O&K American Eliminates 40 Hours of Manual HR Work Monthly with HULFT Integrate

Challenge

Manual Processes Hindered HR Productivity

O&K American’s HR team faced a critical productivity drain, consuming 8-10 hours per week on manual data entry and reconciliation processes. The primary challenge centered on ensuring shop floor employees adhered to scheduled hours and preventing unauthorized overtime, a task that required constant manual oversight and data manipulation. 

The existing workflow involved manually entering employee shift schedules from Excel spreadsheets into ADP Workforce Now, printing paper reports for supervisor review, and then manually re-entering any edits and notes back into the system. The disconnected nature of their enterprise systems, particularly the gap between ADP Workforce Now and their IBM iSeries-based ERP system, created additional complexity requiring constant human intervention.

Solution

Automated Integration Platform Connects Enterprise Systems

After evaluating multiple solutions, O&K American selected Saison Technology’s HULFT Integrate platform to automate their time reporting processes and achieve their goal of reducing timekeeping and payroll completion time by 50% or more. HULFT Integrate provided the enterprise-grade data integration capabilities necessary to connect their ADP Workforce Now system with their custom IBM iSeries ERP solution. 

The implementation centered on creating a seamless workflow that automatically extracts active employee data from ADP Workforce Now and populates it into a new SQL database for centralized employee record storage. HULFT Integrate now automatically uploads employee shift schedule spreadsheets into ADP Workforce Now, while simultaneously extracting reports of actual time-clock punches and finalized work schedule data into spreadsheets for streamlined analysis. 

The Professional Services team custom-designed a workflow between the three enterprise systems while maintaining an ideal data quality rate throughout the integration process. The solution’s ability to handle over 600 business adapters ensured compatibility with O&K’s existing enterprise systems. 

Results

Automated Workflows Freed Resources for Strategic Initiatives

The implementation reduced weekly time spent on employee time reports and staff scheduling from 10 hours to just 2 hours. This 80% reduction in manual administrative work translates to 40 hours of reclaimed time per month for strategic HR initiatives. The automated process operates 5 times faster than the previous manual approach while significantly reducing potential for human error. 

The solution delivered measurable cost reductions through reduced administrative time and enhanced reporting accuracy. The HR team now focuses on employee development, retention strategies, and other value-added activities that directly impact business outcomes. The automated system also provided increased visibility into labor scheduling and overtime reporting, enabling more proactive workforce management decisions.

“We were able to implement HULFT Integrate within 8 months, which is relatively fast given the custom ERP solution we had and other required integration points. Saison Technology’s professional services team was with us every step of the way, and their expertise in the manufacturing sector made a big difference.”

Randy Welsh, Computer Systems Manager and Environmental Health & Safety Manager, O&K American

Future Vision

Foundation for Broader Manufacturing Automation and Digital Transformation

The successful HR automation implementation has positioned O&K American for broader digital transformation initiatives across their manufacturing operations. With the HR automation project serving as a proof of concept, management has identified additional projects that will further automate production facilities for greater profitability and efficiency. The reliable data integration foundation created by HULFT Integrate provides the infrastructure necessary to support these future automation initiatives.