printer friendly version

Supply Chain Services structures staff control

Supply Chain Services uses biometrics to control access and attendance.

When a company needs to control the working hours and movements of over 1500 permanent and casual staff on a daily basis, dependable access control and time and attendance (T&A) is vital to ensure smooth operation and accurate payroll records.

Three years ago – after experiencing problems with its swipe card systems in use at that time – Supply Chain Services (SCS), a nationwide distribution network for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries and part of the Fuel Logistics Group, implemented biometric fingerprint recognition access control and T&A systems, locally developed by Beget Solutions, a division of Beget Holdings.

Michael Jamieson, T&A controller at Isando head office of SCS, says the swipe card systems were open to abuse from buddy clocking and ghost worker offences. “We distribute for around 100 principals with four warehouses on these premises, and although movement between sections is restricted, it was difficult to effectively control movement prior to the installation of the BegetBIO biometric fingerprint recognition systems.”

A total of 40 BegetBio ID devices are in use either as turnstile access control at the main gates, for access at various sections within the warehouses and as T&A systems for both permanent and casual staff. The biometric devices can also be used as mobile units and connect to a central Web server via GPRS.

When there is a new staff appointment or when casual labour is employed, their first stop is to register onto the BegetBio system.

“We set the required parameters and Beget customised the systems to suit. Only minor teething problems were experienced, but easily solved. For example, to ensure failover continuity, a dual SIM card (Vodacom and MTN) was supplied so that if one service provider’s network goes down, the other comes into operation immediately. Beget’s technical backup and on-line support guarantees prompt assistance so few problems have been encountered,” adds Jamieson.

“Obvious advantages of the access control apart from positive individual identification is that clocking in and out verifies the working hours of staff members. Tighter control adds up to better productivity. Through checks and balances within the system’s features we can prove when a person takes extra long lunches or leaves early without explanation. Workers understand that pay correlates directly with confirmed clocking history of hours worked.”

The daily timesheets from section managers are imported into BegetBio and spreadsheets are generated to control salaries. Once a week the data is downloaded into the payroll systems to produce timesheets for each permanent employee. Casual workers are loaded directly from the T&A system to payroll.

“We run daily overtime schedules broken down into the various work sections giving information on how many people worked overtime, individual payment due and the total costs. This enables managers to see what is being spent on overtime each day.”

Share this article:

Further reading: