The bottom line: Most manufacturing platforms report on machines. ProAlert's Workforce Operations module adds the human side of production: who was on the line, what did they cost per unit produced, and how does that compare to last shift, last week, and last quarter. It's the data you need to answer a plant manager's most common question: "Are we staffing this right?"

Why Headcount Is Missing from Your OEE Story

OEE tells you machine efficiency, not labor efficiency.

A cell running at 94% OEE with 4 operators looks identical in OEE data to the same cell running at 94% with 2 operators. One costs twice as much per unit. OEE alone can't surface overstaffed or understaffed conditions... only labor data combined with production output can.
Labor cost per unit requires data from two systems that don't talk.

Production counts live in the OEE system. Labor hours and rates live in HR (Human Resources) or time-and-attendance. Calculating labor cost per unit requires a manual export, a VLOOKUP, and an analyst... which means it typically happens once a month, after the window to act has closed.
Shared tablets mean no individual accountability for production actions.

When one tablet serves an entire cell with four rotating operators, every action looks like it came from "the cell." Shift start, product selection, DT call initiation, and scrap entry are all attributed to a shared credential instead of a specific operator. Accountability requires individual identity at the point of interaction.
Multilingual workforces need language support at the kiosk level.

A plant floor with Spanish-speaking operators on the night shift, German speakers on another, and English-speaking supervisors on days can't operate effectively with an English-only kiosk interface. Language preference needs to follow the operator, not the device.

Crew Check-In and Labor Dashboards

Crew Check-In

Operators check in to shifts and assets at the start of each production period. Check-in creates the crew record that ties individual identity to the asset and shift... enabling all subsequent actions (DT calls, scrap entries, product selections) to be attributed to a specific operator rather than a shared station credential.

A Shared-Device Kiosk That Knows When It Is Full

A PIN pad, then large role buttons sized for gloves. Several people check in on the same device against different roles, and the kiosk flips to its staffed state once every slot is filled. Releasing somebody takes a branded confirmation, and a supervisor can override. Crew check-in only appears on the assets configured to want it.

Skills Matrix

A grid of people against skills with a coverage row per role and a visible count of how many roles are currently below coverage. The question "what happens if that person is off on Thursday" stops being a conversation and becomes a number.

Time-Clock Punch Import

Punches arrive through an API-key protected webhook, and a mapping screen ties clock IDs to ProAlert users so imported punches reconcile against crew check-ins. It is a generic interface rather than a single payroll vendor's connector, so whichever clock the plant already runs can feed it.

Crew Data Follows the Shift, Not a Number

Crew, status, labour and budget rows key on the shift definition, so a plant that runs four or five named shifts gets workforce data per shift rather than per Shift1, Shift2 and Shift3.

Labor Cost Dashboards

Labor cost per unit and per shift are calculated from check-in data combined with each operator's configured hourly rate and the production cycle counts from the OEE engine. Supervisors see cost-per-unit alongside OEE data in the same dashboard... no export, no spreadsheet, no delay.

Productivity Dashboards

Output-per-person metrics appear alongside OEE data for holistic shift review. Supervisors can compare productivity across shifts, across lines, and over time... identifying whether a productivity difference is driven by machine performance (OEE) or staffing level (workforce).

Four-Language Support

Full workforce interface in English, Spanish, French, and German. Language preference is set per user account and follows the operator when they check in... so Spanish-speaking operators see their kiosk and notifications in Spanish regardless of which physical device they're checking in on.

ProAlert skills matrix for a whole plant, six people against four roles, with a coverage row reading three of four qualified line operators, none of one material handler and two of two QC inspectors, two roles flagged as below coverage, and per-person marks for trainee, qualified and expert with a star on each primary role — **"What happens if that person is off on Thursday" stops being a conversation and becomes a number.** Six people down the side, four roles across the top, and a mark on every intersection saying whether that person is a trainee, qualified or an expert, with a star on the role they are primarily there to do. The row that matters is the coverage line underneath: three of the four line operator seats are covered, both QC inspector seats are covered, and the material handler seat is not covered by anybody. Two roles are flagged as below coverage rather than left for a supervisor to work out from the grid. A plant that cannot answer this question schedules around it by guessing.

ProAlert plant manager labor dashboard showing three days across eight production assets: a productive uptime percentage and an empty cycling cost tile, a labor cost trend table giving budgeted, actual and variance for each asset each day, and a variance heatmap colouring every asset-day green where the crew came in under budget and red where it went over — **Budgeted crew against the crew you actually ran, line by line and day by day.** The budget comes from each asset's own staffing template priced at each role's standard hourly rate; the actual comes from crew check-in and check-out, so the variance column is the cost of the gap between the two. Green is under, red is over. The heatmap repeats the same days as a grid, which is how a supervisor finds the one line that needs a conversation without reading a single number first. Above the tables, productive uptime separates the minutes a machine spent making something from the minutes it spent cycling empty, and prices the difference.

ProAlert finance labor cost summary for a plant over one week: total labor cost with the change against the previous period, total variance against budget, average cost per unit produced, the ratio of productive hours to powered hours, and average cost per productive unit — **The same week, divided by what it produced.** Cost per unit is the number the board above cannot give you, because a shift that cost what it was budgeted to cost still made more or fewer parts than the shift before it. Every tile carries its change against the previous period, so a rise in labour cost that came with a bigger rise in output reads as what it is. The last tile divides by productive units only: minutes a machine spent cycling with nothing loaded are excluded, so the figure is what it actually cost to make something rather than what it cost to be switched on.

Kiosk Mode

Kiosk Mode turns any Android or iOS tablet into a dedicated operator station with a focused UI. Operators interact with a locked-down interface that shows only the functions relevant to their role... without requiring them to log in as a named user for every interaction.

Standard Shared Tablet (No Kiosk)

All operators use the same login... no individual attribution
Full app navigation available... operators can accidentally access settings or other assets
No language switching when operator changes
Session timeouts frustrate operators mid-shift
Device must be reconfigured if asset assignment changes

ProAlert Kiosk Mode

Operator checks in at kiosk start... all actions attributed to their identity
Locked to focused UI: shift start, run control, DT call, scrap entry only
Language switches to operator's preference on check-in
No session timeouts... kiosk stays active at the station throughout the shift
Asset and shift configuration pushed from admin UI, no on-device setup

Kiosk Provisioning: Kiosk stations are provisioned from the ProAlert admin UI with asset assignment, shift configuration, and role definition. The Kiosk Provisioning API allows automated configuration of large deployments from a central management system. Configuration updates push to the device over the network without requiring physical access.

ProAlert kiosk crew check-in on a floor tablet locked to machine SAW-001, showing the asset's three required crew roles with two of two line operators and one of one QC inspector checked in and zero of one material handler still outstanding, a large PIN entry field with Check In and Override buttons, and a green confirmation reading Checked in Alex Torres — **Check-in is where the crew record starts.** The kiosk reads the asset's own staffing template and tracks it live against who has actually badged on: two line operators and a QC inspector are checked in, the material handler is not, so the shift stands at three of four and the station says which seat it is waiting on. Every downtime call, scrap entry and product change made here for the rest of the shift is attributed to one of those people, which is what turns the labour cost above into a measured number rather than an estimate.

Workforce-Specific Roles

Workforce Operations introduces two dedicated roles that provide appropriate access to crew and labor data without full administrator permissions.

Role	Access Scope	Typical User
ProductionManager	Crew check-in oversight, labor cost dashboards, productivity reports, shift scheduling. Read access to OEE data for all assigned assets. Cannot access CMMS work orders or system configuration.	Production supervisors and cell leads who need labor and output visibility without maintenance system access
MaintenanceManager	Work order management and approval, crew overview for maintenance staff, labor hour reporting for maintenance activities. Cannot access production labor cost or workforce productivity dashboards.	Maintenance supervisors who oversee technician assignments and work order throughput

See labor cost per unit next to OEE data in a live demo.

Book a 30-minute demo... we'll walk through crew check-in, kiosk provisioning, and the labor cost dashboard alongside a live production shift.

Schedule a Demo