Categories

How to Improve Labor Utilization During Peak Demand

Even with today’s high unemployment, manufacturers and other 24/7 industries such as healthcare and energy are facing an ongoing labor shortage. U.S. manufacturing activity reached its highest level in 37 years in March 2021, and the sector has more than half a million job openings. By 2025, some ...

Read More ›

API RP 755: The Why, What, and How of This Fatigue Standard

Why Was API RP 755 Created? If you think safety program management is expensive for an oil and gas company, an accident involving employees and others can be even more costly to the company long term. In petroleum industries in particular, having clear safety rules and regulations for the workplace ...

Read More ›

4 Effective Scheduling Strategies to Increase Workforce Flexibility at Your Chemical Plant

The shortage of skilled labor has been a long-standing concern for the chemical industry. Scrambling to cover unexpected shift openings to meet minimum staffing and safety requirements is a daily challenge for many team leaders. COVID-19 has exacerbated the situation with short-notice worker absence...

Read More ›

2021 Labor Laws: What Should You Expect?

We update this article every year. You can find our posts on 2020 laws here and 2019 laws here. Last year saw the quick passage of numerous labor and employment laws – and employers must quickly prepare to address them in 2021. Adapting processes to comply with these dynamics is challenging, espec...

Read More ›

How Food Manufacturers Are Increasing Staffing Flexibility to Meet Production Goals

Food manufacturers continue to scramble to figure out how to adapt to lingering staff shortages and production volatility. Managing labor needs to meet production goals is poised to be an enduring challenge well into 2022 and beyond. Building flexibility into your plant’s scheduling strategy can h...

Read More ›

3 Workforce Strategies to Improve Warehouse Productivity and Reduce Labor Costs

Warehouses and distribution centers rely on specialized warehouse management software to support and optimize inventory and fulfillment processes. This sophisticated technology makes it easy for warehouse operations managers to closely monitor inventory, shipments, and orders – right down to an in...

Read More ›

Workplace Fatigue in Manufacturing: Best Practices for Minimizing Risk

According to the National Safety Council, fatigue costs U.S. employers more than $130 billion — that’s billion — a year in health-related lost productivity. A typical U.S. company with 1,000 employees can expect to lose more than $1 million each year to fatigue, which can often increase the wo...

Read More ›

Top Employee Retention Takeaways from the American Manufacturing Summit

Shiftboard was a proud sponsor of the recent 2020 American Manufacturing Summit (AMS), where industry leaders offered important insights about the challenges and opportunities facing manufacturers today. There was a wealth of information shared over the three-day show. I was fortunate to break away ...

Read More ›

Key Takeaways from the OpEx in Oil & Gas 2020 Summit

Earlier this month, Shiftboard presented at the virtual Operational Excellence in Oil & Gas Summit, where over a thousand industry leaders convened to share insights and strategies on how refineries, pipelines, and petrochemical companies can meet a changing world’s needs. I sat in on several...

Read More ›

The 5 Myths of Overtime Management: How to Make OT Work For, Not Against, Your Business

The concept of overtime (OT) is a familiar one, especially in the United States. It’s woven into many companies and work cultures, and it’s an especially important aspect of front-line operations in always-on industries like energy, manufacturing, healthcare, and public safety. In fact, in the o...

Read More ›

API RP 755: Are You Compliant?

In addition to advancements in protective gear and industry-specific PPE to safeguard oil and gas workers on the job, the science around human factors engineering continues to evolve and influence regulations designed to protect workers from fatigue-related incidents. The American Petrochemical Inst...

Read More ›

How Automated Workforce Scheduling Helps Reduce Hidden Costs

The situation: A production line that is dependent on a specific number of workers, each with specialized skill sets, has a worker callout last-minute –– while the scheduling manager is not on site. What does the shift supervisor do? With manual scheduling processes in play, the supervisor may s...

Read More ›