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One Roster Fix That Improves Productivity Overnight

By Express HR Solutions on 2025-08-20 16:24:28

One Roster Fix That Improves Productivity Overnight

If you're a Plant Manager or HR Head, you know the scene all too well.

On Monday, the order book is light. You walk the shop floor and see skilled workers sweeping, cleaning, or just trying to look busy. You’re paying for 100% capacity but getting 60% output. The cost of those idle hours is a quiet drain on your profits.

Then, on Wednesday, a massive, high-priority order drops from a key client. Suddenly, it’s all hands on deck. Supervisors are frantically calling people to stay late, and you’re approving overtime left and right. Your productivity spikes, but your labour costs go through the roof.

This feast-or-famine cycle feels like an unavoidable part of running operations in India. But what if it isn’t?

There’s one simple, powerful fix to your rostering process that can smooth out these peaks and valleys, often with an impact you can see almost overnight.

 

The Old Way: Manual Approvals and Expensive Guesswork

For years, we've managed this problem with manual controls. A supervisor uses their "gut feeling" to decide who stays late. The weekly roster is printed and posted on a board, unable to adapt to the reality of a Tuesday afternoon. This approach is slow, inconsistent, and often leads to two bad outcomes: paying people for doing nothing, or paying them double when you’re in a jam.

 

The Game-Changing Fix: Demand-Based Shift Authorisation

Let's stop managing the roster and let the work manage the roster for us.

The solution is to tie your shift approvals directly to your real-time business demand. It's a simple concept: your order backlog should automatically decide if extra hours are approved or denied.

Instead of a supervisor making a subjective call, you let a data-driven rule do the work. This removes guesswork and emotion, replacing it with pure operational logic.

 

How It Works in 3 Simple Steps

Implementing this doesn't require a complete overhaul. It's about connecting two things you already have: your work data and your people schedule.

Step 1: Connect Your Data Streams The first step is to create a simple link between your order management system (or even a daily production backlog report) and your workforce management or rostering tool.

Step 2: Set Simple 'If-Then' Rules This is where the magic happens. You work with your operations team to create automated rules. For example:

Step 3: Automate and Empower Once the rules are set, the system takes over. Employees who want extra hours can see if it’s available based on real need. Approvals are instant and fair. Your supervisors are freed from managing paperwork and can focus on what they do best: leading the team on the floor.

 

The "Overnight" Impact on Your Floor

 

The results of this one change can be dramatic and immediate:

Stop managing your roster based on last week's plan. Start managing it based on this minute's demand. It's the fastest way to turn your biggest variable cost—labour—into your most optimised asset.

Implementing a dynamic system like this might seem complex, but it's simpler than you think with the right tools. Express HR Solutions provides strategic workforce management platforms that make demand-based rostering a reality for Indian manufacturing.

Ready to stop guessing and start optimising? Let's have a quick chat about your current challenges.