Workforce time flexibility

Time flexibility from workforce In this approach, a firm uses flexible work hours by the workforce to vary capacity with demand. In many instances, plants do not operate continuously and are left idle during portions of the day or week. Therefore, spare plant capacity exists in the form of hours when the plant is not operational. For example, many plants do not run three shifts, so the existing workforce could work overtime during peak periods to produce more to meet demand. The overtime is varied to match the fluctuation in demand. In such settings, use of a part-time workforce can further increase capacity flexibility by enabling the firm to put more people to work during peak periods. This system allows production from the plant to match demand from customers more closely. 

Faculty members who were performing research in the sciences during the summer need assistants and, without the cadre of free labor available when classes were in session, found that student employment provided the necessary workforce. Funding available from the Research Corporation provided this flexibility. No longer limited by the time constraints of coursework, students become more intimately involved in actual experimentation. They learned the techniques and mastered observation with critical evaluation of results. By the end of the summer, these summer employees were well versed in experimental details and filled with the excitement of potential new discoveries. With Ae advent of the new academic year, faculty curtailed their research in order to prepare for classes, but their students, enthusiastic with experience from their summer research engagements, came into the... 

Capacity planning— This refers to the use of flexible production lines that can make multiple products and flexible workforce. For example, Toyota makes sure that their plants are flexible enough to supply multiple markets. This reduces idle capacity. HP uses a portfolio approach to workforce planning by maintaining a combination of full time, part time, and temporary workers. 

Employee morale and teamwork should improve, increasing job satisfaction > Attitudes to safety should improve, supporting the safety culture > Management time spent dealing with non-compliance issues and investigating accidents/incidents will be reduced > The workforce will be more flexible and responsive to safety initiatives. 

Flexibility strategy—using utilization as the lever This strategy may be used if there is excess machine capacity (i.e., if machines are not used 24 hours a day, seven days a week) and the workforce shows scheduling flexibility. In this case, the workforce (capacity) is kept stable, but the number of hours worked is varied over time in an effort to synchronize production with demand. A planner can use variable amounts of overtime or a flexible schedule to achieve this synchronization. 

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