Manufacturing Control Systems

Time and Attendance Systems

Introducing the Time and Attendance System

Time stamping clocks have become commonplace in many factories and office around the world. Though commonplace they are often unreliable, present a high cost of maintenance and require new clock cards on a weekly basis. Once weekly clock cards have been collected, a great deal of manpower in needed to process information.

In conjunction with several companies, Software Systems Europe Ltd have developed an electronic/computerised clocking system which provides not only the reliability and low cost maintenance, but also many new features to save time and reduce costs

Our clocking system is designed to manage all eventualities and situations, yet remains intuitive and reliable. Features of the system include:

  • In-built personnel system;
  • Four event set clocking (Day In, Lunch Out, Lunch In, Day Out);
  • Automatic insertion of missed clocking times;
  • Pre-emptive clocking times;
  • Additional pass-out times;
  • Definable shift patterns;
  • Easy-view symbols (definable by the supervisor);
  • Editing, amending and locking facilities of clock times available (supervisor only);
  • Advanced and on-the-spot absences and holidays;
  • Unscheduled work time;
  • Overtime and late minutes recording;
  • Clocking early-in, early-out and late-in up to one hour;
  • Clocking late out up to six hours;
  • Clock over midnight;
  • Definable week numbers and dates;
  • Extensive reporting facilities;
  • Complete transaction histories for each employee;
  • Automatic transfer to Sage Payroll of attended minutes information.

A major benefit with the clocking system is the ability to 'tweak' it to the needs of an individual customer and their needs. The system is written in database form and therefore allowed easy modification and addition of new reporting features.

The system when instructed will in-turn download the clocking transaction from the data collection points to a holding file on the computer (this would normally be done twice daily). After the transactions have been collected, they are processed by the system and the clocking times are stored against each employee. The Foreperson or Supervisor can also enter the clocking times manually and lock the time so it cannot be altered by the system.

Once the weekly transactions have been built-up, the system will in turn transfer all the attended times to Sage or other suitable gross-to-net payroll system.

The final stage of the process requires a Foreperson or Supervisor to clear down the week's transactions so times can be processed for the next week.

At any point during the day, reports can be ran and information can be collated.

Maintenance

No maintenance of the system is required. The supply of additional and replacement bar-coded clock-in cards should be the only maintenance costs incurred. The system will be covered by a support contract with Software Systems Europe Ltd under the normal terms.

Many direct and indirect benefits result from this wide range of features, for example:

  • On-the-spot reporting to screen or printer;
  • Reduced manpower involved in processing clock cards;
  • More accurate and timely recording of absences and lateness;
  • Ability to produce an immediate list of all people clocked in (for safety roll-call purposes);
  • Ability to determine absent employees immediately after normal clock on time. This should allow management to redeploy employees immediately to fill the gaps, hence increasing productivity/efficiency;
  • Identification of persistent absenteeism and lateness.

How does it work?

Electronic data collection terminal(s) are located at clock in points. All transactions are collected on a batch basis by a designated computer. Each employee is issued with either plastic laminated bar-coded clocking in cards, swipeable at a data collection point, keyfobs or magnetic stripe cards. Employee information and clocking times will be recorded and stored. The cards given to each employee are unique and cannot be used in order to clock-in another employee.