Employee productivity is critical for the success of any manufacturing company. Manufacturers usually implement lean manufacturing strategies to increase employee productivity, but relying on that alone is not enough.
It is undeniable that manufacturers need technology to help them run their business processes. The combination of software and hardware has proven to increase employee productivity significantly. For example, Manufacturing software is the right solution to simplify the production process of manufacturing company activities.Â
Here are several things you can do to encourage your manufacturing workers to be more productive.
Table Of Content
- Improve Communication & Training
- Conduct Regular Performance Appraisals
- Increase Manufacturing Worker Productivity with Software
- Take advantage of the Internet of Things
- Optimize Your Employee Shift Scheduling
Improve Communication & Training
Before getting your employees to start working on specific tasks, you need to communicate your goals and expectations. Your employees must know the company’s overall goals.
As a leader, you also have to help your employees achieve company goals and personal growth. Therefore, training has to be conducted regularly. Without adequate training and clarity of job roles, employees tend to lose motivation to increase productivity. You need to pay attention to the workers’ skill because it is related to manufacturing worker productivity.
Conduct Regular Performance Appraisals
Conduct employee performance assessments regularly, for example, once every three months or every semester. Ask your human resource manager to create employee appraisal forms and get all your employees to fill them out.
Performance appraisals can have both direct and sustainable effects on employee productivity. Recognizing the positive aspects of employee performance can help increase their confidence. In terms of dealing with negative aspects of employee performance, you can work with your employees to take corrective actions and find solutions to improve their performance.
Here are several popular types of employee performance evaluations you can conduct:
- Numerical rating scale: this usually involves rating employees on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 to measure their performance in a plethora of areas such as teamwork, communication skills, and reliability
- Objective-based: this is a practical way to monitor the overall success of employees by measuring it based on the targets they have achieved
- 360-degree feedback: the type of performance assessment that involves feedback from multiple parties such as managers, subordinates, coworkers, and even clients
- Critical incidents: A performance appraisal method that involves identifying and  describing certain events (or incidents) in which an employee did something very well or something that needs improvement
Consider using HashMicro’s HRM system to make it easy for your HR manager to conduct assessments and surveys and maintainability records of employees to match them to the right jobs.
Related article: 7 Ways to Improve Efficiency at Your Manufacturing Plant
Increase Manufacturing Worker Productivity with Software
Productivity improvement will be difficult to achieve when your employees still have to do various daily processes manually. For example, relying on papers or spreadsheets when tracking inventory or going through work orders.
Many manufacturers have abandoned the old ways and switched to ERP systems. If your competitors have automated their business processes, then you should too. ERP software eliminates the most time-consuming and labor-intensive manual processes and gets them done faster. The implementation of ERP software allows your employees to focus on more profitable tasks for your business.
Take advantage of the Internet of Things
In addition to implementing software, you should also consider using the Internet of Things (IoT). Today, IoT is becoming a hot topic in the manufacturing industry because it has dramatically increased employees’ productivity on the manufacturing floor.
The IoT is a network of physical devices embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity. IoT allows them to connect, collect and share data. It involves expanding Internet connectivity beyond standard devices, such as desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets, to various physical or everyday objects that seem impossible to connect to the internet.
Currently, more and more manufacturers are transitioning to the IoT. Just like ERP, it helps manufacturers increase the productivity of their employees because repetitive and strenuous processes are automated. The IoT has even been proven to optimize the functions of the software systems used by manufacturers, especially ERP.
Optimize Your Employee Shift Scheduling
Although manufacturing companies are known for their long work shifts, the work schedules can be made more flexible and employee-friendly.
Manufacturers can avoid unexpected overtime with more systematic work scheduling and manage task distribution more effectively. Timesheet management software can help you organize shift schedules, monitor time usage, and calculate your employee’s salaries based on their working hours (this will be beneficial, especially if you hire part-timers). The simplicity of the usage of this software of course will increase manufacturing worker productivity. You can also try out the free demo first to learn more about how the software works.
