Applying A Time And Attendance Lesson Learned

When Tony Davidson took over as comptroller and head of human resources at Amphenol Canada Corporation, he found himself faced with a familiar problem. Payroll errors were costing the company a lot of money. Fortunately, he also knew where to turn for a solution. Three years earlier, Davidson had worked for a start-up automotive firm which manufactured aluminum wheels. Because the company performed every part of the manufacturing - from foundry to finished wheel - it ran about 30 different shifts. Unfortunately, the company was trying to accomplish timekeeping with an old-fashioned time clock and then three people in payroll would compile the time cards and input the data. The result was utter confusion. Employees would clock in at various times throughout the day. Unfortunately, the payroll people often couldn't tabulate hours worked until over a week later if there were an inconsistency or mistake. By that time, foremen and supervisors couldn't recall who had worked when. Lateness and absence would sometimes go unnoticed. As a result, many workers were overpaid on a regular basis.

The VAR Steps In
Davidson's problem was solved when Bill Allen of International Data Technologies Corporation (IDT) made a sales call and offered a computerized solution to Davidson's time and attendance problem. Allen is vice president of marketing and sales for IDT, a Toronto-based VAR with 15 employees and annual gross sales of $2 million. Allen tied a Control Module Inc. (CMI) Model 1690 computerized time clock into a personal computer, so that manual data input could be eliminated. As a result of Allen's solution, the time and attendance problem was brought under control and the payroll staff was reduced from three to one part-time person.

The Problem Encountered Again - And Fixed Again
When Davidson began working for Amphenol Canada Corporation, he encountered the same problem. Amphenol Canada is the Canadian subsidiary of Amphenol Corporation, a 6,000-person company based in Wallingford, CT, that has gross annual sales in the neighborhood of $900 million. The company manufactures electronic connectors and cable, such as cable for cable television. The Canadian subsidiary manufactures filtered connectors designed to prevent electronic "noise" from getting into, or out of lines, which is very important for the computer, telephone, and avionics industries.

At the time, Amphenol Canada Corporation had 130 employees, four of whom were in payroll, and - unfortunately - an old-fashioned time clock, which required that the payroll clerks manually enter payroll data from the time cards. The company recognized that it had a major problem; the error rate in payroll was estimated to be close to 1%. Davidson was called upon to solve the problem. Because of his previous experience, he knew exactly who to contact. He called Bill Allen and explained the situation.

Allen realized that there were really two problems that needed to be solved. One involved the error factor and the other was the time spent by the four payroll people in tabulating the payroll. To solve both at once, Allen put together a time and attendance package. He started with CMI's Series 2000 Savetime terminal tied into Amphenol's existing PCs.

The software was written jointly by Allen's company, International Data Technologies, and Northern Computers, a time & attendance software vendor (Milwaukee, WI).

The Results
Amphenol Canada Corporation is pleased with the outcome. The payroll error rate has been reduced to virtually zero and the number of payroll personnel has been reduced from four to one part-time person. Since the system was installed, the number of personnel at Amphenol Canada has literally doubled, to 260, but no increase in payroll staff was required.