Labour Productivity
Two decades of helping employers to get the most out their workforce has resulted in an innovative range of cost-saving solutions.
​
Years of adapting technology to track activities and measure output as tasks are performed has resulted in a range of robust logging devices, static and portable, and comprehensive software applications.
​
​Developed in-house, all of our equipment and software is flexible and configurable - easily customised to suit needs and preference.
Primarily designed for agriculture, our flexible shift scheduling and T&A management applies in other sectors but especially where job costing, productivity measurement or work-in-progress tracking is important.
​
Designed to suit different environments and purposes, MAXIPORTABLE can be used to collect any data anywhere.
We are now supplementing data collection with an all-purpose Maxi Mobile app (configurable, of course) for collecting data or tracking processes.​​
Time and Attendance
​Our time management encompasses access control, time and attendance, work scheduling, and payroll administration. Step 1 in reducing labour cost is ensuring that wages are strictly based on actual time worked.
​Precise time-keeping is now the norm, with work rules determining normal pay and overtime. Rules may vary on different days of the week and in some environments, at different times of the year.
Keeping track of varying shift rules, with complicated work rosters, is impossible without automation. Even then some computer systems have problems. MAXITRACK is able to schedule and rotate work rosters and keep track of varying work rules. And it allows administrators to override schedules or rules where necessary
​
Step 2 in reducing labour cost is impossible without automation. Adjusting wages for time 'lost' during the work day is a big saver. Tardiness (late in/early out ) and excessive 'unscheduled' (smoke and bathroom breaks) are a form of 'absenteeism'. MAXITRACK automates this.
​
Step 3 is minimising absenteeism which is costly. MAXITRACK highlights unhealthy attendance patterns. When you have to deal with poor attendance or incapacity, it provides evidence for legal procedures and avoiding CCMA penalties.
MAXITRACK prevents buddy clocking with biometrics and/or turnstiles. Our time recorders, portable or fixed, come standard with proximity tagging but can include embedded fingerprint scanning and/or barcode scanning. Facial recognition is now becoming very popular.
​​
Automating wage calculations and paid absences reduces admin cost, errors and deadline stress.
​
​Once time-keeping is accurate and adjusted for 'lost' time, the logical next step is to pay for work done rather than time spent.
Job Costing/Farm Costing
​​​
In many businesses a worker's direct cost would just go to a fixed cost centre.
​
In a 'job costing' environment, employee cost is allocated to jobs and/or activities, in proportion to time spent on each. In labour-intensive environments like farming or construction, costing and budgeting take a lot of admin time. Tracking work in progress is also a big task.
In farming, employee costs are allocated to 'tasks' or activities, in proportion to the time spent on each. In addition, costs also allocated to locations (blocks, etc.), and possibly products and/or varieties.
​Automation keeps time-keeping accurate and reduces administration. Automated allocation and calculation quickly delivers accurate up-to-date information to managers
​
In addition to functioning as a simple time clock, MAXIPORTABLE is durable, flexible and configurable, designed to be taken into any work place or location to 'track' and time each task, and 'allocate' activities and costs digitally. ​​​​
​
Paying for Performance
​​​​
After efficient time and attendance, scheduling and job costing, the logical next step is to pay for work done rather than time spent 'at work'. ​​Increasing productivity through piece work or incentive bonuses based on 'measured' performance is a significant cost saver. ​​Many farmers pay for piecework wherever possible in place of hourly wages.
Automated is essential for performance management - the amount of work required is beyond a manual system. MAXIPORTABLE tracks time spent on activities and also counts production units (bags, trees, rows, crates) for incentives based on units. ​MAXITRACK is quick to establish norms, set targets, evaluate individual and/or team efficiencies and calculate incentive pay.
​
​​Our experience is that linking pay to performance can reduce wages up to 15%. But not without automation. Rates paid are linked to activity, variety, unit size, etc. and sometimes a specific day. Rates dtermined and payments calculated for each task and each employee. Sometimes piecework work is mixed with hourly-paid activities in one shift.
​​​
Minimum wage top-ups for under-achievers add cost and admin - even worse, they reward poor performance.
MAXITRACK easily addresses all of these challenges. MAXITRACK indexes individual productivity, to identify poor performers, then it provides evidence for legal corrective procedures. ​
​
These solutions were developed for farming but are adaptable to any other environment or operation.​
​
The latest trend is to weigh harvest in the field and pay per Kg rather than units. This is even more successful in increasing output, creating win-win results for employers and workers alike.
Paying per Kg
​​Weighing harvest (fruit , vegetable, nuts, etc.) in the field to pay per Kg is the most recent innovation.​​
​
The fact that workers register their own weights creates trust, transparency and motivation.
Results from paying for weight instead of counting units are compelling - marked increases in productivity and win-win outcomes for workers and employers.
​
To measure yield in the field, we connected our MAXIPORTABLE to a battery-driven hanging or platform scale to weigh punnets, bags, crates. etc. MAXISCALE links each weight to a location, variety and task for paying, costing and reconciling with pack house intake. GPS can be added to the logger for geo-locating and tracking yield.
We are presently working on a new streamlined, more cost-effective weighing station (for market release soon).
​
On top of the saving achieved by counting bags instead of paying for hours, the first time scales were introduced to weigh the bags, the results were astounding. Some workers earned up to 30% more per bag. At the same time, overall cost to company fell by a further 7% (on top of 10% saving achieved by moving to bag counting). In addition, quality improved, staff turnover reduced and workers from neighboring farms started applying for jobs.
Another citrus farmer, in his first season of weighing reported 30% more output combined with 20% overall saving on wages . ​Another (vegetable) grower was able to re-calibrate the lug rate after finding that the average weight of a filled lug was actually 30% less than first assumed.​
