I need a template that would give me allow me to determine the number of
employees I need in production. I work in a production environment and need
to come up with a form that would give me a prediction of the number of
employees needed for the amount of production we have on a nightly basis.

Any suggestions?

"vvcano" wrote:

I need a template that would give me allow me to determine the number of
employees I need in production. I work in a production environment and need
to come up with a form that would give me a prediction of the number of
employees needed for the amount of production we have on a nightly basis.

Any suggestions?

Do you want to use the "Line of Balance" method or the "Level of Effort"
method?

You also need to first define the independent and dependent processes with
some kind of scalar evaluation of the labor required to effect each process.

This is of course assuming that you have adequate raw materials, utilities,
facilities, and toilet paper.

Other than that it's a walk in the park :)

B+
HALinNY

I work in an operations environment (banking). for example yesterday we
processed 38k items. this involves keying, balancing, work prep, etc. what
factors can I use to determine how many employees I actually needed for the
evening.

"HALinNY" wrote:



"vvcano" wrote:

I need a template that would give me allow me to determine the number of
employees I need in production. I work in a production environment and need
to come up with a form that would give me a prediction of the number of
employees needed for the amount of production we have on a nightly basis.

Any suggestions?

Do you want to use the "Line of Balance" method or the "Level of Effort"
method?

You also need to first define the independent and dependent processes with
some kind of scalar evaluation of the labor required to effect each process.

This is of course assuming that you have adequate raw materials, utilities,
facilities, and toilet paper.

Other than that it's a walk in the park :)

B+
HALinNY

"vvcano" wrote:

I work in an operations environment (banking). for example yesterday we
processed 38k items. this involves keying, balancing, work prep, etc. what
factors can I use to determine how many employees I actually needed for the
evening.


You probably have work measurement standards for every task in the
department. So you need to derate them, probably by 20%-25%, to determine
the number of employees for each task based on the number of items.

Unfortunately the result will probably be too high because not all tasks are
spread out evenly over the course of a shift. Proofing ops wind down with
time and Balancing goes up. Transit is fairly constant but does not kick in
until halfway into the shift. Things like that.

Then there are seasonal fluctuations, and time of month fluctuations (auto
deposits and withdrawals) and illness fluctuations and skill levels and
competencies of employees (can a transit clerk run an encoder?).

I am not sure there is a template that solves this problem because while the
calculations are quite simple, the external factors are quite complicated and
localized.

So the problem here is not HOW to calculate but WHAT to calculate and WHAT
is not an Excel question because you would have the same problems with paper
and pencil.

Does the ABA have anything that could help?

Standard disclaimer applies.

B+
HALinNY

I suspect the true answer to this question will be so heavily dependent
on variables that are specific to your environment that no one outside
your environment will be able to provide a meaningful response.

That being said, it's safe to offer a broad, general answer such as:
the number of employees you'll need is approximately:
(the number of items your dept receives) divided by (the number of
items a competent employee can handle in one hour) divided by (the
number of hours in a shift)

This is pretty straightforward, but gets complicated when you consider
that...
~ (# items the dept receives) may have seasonal fluctations or even
daily fluctuations within a week ie., December may be busier then
August, Monday may be busier than Friday, the day after a bank holiday
may be busier
~ (# items handled by a competent employee) varies by employee
~ (# hours in a shift) depends on potty / smoking / coffee breaks,
lateness, absenteeism, people going on vacation, having to bring their
kids home from daycare, getting sick, etc.

Other things to consider:
~ re-processing due to errors made by a previous shift
~ availability of part time workers to cover the partial person
generated by your math (for example, 3.6 FTEs (full time equivalents)
are required by the dept.)

You might work up some metrics like this and compare it to your actual
operation, then adjust the metrics as appropriate.

Good luck with it!

I know what I want to calculate. It's just that I'm stuck on what
mathematics to use. We only have 6 employees to process the work and at
times it can be very hectic. But I don't think upper management is taking
into consideration of vacation time, sick time, etc.
Are you in the banking industry, operations?

"HALinNY" wrote:



"vvcano" wrote:

I work in an operations environment (banking). for example yesterday we
processed 38k items. this involves keying, balancing, work prep, etc. what
factors can I use to determine how many employees I actually needed for the
evening.


You probably have work measurement standards for every task in the
department. So you need to derate them, probably by 20%-25%, to determine
the number of employees for each task based on the number of items.

Unfortunately the result will probably be too high because not all tasks are
spread out evenly over the course of a shift. Proofing ops wind down with
time and Balancing goes up. Transit is fairly constant but does not kick in
until halfway into the shift. Things like that.

Then there are seasonal fluctuations, and time of month fluctuations (auto
deposits and withdrawals) and illness fluctuations and skill levels and
competencies of employees (can a transit clerk run an encoder?).

I am not sure there is a template that solves this problem because while the
calculations are quite simple, the external factors are quite complicated and
localized.

So the problem here is not HOW to calculate but WHAT to calculate and WHAT
is not an Excel question because you would have the same problems with paper
and pencil.

Does the ABA have anything that could help?

Standard disclaimer applies.

B+
HALinNY

Both yourself and HALinNY have very good responses. You both seem to
understand the general idea of what I need. Thank you.

"Dave O" wrote:

I suspect the true answer to this question will be so heavily dependent
on variables that are specific to your environment that no one outside
your environment will be able to provide a meaningful response.

That being said, it's safe to offer a broad, general answer such as:
the number of employees you'll need is approximately:
(the number of items your dept receives) divided by (the number of
items a competent employee can handle in one hour) divided by (the
number of hours in a shift)

This is pretty straightforward, but gets complicated when you consider
that...
~ (# items the dept receives) may have seasonal fluctations or even
daily fluctuations within a week ie., December may be busier then
August, Monday may be busier than Friday, the day after a bank holiday
may be busier
~ (# items handled by a competent employee) varies by employee
~ (# hours in a shift) depends on potty / smoking / coffee breaks,
lateness, absenteeism, people going on vacation, having to bring their
kids home from daycare, getting sick, etc.

Other things to consider:
~ re-processing due to errors made by a previous shift
~ availability of part time workers to cover the partial person
generated by your math (for example, 3.6 FTEs (full time equivalents)
are required by the dept.)

You might work up some metrics like this and compare it to your actual
operation, then adjust the metrics as appropriate.

Good luck with it!