expects to realise is a drive towards sustainability from reducing the amount of paperwork previously involved in recording time and attendance.

Tobiss concluded: "Kronos is very configurable and from a technology standpoint very easy to deploy. It has given us the accuracy we required and we're delighted that all the phase one objectives have been met. We expect that once implementation is complete, Kronos will give us the flexibility and scalability we will require as the company continues to grow."

Kronos will be utilised by the majority of employees at the two Johnson Matthey sites in departments including: product manufacture, goods inwards, shipping, laboratories, test facilities, technical centres, administration and support departments.

Keith Statham, managing director, Kronos UK, commented on the implementation: "The manufacturing industry demands efficiency and we are delighted to be able to support Johnson Matthey in its drive to establish efficient processes and streamline operations."

About Kronos Incorporated

Kronos empowers organisations around the world to effectively manage their workforce. At Kronos, we are experts who are solely focused on delivering software and services that enable organisations to reduce costs, increase productivity, improve employee satisfaction, and ultimately enhance the level of service they provide. Kronos serves customers in more than 60 countries through its network of offices, subsidiaries, and distributors. Widely recognised as a market and thought leader in managing the workforce, Kronos has unrivalled reach with more than 30 million people using a Kronos solution every day. Learn more about Kronos at www.kronos.com/uk.