Remote Work for MSMEs in Manufacturing – Challenges and Solutions
Published on : Friday 08-07-2022
Training and ongoing sharing of best practices are paramount for the success of remote collaboration, says Darshana Thakkar.
Unlike 9 to 5 jobs in recent years, the trend for flexible and remote working is increasingly popular. Working for extended hours and dual working couples are the reason for losing work-life balance. That results in poor health and reduced productivity.
With the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions, there is a massive increase in adopting Remote working and Flexi working. Many large organisations immediately started remote working upon lockdown restrictions. But small organisations were not ready with the infrastructure for remote working. Upon reopening post lockdown, many organisations have begun preparing for remote and flexi work. But for small organisations, many challenges are on the way to adopting the new trend.
As an MSME activist, my whole focus is to empower MSMEs to take advantage of any new trend. I want to share some pain points keeping in mind MSMEs only.
Flexi working is an increasingly common phenomenon in which employees are allowed to do their job in a way that suits their lifestyles and responsibilities. Everyone in this world has a different habit and is most productive at a specific time of the day. Employers now realise that the important thing is that work gets done well, not that it gets done in a prescribed timeframe or environment.
Flexi working is an antidote to the nine-to-five and an essential part of any modern company's culture.
Remote work is variously called work from home, telework, remote work, mobile work and distance work. It is an employment arrangement where employees do not commute to a central place of work, such as an office building, factory, warehouse, retail store, etc.
More and more businesses have woken up to the importance of job satisfaction, and it's fast becoming a key criterion for job seekers worldwide.
Different options of Flexi Working
a. Remote or Hybrid working:
b. Flexible work shifts and Shifting arrival and departure times
c. Part-time employment options
d. Shared employment options
a. Paid maternity and paternity leave
e. Unlimited paid time off
f. Family or medical leave and caregiving leave, and
g. Sabbaticals/break from work for a specific time from 7 days to 1 year to pursue one's dream.
With flexi working options, employers can hire excellent talent and retain great talent with the additional benefits of building a company culture driven by trust and commitment.
As per a survey on LinkedIn, women and Gen Z are more likely to apply to remote positions when job searching.
Benefits of flexi working to MSME organisations
1. Boost productivity
Typically we all believe that breaking the stereotype of office working under close supervision may result in reduced productivity and performance. And it is true also up to some extent. The employee may spend all the time watching TV, with the mobile, or playing a game.
But recent research and results from many institutes proved it wrong. The employee feels motivated as the business leaders keep faith in their work. They become more responsible, and the same results in improved productivity.
A 2-year study at Stanford found that remote workers experienced "an astounding productivity boost…equivalent to a full day's work" every week. Remote employees spend less time commuting, in meetings, or being distracted at the office.
2. Decrease Costs
Fewer employees in the office require a small office area, lesser working desks, and overall decreased operating expenses.
As reported by Dell, they save roughly $12 million a year in real estate costs due to their flexible remote work policies. And American Express claims to save between $10 to $15 million annually in real estate costs. Companies working in remote areas are providing transportation facilities or fuel allowances. It is a significant saving.
3. Increase Employee Retention
In our country, especially in metro cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Chennai, people spend 1 to 4 hours daily travelling to the workplace. Even in other B towns and cities, people must travel for a long-distance workplace, spending 1 to 3 hours daily.
The research by Stanford study showed that employee retention increased by 50% when employees had the option to work from home.
Higher employee retention saves time and money on the painful process of advertising, recruiting, training, and promoting the employee.
The average cost to replace an employee is from Rs 50000/- to 5 lakh, including the direct and indirect cost of hiring, reduced productivity in the initial period, and loss of production for about 30 to 90 days.
4. Reduce Employee Stress
Everyone works for the self and family – poor work-life balance results in stress. Moreover, increased working hours due to commute time and travel hurdles increase stress levels. It also results in reduced productivity and increased absenteeism – the ultimate loss of production to a company.
How to implement flexi working in MSMEs
We can implement flexi working in any business in different ways. But before making any long-term decision, we need to consider many business-related factors.
No company can copy another for organisational changes as one shoe doesn't fit everyone. The employer needs to consider the type of industry they operate, geographical location, size of business, and technology infrastructure.
I am sharing a few most suitable options for MSMEs and manufacturing companies.
1. Flexible arrival and departure times
It is the most popular and easy way of flexi working. We can, of course, define some time slots for morning arrival, say for 2 hours or so, to maintain the workflow for employees dealing with external agencies.
Instead of perpetually monitoring the clock for employees, we need to shift the focus to the timely completion of work.
Alternatively, mobilise a management tool to help monitor attendance. That way, whether employees come into the office at 9 am or 11 am; we will know exactly how many hours they work each day of an average week.
2. Remote/Hybrid working
In the post Covid scenario, remote working has become more popular, especially office work. The office culture is shifting towards hybrid work, and people choosing freelance work has also increased significantly.
Hybrid work with a few days every week in the office and a few from home is a better option for MSMEs.
3. Change in work weeks
In our country, most small businesses have six days a week working. With some changes in daily timing, we can change it to 5 days a week or at least give half-day working on weekends.
For example, if we increase 45 minutes in daily timing, in 5 days, accumulated work hours are almost 4 hours. That works in any of the following ways.
i. 5 days a week
ii. Weekly off on all 2nd and 4th Saturdays or so
iii. Half-day every Saturday.
4. Shared employment
MSME companies having lower budgets can hire top talent as freelancers or shared employment. We can offer a fixed plus variable pay pack with work targets and deadlines to freelancers who can also partially work for other companies. Alternatively, two or more companies in a similar industry can hire top talent on a shared employment basis.
Remote work in manufacturing: Challenges & solutions
The real challenge of establishing remote or hybrid work lies in manufacturing with MSME companies. Now, the whole world is moving towards digitalisation, as also our country, India. In India, we have adopted digital technologies very quickly and effectively. Gone are the days when we visit banks for many reasons like passbook entry, cheque deposits, cash withdrawal, etc. Online payment transactions has become part of life.
Similarly, any MSME company can make significant changes in our manufacturing process with constant efforts, proper strategy, and expert guidance. Slow but steady digital transformation aids in reduced product costing, further making an organisation competitive in the market. Trust me; remote employment will be cheaper than the onsite one. You may observe the result in the medium to long run.
Challenge 1: To check the status of production
Solution: Traditionally, we used to check the production status physically by keeping shop floor supervisors, managers, or by self. Most of the time is utilised in observing and analysing what is happening rather than making decisions.
Machine and operator data need to be collected and contextualised in real-time so that managers can get insights into production no matter their location. Industry 4.( solutions easily make this transition smooth.
Challenge 2: Product quality assurance
Solution: Automated production process ensures exact quality parameters according to the program unless any fault or breakdown occurs – 100% quality inspection not required in most production processes with Industry 4.0 solutions. Also, robotic tools can help to monitor product quality and consistency. Supervisors and managers can monitor product quality with a minimum of an onsite employee.
Challenge 3: Equipment and plant breakdown/shutdown
Solution: Almost all the MSME companies are practicing breakdown maintenance only. We act to replace or for service only upon some level of breakdown.
With real-time machine data, manufacturers gain insight into equipment health and conditions to get early warning signs of potential equipment failures and elevated risk areas that lead to downtimes. This way, predictive maintenance is the hands-on solution to prevent this challenge.
Automated communication and notifications to ensure the correct information is in the hands of the right person at the right time is the key to remote work success in a manufacturing organisation.
Manufacturing's bright future with remote work
Solutions exist for manufacturers as well. It is simply a matter of manufacturers adopting a culture and technology infrastructure to support the transition to a largely remote workforce.
A few strategies for transition of manufacturing companies towards remote workforce:
Skills: Identify whose skills translate the best to scalable remote work. Specific skill sets make some roles more conducive to performing digitally.
Assessment: Business leaders should decide diligently about, who must work inside the factory? Who does a job that could perform remotely? Sometimes manufacturers need to broaden the skill sets of onsite teams to create more generalists, keeping the few talents onsite who, with proper guidance, can tackle many different jobs. That can help resolve a much more comprehensive range of issues.
Data: The virtual shift will work only if the infrastructure for data collection, analytics, and remote collaboration tools is up to par.
Training: Training and ongoing sharing of best practices are paramount for the success of remote collaboration.
The goods produced may remain physical, but the nature in which they are made will continue to be supported by digital methodologies, including remote work, that enable people to focus on only the highest value tasks while automating low value production activities.
Darshana Thakkar is MSME Transformation Specialist and Founder, Transformation – The Strategy Hub. An Electrical Engineer followed by MBA – Operations with rich industry experience, Darshana is an expert in transformation, cost reduction, and utilisation of resources. She has invested 25 years in transforming Micro and Small Enterprises. Her rich experience in resolving pain areas and real-life problems of SMEs helps organisations achieve quick results. Her expertise in managing business operations with limited resources helps clients transform their business practices from person driven to system driven with existing resources.
Darshana has helped many organisations to increase profitability and achieve sustainable growth. She is passionate to support the start-up ecosystem of our country. She is associated with CED, Government of Gujarat as a Business Function Expert in the Entrepreneurship Development program, as faculty for industrial subjects in the Second Generation Program (SGP), and as a start-up mentor and member of the start-up selection committee in the CED incubation centre. She is a certified corporate director registered with IICA and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. Apart from this, she is an author and publishing her blog, article, and case study related to the MSME industry. Email: [email protected]