The company's Global Freight Forwarding department specializes in transporting large shipments of freight globally and domestically. To support this, they operate supercenters across the country that handle the necessary paperwork for these shipments. Since shifting to this supercenter model, these facilities have handled more than half a million shipments between September and January. However, each shipment is documented by agents without a standardized process flow, resulting in limited efficiency tracking and an actual processing rate of 4.4 shipments per hour against a target of 6.5. While management hypothesized that the supercenters were overstaffed and underperforming due to excessive budget utilization, the lack of concrete efficiency tracking prevented data-driven headcount planning. To address this issue, the team conducted time studies across three supercenter locations to create detailed process maps of the agents' desk operations, capturing task-level processing times, idle times, and utilization rates. This data was synthesized into a dynamic staffing calculator that adjusts the required headcount based on discrete, forecasted monthly freight volumes. Crucially, the final economic analysis contradicted initial management assumptions: the model revealed that the facilities were actually under-resourced, necessitating a 25.9% increase in total staffing costs to adequately meet demand goals. The team recommends utilizing this staffing calculator monthly to allow for stable headcount planning, with future roadmaps focused on standardizing this methodology and establishing dedicated functional roles across all locations.

Keywords

Time Study, Resource Allocation, Economic Analysis, Process Analysis, Workforce Standardization