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Eaton Transforms APAC Workforce Management, Saving 16,000 Hours Annually with GaiaWorks

Eaton Transforms APAC Workforce Management, Saving 16,000 Hours Annually with GaiaWorks

Global power management giant Eaton automated complex, localized HR rules across its diverse APAC operations, streamlining core processes and empowering its HR teams for strategic work with the GaiaWorks WFM platform.

Results at a Glance

  • Significant Efficiency Gains: Saved thousands of administrative hours annually, fundamentally optimizing regional workforce processes.
  • Strategic HR Focus: Freed HR teams, attendance clerks, and managers from high-volume manual data processing to focus on high-value strategic work.
  • Complex Localization Mastered: Successfully automated highly complex, localized rules, including 30+ unique overtime types in the Philippines and 8 distinct employee types in Taiwan.
  • Superior User Experience: Delivered a transformative process optimization, moving over 10,000 employees to a self-service, real-time, and efficient mobile experience.
  • Scalable APAC Blueprint: Established a unified, scalable WFM platform successfully deployed in China, the Philippines, and Taiwan, creating a blueprint for further regional expansion.

“This wasn’t just a system swap; we optimized the entire process. The GaiaWorks system brought great efficiency gains and a simple, efficient user experience to our employees, clerks, and HR team.”——— Director, HR Service Center, Eaton APAC

The Challenge: The Scale of Complexity in a Diverse Region

Eaton, a 113-year-old global power management leader, operates a vast network across 13 countries in the APAC region with nearly 20,000 employees.

As the company expanded, its HR teams faced immense operational challenges. The region’s diverse and complex labor laws created significant administrative burdens that its long-serving systems were not designed to handle automatically.

The complexity was a major business challenge:

  • Highly Complex Labor Laws: Each country presented unique compliance challenges. The Philippines, for example, has 18 types of public holidays (which can be changed by presidential decree) and over 30 different overtime calculation rules.
  • Diverse Workforce Needs: Operations varied significantly. Taiwan alone has 8 distinct employee types (including factory, office, and sales staff), each with unique attendance and scheduling rules.
  • Opportunities for Process Optimization: Manual processing for attendance, scheduling, and leave management was time-consuming for HR, managers, and employees alike, creating risks of data error and compliance issues.

Eaton needed a unified platform powerful enough to automate this extreme complexity and flexible enough to deliver a modern, mobile-first experience.

The Solution: A Unified WFM Engine Powered by GaiaWorks

Eaton’s APAC HR Service Center led a strategic initiative focused on process optimization. The goal was to re-engineer workflows from the ground up, not just “lift and shift” old functions to a new system.

Eaton selected the GaiaWorks Workforce Management (WFM) suite as its new, unified platform for the APAC region. The solution was configured to:

  1. Automate Complex Rules: The GaiaWorks platform was configured to automate the most difficult local requirements. At a factory in the Philippines, when a worker clocks out at 11:00 PM, the system now instantly applies the correct attendance rules, automatically determining the shift type, holiday status, and correct multiplier from over 30 possible types.
  2. Drive Process Efficiency: The system automated key areas by optimizing workflows (eliminating manual verifications), automating calculations (like leave quotas), and mobilizing approvals via the mobile app, drastically cutting process wait times.
  3. Unify Diverse Operations: The platform successfully managed the deep contrasts in Eaton’s operations, applying the correct, different rule sets for factory workers in Tainan and office staff in Taipei, all within one system.

The Results: A Transformative Leap in Efficiency and Experience

The impact of the GaiaWorks platform was both immediate and profound, establishing a new benchmark for Eaton’s digital transformation in the region.

1. Significant Efficiency Gains

The project’s primary success was the saving of thousands of administrative hours annually. This reclaimed time was a major strategic victory, allowing attendance clerks, supervisors, and HR teams to move from low-value data entry to high-value employee engagement and business support.

2. A Transformative Leap in User Experience

For over 10,000 employees, the system delivered a major upgrade.

  • Empowerment & Privacy: Employees gained self-service access to their data and could manage sensitive leave requests privately.
  • Modern Communication: Critical information moved from physical bulletin boards to precise, instant mobile push notifications.
  • High User Adoption: The new system was met with enthusiasm. The local team in the Philippines was so pleased that they recorded testimonial videos and handed out commemorative badges on launch day.

3. From a Regional Tool to a Global Benchmark

By conquering the immense complexity of APAC’s labor laws, the Eaton-GaiaWorks project has become a milestone in the company’s regional operations. It proved that a single WFM platform can drive efficiency, ensure compliance, and dramatically improve the employee experience across a diverse landscape.

Struggling with complex APAC labor laws and inefficient processes? Talk to our team to see how GaiaWorks can unify your operation.

 

 

Smart Scheduling for Manufacturing: Swire Coca-Cola Case Study

Smart Scheduling for Manufacturing: Swire Coca-Cola Case Study

Swire Coca-Cola deployed smart scheduling for manufacturing to solve its most complex labor challenge: automating multi-line, skilled-labor schedules. The GaiaWorks platform helped them meet peak season demand and boost efficiency—all without adding new staff.

 

Results at a Glance

 

  • Scheduling Time Slashed 97%: Reduced weekly scheduling time for complex multi-line operations from 4-6 hours to just 10 minutes.
  • Scaled Labor Sharing: Expanded the strategic “labor sharing” program from just 2 production lines to all 6 lines, unlocking new capacity.
  • Achieved 100% Accuracy: Ensured all schedules were 100% compliant with complex skills, rotations, and multi-layered labor rules.
  • Met Peak Demand Without New Hires: Increased production flexibility to manage seasonal peaks and boosted overall capacity using the existing skilled workforce.
  • Enhanced Employee Development: Enabled a transparent, multi-skilling framework and clear development paths, boosting employee satisfaction.

“Management philosophy and our foundational principles helped us get from 0 to 1. Smart scheduling (with GaiaWorks) helped us get from 1 to 10.”

The Challenge: The New Labor Problem in an Automated Factory

 

In the age of automation, many assume workforce management problems disappear. Swire Coca-Cola’s advanced facility shows this isn’t true. The facility’s operation relies on a smaller, elite group of highly-skilled technicians, which creates two critical business challenges:

1. Peak Season Demand: The beverage business is highly seasonal. This creates intense peak seasons where the factory must produce more.

2. Skilled Labor Scarcity: The required technicians are difficult to find and train. The factory cannot simply hire temporary staff to meet peak demand.

The strategic answer was internal “labor sharing”—borrowing skilled staff from less-busy lines to support high-demand lines.

This created the real challenge: Extreme Scheduling Complexity.

  • Intricate Rules: The factory runs a “3-shift, 2-rotation” system.
  • Skill Matching: Planners must match the precise skill and proficiency level for each borrowed employee.
  • Layered Constraints: The schedule must obey dozens of prioritized “strong” and “non-strong” rules (e.g., skill limits, hour limits, overtime caps, consecutive rest preferences, etc.).

This complexity made the strategy impossible to scale. Manually creating a schedule for just two lines took 4-6 hours per week and was still not 100% accurate.

 

The Solution: GaiaWorks’ Smart Scheduling for Manufacturing in Action

 

Swire Coca-Cola had the right management philosophy but needed a technology engine to execute it. They launched the GaiaWorks Smart Scheduling module to automate their “labor sharing” initiative.

This smart scheduling for manufacturing solution was configured to:

1. Automate All Rules: The system digitized all of Swire Coca-Cola’s complex rules—from “strong” constraints like skill matching to “non-strong” preferences like minimizing disruptions.

2. Optimize Shared Labor: The engine automatically finds the optimal, 100% compliant schedule, identifying which employees to borrow from which lines based on availability, skills, and business priority.

3. Manage Skills: The solution provided a digital “skill tag” management system, giving planners instant visibility into who was qualified for which role.

 

The Results: Scaling from “Impossible” to “Effortless”

 

The impact of the GaiaWorks platform was transformative, allowing Swire Coca-Cola to finally scale its core labor strategy.

1. Immediate Efficiency & Accuracy

The 4-6 hour manual scheduling nightmare vanished. The process now takes 10 minutes, and the resulting schedule is 100% accurate and compliant.

 

2. Strategic Scalability (The “1 to 10” Leap)

With automation, Swire Coca-Cola expanded its “labor sharing” program from the initial 2 lines to all 6 production lines.

 

3. Capacity & Cost Control

By efficiently sharing its existing skilled workforce, the factory boosted its overall production capacity and met peak seasonal demand without hiring a single new employee.

 

4. Enhanced Employee Experience

The platform provided a clear, online system for managing skills, allowing employees to pursue new development paths and increasing their satisfaction and retention.

 

Struggling with complex schedules? See how GaiaWorks’ smart scheduling for manufacturing can automate your operations.

 

 

Alfa Laval Transforms Workforce Management with GaiaWorks, Slashing T&A Processing by 70% and Fueling ESG Goals

Alfa Laval Transforms Workforce Management with GaiaWorks, Slashing T&A Processing by 70% and Fueling ESG Goals

The global industrial leader consolidated 9 disparate systems into one unified GaiaWorks platform, saving 6.1 FTEs and cutting 7,582 kg of carbon emissions annually.

Results at a Glance

 

  • System Integration: 9 fragmented HR systems consolidated into 1 unified GaiaWorks platform.
  • Efficiency Gains: Time & Attendance (T&A) processing time slashed from 1,504 to 449 hours (a 70% reduction).
  • Manpower Savings: Reduced workload equivalent to 6.1 FTEs.
  • ROI & ESG: E-signature module saves 6,286 hours and ~20,000 RMB annually, eliminating 7,582 kg of carbon emissions.
  • Compliance & UX: Proactive compliance issues reduced from 8 to 2, while employee user satisfaction surged to 4.5/5.

“With GaiaWorks, we consolidated 9 systems into one. Our T&A processing time fell by 70%, and our e-signature module alone saved us over 6,200 hours. We didn’t just gain efficiency; we improved compliance, sustainability, and boosted user satisfaction to 4.5 out of 5.”

— Wang Hui, Head of HR SSC & Country HR Manager, Alfa Laval China

The Challenge: Fragmented Systems and Poor Workforce Management

 

Alfa Laval is a 140-year-old Swedish industrial giant. The company operates globally with a deep-rooted commitment to sustainability. However, in China, this vision was being challenged by operational reality.

Its China operations were running in silos. For example, the HR department used nine different, disconnected systems for time & attendance, scheduling, leave, travel, and payroll.

This fragmented approach to workforce management created significant business challenges:

  • No Visibility: Management had no unified view of frontline operations, making it impossible to share resources (like specialized welders) between plants, leading to redundant hiring.
  • High Inefficiency: Manual, paper-based approval processes were slow and opaque. Employees couldn’t even check their own leave balances accurately without asking HR.
  • Data & Compliance Risk: Data was entered multiple times across systems, leading to high error rates and significant compliance risks.

This operational chaos was unacceptable to Wang Hui, Head of Alfa Laval China’s HR Shared Service Center (HRSSC). Her team, operating as a “Problem Solving Center”. Therefore, they knew that transformation was necessary to align operations with the company’s core values of efficiency and sustainability.

 

The Solution: A New Workforce Management Process Powered by GaiaWorks

 

The transformation was not just about technology; it was about process. Before implementation, Wang Hui’s team led a 10-month “process re-engineering battle.”

They mapped and standardized workflows for all 3,000 employees. This resulted in 19 master processes, 12 approval matrices, and 40 sub-policies.

With this new foundation, Alfa Laval selected and implemented the GaiaWorks Workforce Management (WFM) suite as its single, unified platform. The GaiaWorks system was configured to:

  • Unify Operations: Consolidate all T&A, scheduling, and leave management for all Chinese sites.
  • Handle Complexity: Automate complex rules, such as cross-day night shift calculations and plant-specific overtime policies.
  • Standardize Approvals: Enforce new, standardized approval flows, pushing the organization toward best practices.

Concurrently, the team built a comprehensive HR Knowledge Base. This creates a “single source of truth” for all process-related questions, and proved invaluable for future change management.

 

The Results: A New Workforce Management Engine for Efficiency and Sustainability

 

The impact of the GaiaWorks workforce management platform was immediate and measurable. It delivered transformative results across the board.

1.Massive Efficiency Gains: The most dramatic impact was on efficiency. By automating T&A processing, the team slashed processing time by 70% (from 1,504 to 449 hours). This saved the equivalent of 6.1 FTEs, allowing the HRSSC to focus on high-value strategic work instead of manual data entry.

2.Hard Savings & ESG Impact: The new e-signature module alone saves 6,286 administrative hours per year. This initiative, which saves nearly 20,000 RMB in material costs, was also calculated as a 7,582 kg reduction in carbon emissions, contributing directly to Alfa Laval’s global “Go Green” targets.

3.Stronger Governance & Compliance: The unified system provided unprecedented transparency. The number of compliance issues flagged during audits dropped from 7-8 to just 2 (with the remaining two being HQ-level issues).

4.Superior User Experience: With a single, accurate platform, employee user satisfaction surged to 4.5 out of 5. Trust in the company increased as policies became transparent and data became reliable.

For Alfa Laval, the GaiaWorks platform became the engine that finally connected its day-to-day operations with its long-term strategic goals, proving that digital transformation and sustainability are two sides of the same coin.

Learn more about GaiaWorks’ workforce management solutions for manufacturing here.

 

Employee Scheduling: 9 Proven Tips for Better Results

Employee Scheduling: 9 Proven Tips for Better Results

Employee scheduling for frontline teams often feels like a high-stakes juggling act. You’re balancing business needs, budgets, and the complex lives of your employees—all while trying to keep your operation running smoothly. It’s not easy.
The good news? It doesn’t have to be this difficult.
Bad employee scheduling  isn’t just an inconvenience. In fact, it’s a primary cause of employee burnout, high turnover, and inflated labor costs. However, by adopting a smarter, more modern approach, you can transform employee scheduling from your biggest headache into your greatest strategic advantage.
Here are nine simple, proven tips for more effective employee scheduling.

1. Identify and Eliminate Bias in Your Employee Scheduling

Unintentional bias is one of the quickest ways to erode team morale. When schedules are built manually, it’s easy to fall into habits. For example, giving the best shifts to the same people or assigning undesirable tasks to others without realizing it. Employees notice these patterns, which can lead to feelings of favoritism and resentment.
The Fix: Use an objective, rule-based system. A smart scheduling platform like GaiaWorks uses an AI engine to distribute shifts based on objective rules you define—like skills, availability, and fairness. As a result, removing unconscious bias from the equation.

2. Publish Schedules in Advance for Predictability

One of the biggest stressors for hourly employees is schedule unpredictability. When schedules are posted just a few days (or hours) in advance, it becomes impossible for your team to plan their lives, whether it’s arranging childcare, scheduling appointments, or working a second job. Ultimately, This instability is a major driver of burnout and turnover.
The Fix: Commit to a consistent, advance scheduling cadence. With a modern workforce management platform, you can finalize and publish schedules weeks in advance. The GaiaWorks mobile app automatically notifies every employee the moment the schedule is live. This gives giving them the stability they need to balance work and life effectively.

3. Know Your Business with Data, Not Guesswork

Are you constantly overstaffed during quiet periods and understaffed during a rush? This is a classic sign of scheduling based on guesswork rather than data. Both scenarios are expensive—one wastes payroll, while the other leads to lost sales and burnt-out employees.
The Fix: Use AI-powered demand forecasting. The GaiaWorks Algorithm Cloud acts as your operational crystal ball. It analyzes your historical business data—like sales figures, customer traffic, or production orders. It then creates a highly accurate Business Forecast of your labor needs, often down to 15-minute intervals. This allows you to build a schedule that perfectly matches labor to demand.

4. Know Your Employees by Capturing Their Needs

Your employees are not interchangeable. They have different skills, work preferences, and availability. A one-size-fits-all schedule that ignores these realities will only lead to endless requests for changes and a frustrated team.
The Fix: Make it easy to collect and use employee preferences. Instead of juggling sticky notes and text messages, use a system where employees can input their availability and shift preferences directly. The GaiaWorks platform allows employees to set their preferred work times, and the AI will automatically consider these preferences when building the schedule. Therefore, it creates a win-win for you and your team.

5. Centralize and Automate Schedule Communication

Is your official schedule still a piece of paper tacked to a breakroom wall? In today’s mobile world, that’s no longer effective. It forces employees to call in or make a special trip just to check their hours, wasting everyone’s time.
The Fix: Use a mobile app as your single source of truth. The GaiaWorks mobile app ensures everyone has 24/7 access to the most up-to-date schedule. Any changes you make are instantly pushed to their phones. This eliminates confusion and no-shows.

6. Make Shift Changes Painless for Everyone

Life happens. An employee gets sick, has a family emergency, or needs to change a shift for personal reasons. If your process for handling this is a chaotic flurry of phone calls and texts, you’re creating unnecessary stress for both your employees and your managers.
The Fix: Empower employees with self-service shift swapping. The GaiaWorks app allows an employee to offer their shift to a pool of qualified colleagues. The system automatically checks for skill compatibility and overtime risk. Because of this, you only see pre-vetted, safe options to approve. This entire process can happen in minutes, not hours.

7. Fill Open Shifts Instantly, Without the Phone Calls

When a shift unexpectedly opens up, the last thing you want to do is start calling employees one by one. It’s inefficient. Plus, it often results in you pressuring someone to work who doesn’t want to.
The Fix: Broadcast open shifts to qualified employees. With a single click in the GaiaWorks platform, you can offer an open shift to all available and qualified employees. The first person to claim it gets the shift. This is not only faster but also fairer, giving everyone an equal opportunity to pick up extra hours if they want them.

8. Make the Schedule Accessible 24/7, From Anywhere

Modern workforces are mobile. Your scheduling system should be too. If your team can only access their schedule or make requests when they are physically at work, you’re creating an unnecessary barrier.
The Fix: Use a cloud-based platform with a dedicated mobile app. Whether it’s checking next week’s hours, requesting time off, or picking up a shift, the GaiaWorks app allows your employees to manage their work life from anywhere, at any time. This level of accessibility is now a baseline expectation for modern workplaces.

9. Cross-Train and Use Skills-Based Employee Scheduling

Are your most skilled employees working when you need them most? True excellence comes from matching skills to demand. You want your expert technician on duty with complex machinery, just as you want your top salesperson on the floor during peak hours.
The Fix: Use skills-based scheduling. The GaiaWorks platform allows you to create a Skills & Certificates profile for each employee.The AI scheduling engine then uses this data to make smarter decisions, ensuring your most critical roles are always covered by a qualified expert. For instance, Nestlé used this approach to achieve a 20% increase in productivity and a 50% reduction in human-error-related quality issues.

10. It’s Time for a Smarter Schedule

Moving away from manual scheduling isn’t just about saving time. It’s about building a more efficient, profitable, and resilient operation. More importantly, your employees feel valued and respected. By leveraging the right tools, you can turn your biggest employee scheduling challenges into your greatest strengths.

 

 

How to Make Employee Scheduling Easier (and More Profitable)

How to Make Employee Scheduling Easier (and More Profitable)

Let’s be honest: for most managers, employee scheduling is a headache. It’s a hard puzzle. You have to balance business needs, employee availability, and last-minute changes. Plus, you’re trying to keep everyone happy.
Too often, it feels like a thankless task. It pulls you away from what you should be doing. For example, leading your team and growing the business.
But what if your employee scheduling software wasn’t just a chore? What if it was a strategic tool? You could use it to cut costs, boost productivity, and build a happier, more stable team.
It can be. The secret isn’t working harder on spreadsheets. Instead, it’s about working smarter with the right tools. This guide will make your employee scheduling easier by focusing on the features that matter.

1. Stop Guessing, Start Forecasting with Data

The biggest flaw in manual employee scheduling is that it’s based on guesswork. For example, you look at last week’s schedule, remember it was busy on Friday, and hope for the best. This often leads to being overstaffed during quiet periods (wasting money). Or, it leaves you understaffed during a rush (stressing out your team and losing sales).
The Fix: Use an AI-Powered Forecasting Engine
A smart scheduling platform does this automatically. The GaiaWorks Algorithm Cloud acts as your forecasting engine.
  • How it Works: The platform analyzes your historical business data. This includes sales figures, customer traffic, or production orders. Additionally, it considers external factors like weather or holidays. This helps generate a highly accurate Business Forecast.
  • The Feature in Action: You start with a clear, data-backed plan. You know exactly how many people you need for each 15-minute interval. As a result, your roster management transforms from a guess into a proactive, data-driven plan.

2. Match the Right Skills to the Right Shift

Having enough people on the floor is only half the battle. You need the right people, with the right skills, doing the right jobs. Manually tracking this for your employee scheduling is nearly impossible at scale. Furthermore, it leads to costly mistakes.
The Fix: Automate Skills-Based Assignments.
The GaiaWorks platform allows you to move beyond simple availability and schedule based on capability.
  • How it Works: Within the system, you can tag employees with specific Skills & Certificates.This could be anything from “Forklift Certified” in a warehouse to “Product Expert” in a retail store.
  • The Feature in Action: When the AI builds the schedule, it doesn’t just fill a slot. Instead, it intelligently finds the best person for that shift’s specific needs. This ensures your most critical roles are always covered by qualified staff. This single feature has a massive impact. In fact, Nestlé used this approach with GaiaWorks. It led to a 20% increase in productivity and a 50% reduction in human-error-related quality issues.

3. Give Your Employees Flexibility (Without Creating Chaos)

Today’s employees expect flexibility. A rigid, top-down schedule is a primary cause of burnout and high turnover. But, managing shift swaps and time-off requests via text messages is a recipe for chaos.
The Fix: Empower Your Team with a Self-Service Mobile App.
The GaiaWorks mobile app gives your employees a direct line to their schedule, fostering a sense of ownership and respect.
  • How it Works: The app provides a central hub for all scheduling communication. Employees can see their shifts in real-time, get notified of changes, and manage their own availability.
  • The Feature in Action: For example, an employee needs to swap a shift. Instead of calling you, they open the app and request a swap. The system automatically shows the request only to other employees who have the right skills and won’t go into overtime. You simply get a notification to approve the pre-vetted swap with one click. Amazingly, this process can be done in as little as 10 seconds.

4. Make Employee Scheduling Compliance Effortless and Automatic

Labor laws are complex. Plus, they are constantly changing. Manually tracking overtime limits, mandated breaks, and fair work week rules is a massive compliance risk. This can lead to expensive fines and legal trouble.
The Fix: Use a System with Built-in Compliance Guardrails.
The GaiaWorks platform has a powerful Compliance Assistance engine built-in, acting as your automated legal expert.
  • How it Works: You configure the system with your specific national, regional, and company labor rules.
  • The Feature in Action: As the schedule is being created, the system automatically monitors for violations in real-time. For instance, if a manager tries to make a manual change, they get an alert. It might say, “This change will put this employee into overtime.” This prevents a costly mistake before it ever happens.

5. Connect Your Employee Scheduling to Your Bottom Line

Ultimately, your schedule is one of the most powerful levers you have for controlling your biggest variable cost: labor. A well-built schedule can directly increase profitability.
The Fix: Schedule Against a Specific Business Target.
GaiaWorks allows you to align your labor optimization efforts with your financial goals.
  • How it Works: The platform includes an Optimization Target feature. Before running the schedule, you tell the AI what your primary goal is. For example, “Cost Saving”.
  • The Feature in Action: The algorithm will then prioritize that goal, intelligently building the most cost-effective schedule possible that still meets your business demand and compliance rules. The results are significant:
    • Swire Coca-Cola used smarter scheduling to enable labor sharing across 6 production lines, resulting in a 2% increase in overall production capacity.
    • A global fast-food chain cut its weekly scheduling time from 8 hours to 2 and is projected to save an estimated ¥100 million RMB (approx. $14M USD) annually in labor costs.

It’s Time for Smarter Employee Scheduling

Moving away from manual employee scheduling isn’t just about saving a few hours a week. Instead, it’s about making a fundamental shift. You can move from a reactive chore to a proactive, strategic advantage.
By leveraging the right automated scheduling tools, you can build better schedules. These schedules meet your business needs and create a fairer, more flexible environment for your employees. Finally, the result is a more resilient, more profitable operation.
Ready to see the difference for yourself?(/request-demo) to learn how GaiaWorks can turn your biggest scheduling challenges into your greatest strengths.