Manufacturers need precise cost information to remain profitable. Raw materials, equipment, overhead, and labor all contribute to the final cost of a product, but labor can be especially difficult to measure accurately as employees move between jobs, work centers, production stages, and departments.

Your company might be great at tracking direct wages, but struggle to fully account for the employer costs associated with that labor. Or, you might have production data in one system and payroll information in another, making it difficult to understand the complete cost of each stage.

The HR Tree can help by connecting production activity with all of your payroll and fully burdened labor costing.

Understand the Complete Cost of Labor

You've been tracking your employees’ gross wages, but that's only one part of the company’s labor expenses. If you're missing any of the items below, you might not be seeing the full picture. The true cost may also include:

• Employer payroll taxes
• Workers’ compensation
• Employee benefits
• Overtime premiums
• Other employer expenses and fees

Our system combines these costs to help manufacturers understand what labor is truly costing the company—down to the penny.

We can customize your systems to fit your needs. You can assign this information to jobs, products, departments, work centers, or phases of the manufacturing process. Leadership can then evaluate the complete labor cost associated with producing an item rather than relying on wage estimates alone.

Connect Payroll With Process Management Technology

If you're in manufacturing, you're probably not new to tracking. Manufacturers often already use production, enterprise resource planning, or process management technology to track jobs and workflow.

But, we're not new to this either! The HR Tree can integrate with many of your compatible systems so time, job, department, and costing information can flow into payroll more efficiently. This helps eliminate duplicate data entry and creates more consistent information across the organization.

Your payroll process becomes easier, while operations and finance gain access to more meaningful labor-cost data. We'd call that a win-win.

Capture Costing Information Throughout Production

We're all about making things easier. For manufacturers that do not already have an automated process for tracking labor between jobs, physical clock stations can be placed at strategic points throughout the facility.

Employees can use these stations to move between jobs, products, work centers, or production stages. As the work progresses through the facility, labor can be assigned to the appropriate costing category.

This gives the company greater visibility into how much employee time is being spent at each phase of production.

For manufacturers with existing automated systems, the relevant costing information may be integrated into payroll without requiring employees to complete additional steps. Simple solutions that make a big difference in your process.

Identify Opportunities for Improvement

Do you have the tools in place to answer the following questions?

Which production stages require the most labor?
Which jobs are exceeding their expected costs?
Where are overtime expenses occurring?
Are certain products less profitable than expected?
How closely do estimated labor costs match actual results?

With better data, manufacturers can evaluate pricing, improve production estimates, identify inefficiencies, and make more informed decisions about staffing and workflow. If you couldn't answer any of those questions, let's talk about how we can fix that!

Turn Payroll Data Into Operational Insight

Payroll should do more than produce employee checks. It should provide information that helps you understand and improve your operation.

Find out how the HR Tree can help you connect timekeeping, production data, payroll, and employer expenses to create a clearer picture of labor costs throughout the manufacturing process.

When each phase can be measured accurately, you are better equipped to control costs, protect margins, and make confident decisions about the future of your business.