HR strategy and workforce planning for Special Purpose Machine Builders: people for lumpy orders
Orders for special purpose machines arrive in lumps and each is different. Workforce planning links the order book to who is free, who is on site and when you will be short of designers or fitters.
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Share your requirementsWhy HR strategy and workforce planning matters in special purpose machine builders
Without a plan, a machine builder discovers a people shortage during the trial week. Two commissioning engineers are at a customer's plant, the PLC engineer is tied up with a new design and the last machine needs a fitter who is on leave. Overtime and short-term hires fill the gap, and quality drops. The owner senses the strain but cannot show where it comes from, so he cannot decide whether to hire or to refuse an order.
Planning here is a simple chart, not a model. Across the next six months, list each machine with its design, fitting, wiring, PLC and commissioning phases. Mark which named people are needed in each phase. Overlaps and gaps appear on the page. The owner can then choose to hire, to move delivery dates or to say no to an order, with the reasons visible.
How to set it up
1. List machines and phases
For each order, note when design, fabrication, fitting, wiring, PLC, trial and commissioning start and end. Use rough weeks. An approximate chart is more useful than none.
2. Assign named people to phases
Write who is needed for each phase, by name or role, and note where one person is shown in two places at once. These clashes are where your real capacity limit lies.
3. Mark absences and site trips
Add commissioning trips, planned leave and festival periods. A fitter away for three weeks at a customer's plant is not available for the next machine.
4. Decide what to do about each clash
Choose between hiring, shifting a delivery date, training a second person or turning an order down. See workforce planning for how we would structure this.
5. Update the chart each month
Sit for half an hour with the project lead and the production head. Revise for new orders and slips. A chart that is not updated is soon ignored.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Pick the busiest week of the last year and count who was double booked.
- List the roles you have only one person for and when each was last absent.
- Check how often a delivery date moved because people were not free.
- Count overtime hours during the last two trial weeks.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach HR strategy and workforce planning in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
Six months is usually enough for a shop of this kind, because orders rarely stay firm beyond that. Look further for roles that take long to hire, such as senior PLC engineers.
Not at first. A sheet with machines down one side and weeks across, with names in the cells, shows most clashes. Software helps when you have many projects at once and several people updating it.
Before you promise a date, check the chart for who is free in each phase. A date that fits the people is one you can keep, which protects both the customer and the team from last-minute pressure.