This case study explores how Faurecia (FORVIA Group), a global automotive leader, partnered with GaiaWorks to solve complex Workforce Management (WFM) challenges across 50+ factories in China. By implementing a unified digital platform, Faurecia successfully harmonized global standardization with local operational agility for its 17,000 employees.
Image source: Faurecia Official Website
The Challenge: Scaling Operations Across 30+ Cities
For a manufacturing giant like Faurecia, operational scale presents a distinct challenge. With a 30-year footprint in China, the company faced a critical friction point: how to maintain rigid global standards without compromising the local agility required across 30 different cities.
The objective was clear, Headquarters required a unified view of labor costs and efficiency, while local plant managers needed a WFM solution robust enough to handle the varied and demanding realities of daily production.
This is a common hurdle in Multinational Workforce management. Multinational corporations must navigate a landscape where high-volume production meets a highly regulated labor market. Achieving a balance between operational efficiency and strict compliance remains a top priority for global manufacturing leaders.
Operational Drivers for Digital Transformation
By late 2024, the mandate for a comprehensive system upgrade was driven by operational reality rather than simple IT modernization. Legacy systems were creating visible bottlenecks in two key areas:
Handling High-Volume Production
Surging order volumes exposed the limitations of manual processes and disjointed software, which struggled to coordinate complex, multi-site production rhythms.
Closing the Data Gap
In an era of Smart Manufacturing, labor data serves as a critical production variable. Faurecia recognized that without real-time visibility into workforce allocation, achieving true operational precision was impossible. Fragmented data meant headquarters lacked a single source of truth regarding labor efficiency.
The Solution: Implementing Localized WFM at Scale
The partnership with GaiaWorks focused on bridging the gap between corporate governance and factory floor execution. The implementation prioritized three strategic outcomes essential for manufacturing workforce management:
Automating Labor Compliance and Risk Control
Regulatory compliance in China is notoriously complex, with labor rules varying significantly by city. At Faurecia’s scale, manual oversight represented a significant liability. The new system automated this complexity. By embedding local statutory requirements directly into the digital logic, Faurecia established a systemic safeguard. This ensures that scheduling and overtime calculations remain legally watertight across all regions, effectively removing compliance risk from local management’s plate.
Achieving Granular Labor Cost Control
Digitalizing time management provided headquarters with direct visibility into labor spend. The system standardized overtime approvals, ensuring that every additional hour is planned and justified within the platform. This shift significantly reduced “unplanned overtime,” directly improving the bottom line while protecting the workforce from fatigue.
Shifting HR from Administration to Strategy
By automating attendance reconciliation, the upgrade allows HR teams to pivot their focus toward workforce planning and organizational efficiency. More importantly, mobile self-service tools have introduced transparency and convenience for the 17,000 staff members. By giving employees real-time visibility into their own records, Faurecia has built a foundation of trust and respect, proving that digital efficiency and “human-centric” management can go hand-in-hand.
Image source: Faurecia Official Website
Results: A Model for “Glocalization”
Faurecia’s approach offers a pragmatic blueprint for multinational manufacturers operating in Asia. Rather than forcing a rigid global system onto a dynamic local market, the company adopted a “Global Framework + Local Adaptation” model.
The result is a functional equilibrium: Headquarters secures the standardized data required for global reporting, while local plants operate with a system designed to navigate the specific complexities of the Chinese manufacturing landscape.
This case study is more than just a regional success; it is a blueprint for multinational workforce management. The principles of balancing centralized governance with local operational agility apply to global manufacturers everywhere, whether they are navigating the complexities of Asia, Europe, or beyond. The Faurecia case demonstrates that digitalizing WFM is a critical step in building a resilient, data-driven global organization.
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