Lean focus on skilled workers: automated shop floor management

A look into manufacturing operations shows the topic of assigning work to skilled employees is dominated by stand-alone and Excel-based solutions. Disruptions require adjustments, but only limited corrections are possible. This reduces labor productivity and throughput. These losses are often non-transparent—hidden by upwardly adjusted planned hours and accepted persistent deviations. As a result, skilled workers and their deployment become the strategic focus. Automated approaches unlock potential precisely where it exists: as decentralized systems directly on the shop floor.

FAS: Automated and skill-based workforce management
Current innovations provide real-time planning and control, described as Workforce Assignment Systems (FAS). Similar to SCM systems and controlled material flows, Workforce Assignment Systems focus on employees. They operate decentrally with different users, in real time, taking detailed qualifications and requirements down to the task level into account.

FAS core functions: digital dispatchers for work and skilled labor
Key functional priorities vary by manufacturing type:

• Managers assign tasks to skilled employees automatically, enabling within-shift (re-)allocation and proactive planning on the task level.
• Workstations are automatically staffed by detailed and production planners—planned in advance for entire shifts and timeframes, considering both scheduled attendance and qualification requirements.
• Based on production scenarios and actual staffing options, qualification needs can be simulated. This highlights not only time-driven staff shortages but also qualification gaps at the product or task level.

FAS dispatcher: connects existing systems, processes, and data
FAS fills a crucial gap in the planning and control landscape. Including qualification data alone significantly increases planning accuracy. This is key to rapid, high-quality deployment of skilled workers and work inventories—directly impacting productivity and performance.

Applied innovation for current and future challenges
FAS integrates data from production planning, time management, and HR. Thanks to their integrative position and workforce importance, the strategic significance of FAS will increase rapidly.
FAS are AI-based systems that currently emulate traditional optimizers but will soon optimize adjacent domains, such as shift plans or manufacturing orders themselves.

Demand-driven qualification—not least for strategic transformation of business models—is closely linked, especially in light of ongoing disruptions in the automotive sector, and is key to organizational performance.

Published at: https://www.acod.de/lean-fokus-fachkraft-automatisierte-steuerung-im-shopfloor/