Paradigm change in work Assignment & jobs Redesign, reduces Production Manpower by half

A well established textile mill in India, employing more than 500 production workers, faced the issue of being over staffed. Thus, cutting costs through manpower reduction was imperative and the company sought Actuate Business Consulting’s (ABC) intervention.

Consultants from ABC applied Unconventional methods and techniques apart from using Time study, Production study Flow charting, Multiple activity chart, Work record assess the optimum Analysis & Analytical Estimation Manpower required.

Instead of deploying Positional Manpower with individual worker assigned for specific Task/ Machine, Autonomous Work Groups were formed for operating cluster of similar machines / processor to benefit from economies of aggregation.

Jobs were redesigned using Job Enrichment, Job Enlargement and Multi-skilling principals; activities like routine maintenance, simple quality checks, materials sorting, and heading & transportation were made an integral part of Operator’s Responsibility. This helped establish direct & explicit accountability, improved productivity, and lead to lesser interfaces resulting in better motivation & empowered workmen .

Manpower requirement of each Autonomous Work Group was determined using ‘Stander time’ developed through Work measurement studies. The numbers were validated by conducting Activity Sampling studies. Workmen deployed for ‘off-line Activities’ were moved from General Shift to regular shift which helped relieving of workers & aided in job rotation. Unskilled off-line support activities were sub-contracted on unit output rate basis.

By implementing the above, Manpower reduced to almost half with lesser number of  job positions, grades and levels.