The Human Factor – Approaches to workforce planning and employee retention of tomorrow

The Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) in Dortmund dedicates numerous research programs to the challenges and opportunities presented by the digital age. Technology clearly takes center stage. But the human factor must not fall by the wayside.

Fraunhofer IML closely observes developments in logistics and sees growing challenges for the industry. Particularly in Western Europe, there have long been profound trends toward digitization and automation. In optimizing logistical processes, companies are placing strong emphasis, for example, on introducing intelligent software and automation components. The institute’s focus is on research, development, and transferring innovations into industry, with product development and IT development for logistics being key. As part of this research activity, the human–machine interface is also being investigated. Whether forklifts in goods receipt, robots in order picking, or handhelds in shipping — such interfaces are now ubiquitous in logistics.

One might think, “It’s all about technology.” Yet, much in logistics still revolves around people. The trend toward using autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and automated guided vehicles (AGVs) does not always mitigate the very tangible personnel shortage. According to the IML’s RPS study, which examined approaches and methods for workforce planning and control, logistical processes in Germany remain very strongly tied to people. Among 77 warehouse-operating companies headquartered in Europe, over 40 % employ more than 500 people — and of those, 65 % even employ more than 1,000. 

Although the human factor is sometimes seriously underestimated, flexible workplace design is becoming increasingly important. Research programs have shown that long-term employee retention requires measures that more strongly address individual circumstances. Optimization approaches must therefore take into account, for example, warehouse topology, the range of items (e.g., size, weight of goods), personnel demographics, and company-specific turnover rates. A variety of factors ultimately determines to what extent technological approaches can truly support the specific workforce.

There is, however, a need for action in a large portion of logistics companies. In our aging, performance-oriented society, hardly any measures are being launched to specifically optimize workforce planning and control. Helpful are solutions that also provide ergonomic advantages and proactively counteract stress to keep the burden on employees low. This can begin with flexible break design, but in some companies it even goes as far as deploying exoskeletons to assist in physically demanding tasks involving heavy goods. Ergonomic work organization is given a special place in different research programs at the institute, because a holistic approach pays off especially in the long run for the well-being of the workforce.

But promoting employee ergonomics also means looking at technological approaches. Voice solutions are a good example. They combine a number of benefits, both from an ergonomic and a process perspective, by playing back verbal feedback independently of location. Multilingual solutions reduce language barriers and link technical advantages with more inclusive aspects of employee organization. The Fraunhofer IML specifically investigates the individual potentials and application areas of different picking technologies in its “Picking Lab,” in order to test various order-picking technologies in a testing and simulation context. There, both research and the general public benefit, since companies also get access to test the developments of research partners or in-house developments — helping them make a decision on the right hardware and software for their picking warehouse.

Yet even here: every warehouse is different and, given its particular environment, requires tailored solution approaches that support and bind employees in the long term. There is no patent recipe. However, aspects of workplace design and organization should never be ignored when looking at the logistics network holistically — to do justice to the human factor in logistics.