Personnel Tracking and Management

Background

The client is a global leader in the manufacturing of advanced automotive components. With a strong international presence, the company is known for its commitment to technological innovation and for the quality of its products. The automotive components manufacturer provides a wide range of vehicle solutions, including engine management systems, automotive electronics, thermotechnics, automotive components and vehicle safety technologies. With tens of thousands of employees spread across numerous manufacturing facilities around the world, the client has identified the need to optimize personnel management for several strategic and operational reasons.
A system that facilitates communication between staff and management can improve the flow of information, reducing response times and increasing operational responsiveness. Optimized personnel management can reduce downtime, increase productivity and improve the quality of the final product.
Ensuring worker safety is a top priority. Monitoring the location of personnel in large facilities in real time can prevent accidents and facilitate emergency operations.
Efficient personnel management also allows human resources to be assigned in a more targeted and rational way, reducing waste and overlapping tasks. In compliance with safety regulations and company best practices, it is essential to have a system that allows accurate traceability of personnel and their activities. To respond to these needs, we implemented a first personnel management lead project at the client’s 80,000 m² factory in Apodaca, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. This project was carried out with the aim of optimizing personnel logistics operations, improving the overall efficiency of activities within the plant.

Challenge

The client’s project aimed to address a crucial challenge: to improve the management of working hours and precisely monitor employees areas of responsibility. This objective arises from the need to ensure compliance with operational rules and improve the overall productivity of the plant.
Specific project requests included managing labor schedules management for different groups of employees, allowing to define start and finish schedules, managing defined areas of responsibility for staff, counting entry and exit times for each area, and implementing a system to notify the supervisor when an operational rule was broken.
These challenges required an integrated, advanced solution to significantly improve personnel management while ensuring safety, efficiency and regulatory compliance within the company’s large manufacturing facility.

Solution

To address these challenges, BlueUp specialized in the design, development and supply of integrated hardware/software devices and solutions, and Be Free Solutions, experts in the development of software platforms, have collaborated to create a turnkey solution based on the MeshCube platform from BlueUp for the customer. The choice of this platform was dictated by various key factors that directly respond to the company’s specific personnel management needs.
MeshCube adopts Wirepas Mesh 2.4GHz technology that is renowned for its scalability, reliability, ease of installation and integration with third-party systems, making it particularly suitable for complex environments such as the industrial ones.
One of the manufacturer’s main needs was to avoid expensive and complex wiring within the structure.
The ease of installation of MeshCube, Wirepas-based system totally wireless, allowed rapid implementation of the solution, responding to the client’s need to reduce costs and time associated with installation. Furthermore, the solution is extremely scalable, allowing it to manage large networks without compromising performance, a crucial point for the company which operates in large manufacturing facilities.
The MeshCube platform offers advanced monitoring and management tools, enabling continuous supervision of human resources within factories. This real-time monitoring capability is critical to optimizing operational efficiency and ensuring worker safety.
The ability to easily integrate the platform with other applications via API was decisive for our client, facilitating the integration of data into the Personnel Tracking and Management Platform (PTMP) – end user app developed by Be Free Solutions, centralizing and analyzing information effectively.
To develop the system infrastructure, two types of personnel tags were used: Badge Holder Wirepas provided to employees and SafeX Lite Wirepas for supervisors. Forte+ Wirepas anchors were then installed on steel poles 10 meters apart, covering the entire 80,000 m² area, ensuring an accuracy of +/- 4 meters, which is an excellent result, considering the challenging environment (presence of metallic objects, obstacles, …). The location update interval was set to 60 seconds when tags are in use (tag status is detected by the internal motion sensor).

Personnel Tracking and Management Platform (PTMP) – web interface by Be Free Solutions

When a work rule is broken by an employee, the supervisor’s SafeX Lite Wirepas begins to vibrate and flash, notifying a problem. At this point, the supervisor can use a tablet to access the Personnel Tracking and Management Platform (PTMP) app developed by Be Free Solutions, to check what the problem was and intervene promptly to solve it. Once the problem is solved, the system records the resolution. This platform allows the supervisor to have a complete overview of the different work areas and generates various reports, including the total working time and total time out of area for each employee.

Results

The implementation of the Personnel Tracking and Management Platform (PTMP) has led to the upgrade of personnel management, improving coordination and management of working schedules and areas of responsibility, reducing operational inefficiencies. It has also led to an increase in productivity, thanks to the accurate monitoring of working hours and areas of presence and to immediate notifications which allow for much faster and better internal communication, rapid problem resolution and greater use of resources.
The personnel management project at the automotive components manufacturer’s plant in Mexico demonstrated how the adoption of advanced monitoring technologies can significantly improve operational efficiency and personnel management in a complex industrial context. The solution implemented responded to the customer’s needs, ensuring precise and timely control of logistics activities.