THINK YOU'RE SHORT STAFFED?  MAYBE NOT!

The labour shortage isn’t as profound as we are led to believe.

Living in Alberta, we are faced with a constant barrage from the media about labour shortages. And a shortage there is. 48% of businesses had jobs vacant for over 4 months last year. All sectors are affected – Retail, Manufacturing, Oil Patch, and Professional.

A few months ago, I drove through the industrial areas of Calgary, and in under 2 hours, I had pictures of over 50 different signs by companies trying to hire – often with enticements like signing and retention bonuses. Is this our fate, to struggle with a labour shortage? The bigger issue is more fundamental – it’s how we are using the employees that we already have. So whether you can find all the staff you think you need or not, you may already be overstaffed. The key is in how efficient your processes – your plant’s system really work.

One company that I worked with was feeling the same labour shortage as everyone else. Their solution was to use workers supplied by a temporary employment service to fill the shortfall. Over a period of just under two minutes I watched an individual make up three boxes. All that was required was to open the box up, fold in the two short flaps, then the two long flaps, and a single piece of packing tape lengthwise down the long seam.

This person, wanting to do a good job, as most of our people do, placed three strips along the long seam, then two more across the width of the box. To make the next box, he walked 10 feet, got a single box, returned, and continued as before. A simple job that should take under 15 seconds to complete took 40. This is a classic example of what happens when procedures are not laid out, and supervision is stretched. I know it’s only a box, but there still needs to be a procedure, albeit a simple one, and probably just a picture, to assist this man on the correct methods.

To automate or not to automate?

Before getting involved in an automaton project, you must be confident that there is a solid business reason for doing so. Payback is the best reason, reducing your total manufacturing cost per widget is a great way to improve the bottom line.

Lack of skilled people is another. When in the middle of a serious labour shortage, finding enough people to do the necessary work is a constant challenge. Replacing the need for additional people through the use of automation is a good reason to consider a project.

Sometimes the specifics of the job are too much of a challenge for people to do. This could be because of the precision required, or the physical needs of the job, be it heavy lifting, repetitive operations, or simply monotonous work. Automating to prevent injuries is a great reason to initiate a project.

Our automation audit looks at the objective of a project, the feasibility of doing it, projected costs, and the overall benefit to the project. Usually the benefit is in dollars, but sometimes the reasons are to ensure continuity of production, and injury prevention.

Finally, we look at how it integrates into the rest of the plant operations. If completing the project only serves to create problems elsewhere, then it ceases to be a viable project.

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