Digital transformation of working time with All for One E-Time

The Hortex Group, comprising Hortex Sp. z o.o., Polski Ogród Sp. z o.o. and Jurajska S.A., is an organization with an extensive operational structure, several production facilities and diverse working time models. In an environment where precision planning and control of labor costs have a direct impact on business results, working time management becomes one of the key operational areas.
In response to the growing scale of operations and the need to standardize processes in the area of working time management, the Hortex Group decided to implement the E-Time solution – a comprehensive tool for working time planning and evaluation – at its plants.

In a manufacturing environment, work time management has a direct impact on an organization’s financial performance. Every overtime hour or change in work schedule generates costs – both operational and administrative. With a distributed structure and multiple shift patterns, even minor inefficiencies can lead to significant budget variances.
The lack of uniform planning rules and manual adjustments make it difficult to control overtime and absenteeism costs and can also negatively impact production continuity and the efficient use of human resources.
Therefore, implementing E-Time allows for the creation of a coherent work time management model that ensures the efficient use of employee time, streamlines the process of correct time accounting, and positively impacts plant efficiency.

Prior to the implementation of E-Time, the various production plants in the Hortex Group operated under different organizational models and different methods of evaluating working time. Key challenges included:

• Lack of a unified scheduling tool,
• Manual adjustments and limited areas of billing automation,
• The need to perform additional synchronization with the HR and payroll system.

The primary goal of the project was to organize processes and standardize their framework across all Hortex Group production sites.
The project was divided into three basic stages, which make up the entire process of working time handling – from planning, through execution, to working time evaluation. Currently, stage one has been completed, while the other two stages are under implementation.

The first step was to implement a unified scheduling model, taking into account the specifics of each production site. The completed first phase of the E-Time project now makes it possible:

• facilitated creation of work schedules within daily, weekly and periodic norms,
• simplifying the process of controlling overruns,
• facilitated handling of substitution and absenteeism procedures,
• integration of employee master data and organizational structure with the HR and payroll system in the Hortex Group,
• automatic sending of notifications to employees about creation or changes in the schedule (notification channels used: SMS, e-mail or application).

Planning has ceased to be a manual operation based on spreadsheets, and has become a systemic process based on clear solutions and validations.

Currently, the project’s implementation has entered the integration phase with time and attendance (T&A) systems.
Completion of the work under this phase will automate the processing of employee input and output data to eliminate manual processing of this information and streamline the time accounting process. It will also make it possible to identify deviations on an ongoing basis and respond to them in real time.

The next stage of the project will be the implementation of automated time evaluation. The following E-Time capabilities are planned to be used:

• automatic recalculation of working time in response to changes in schedules or production plans,
• ongoing monitoring to ensure compliance with applicable regulations,
• generating a complete set of data for payroll calculations in the personnel and payroll system,
• time reporting for in-depth data analysis and accurate filtering.

The implementation of E-Time covers more than 1,000 employees of the Hortex Group’s production plants, employed in several locations, under different working time models. The project was preceded by the introduction of unified rules for planning and accounting for working time at all plants covered by the new solution.

The system’s configuration allowed it to be customized to the individual preferences of the Hortex Group. The solution can also be easily configured in case of the need to adapt to organizational or process changes.
E-Time has been designed for further integration, including with the SAP SuccessFactors system, and is prepared for the anticipated transformation towards cloud solutions.

The implementation of E-Time at the Hortex Group can best be summarized by the results achieved. The most important operational and organizational benefits already at this stage of the project include:

• unification of working time scheduling rules at Hortex Group production facilities,
• reducing the time to prepare work schedules and eliminate manual labor,
• simplified handling of absenteeism, substitutions and schedule changes through one consistent tool,
• real-time communication – employees always have up-to-date information about schedules,
• decision support for planners and executives through easy access to consistent and up-to-date data.

All For One demonstrates that the implementation of E-Time is part of strategic management of costs and operational efficiency of enterprises.
The launched solution is not just a tool for time recording, but serves to build a coherent HR architecture, ready for further transformation towards cloud solutions, including migration of data from SAP HR system to SAP SuccessFactors.
The implementation of All for One E-Time in Hortex Group is an example of how standardization and automation of processes in the area of time management can realistically support a manufacturing organization in building its operational advantage.