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15-sec rostering, easy shift swopping: How AI solution keeps both S'pore retailer and its staff happy
Through the IMDA Open Innovation Platform, Yue Hwa Chinese Products found a rostering solution that enhanced flexibility, boosted productivity and ensured employees felt valued
With the new rostering system, all Yue Hwa staff will be scheduled for a rest day to fall on a weekend every month and colleagues can easily exchange shifts with each other. PHOTO: YUE HWA CHINESE PRODUCTS
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What used to take Yue Hwa Chinese Products up to two days to do now only takes the retailer a mere 15 seconds – a significant reduction time of 99.9 per cent – thanks to a digital solution powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
Up until last year, employee shift rostering at Yue Hwa was done using excel sheets by a staff member in each department. The laborious task involved planning shifts for 40 frontline employees taking into consideration rest days, leaves and special employee requests, as well as identifying and filling gaps in headcount to ensure operations in the four physical outlets and one online store were not interrupted.
“For example, when someone took sick leave, our system could not easily accommodate spontaneous changes,” says Mr Jacob Yu, Yue Hwa’s director. “This had a knock-on effect on staff morale when employees from other departments were asked to cover shifts at short notice,” Mr Yu adds.
Ultimately, the monthly rostering process was perceived by employees as being unfair and biased as their individual requests could not always be met and some staff received what they considered to be “better” shifts than others.
The 65-year-old company needed to resolve these challenges and went in search of a digital solution.
After six months of looking but failing to find suitable vendors, Mr Yu turned to the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) Open Innovation Platform (OIP) in May 2023.
“Sometimes small companies are perceived to be resistant to innovation, choosing to continue using processes that are more ‘backward’ or traditional. But at Yue Hwa we are always looking for ways to embrace innovation so we were excited about working with IMDA’s OIP platform,” says Mr Yu.
The OIP is a virtual crowd-sourcing platform that connects businesses facing a challenge with relevant solutions providers. To help Yue Hwa find a solution, OIP and consultants worked closely with the company to understand its business, challenges and objectives before detailing a brief that they launched during an OIP Challenge call in July 2023.
More than 13,000 tech solvers from around the world were invited to submit their proposals for Yue Hwa during the six-week process. After evaluating 16 proposals, Yue Hwa picked Pakistan-based tech solver Synapsify – the company was able to customise its Human Resource Management enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, Synapsivate, for Yue Hwa’s specific needs.
“We chose Synapsify for its expertise in machine learning and innovative problem-solving approach,” adds Mr Yu.
Using AI to create a customised solution
Synapsify’s Chief Executive Officer Shahzor Ahmad explains that one of the biggest challenges was to understand Yue Hwa's complex rostering and translate it into a coherent web interface that would allow the company to specify shift types, in-store requirements and staff preferences.
The other challenge was to develop an efficient rostering algorithm that would cater to all these requirements, and then integrating it with the leave component in Synapsivate.
The Synapsify team leveraged AI and algorithms to address these challenges.
"The base template for the rostering of shifts can now be automated within 15 seconds," says Mr Yu. “Once this is created, we can manually tweak the template if needed.”
With the new rostering system, all staff will be scheduled for a rest day to fall on the weekends throughout the month. This can also be easily changed by individual staff requesting shift swops with other colleagues.
"Even tallying up the number of morning, afternoon and overtime shifts is pretty equal. This has significantly reduced complaints about favouritism and has improved staff morale," Mr Yu says.
Additionally, the system also highlights days with insufficient staff. Staff are notified through web alerts and notifications on the cross-platform mobile app when the roster is to be run, thereby prompting them to submit their preferences before the roster is generated, explains Dr Ahmad.
"This efficiency allows us to focus on other important human resources functions, improving overall operational efficiency," says Mr Yu. "The solution also provides a fair and transparent system that acknowledges and accommodates diverse employee needs," says Mr Yu.
Shared success
For Synapsify, working with Yue Hwa has enabled it to develop new capabilities.
"During the course of working with Yue Hwa, we have also acquired valuable experience in developing AI-enabled, scalable cloud ERP softwares using modern tech stacks and cross-platform mobile apps," says Dr Ahmad.
The estimated development timeline that Synapsify kept to was nine months from early August last year. Staying on schedule, Yue Hwa started testing the rostering algorithm in January this year.
"We are currently going through the organisation-wide user acceptance test," says Mr Yu.
The process of working with Synapsify was quite straightforward, notes Mr Yu. “We communicated regularly on Yue Hwa's business requirements, logic and local labour regulations,” he adds.
Dr Ahmad highlights IMDA's help throughout the process as being a factor for the success of the working relationship between his company and Yue Hwa.
"The IMDA team facilitated all the coordination between Synapsify and Yue Hwa," says Dr Ahmad.
After Yue Hwa picked Synapsify, IMDA brought in a consultant to help with gathering requirements and coordinating a kick-off session between the two companies.
"IMDA has also been checking in on our progress regularly," Dr Ahmad adds.
The tech solver says that working on the project has "significantly" boosted the development, branding and marketing efforts of its Synapsivate ERP.
"Our success with this OIP Challenge has certainly catapulted our work to the global level and we have since been participating in various other challenges involving niche intelligent ERP solutions or those involving dynamic resource planning for problems ranging from airport gate assignment to optimisation of maintenance, repair and overhaul factory operations," Dr Ahmad explains.
For Yue Hwa, the collaboration with Synapsify as facilitated by the OIP and the solution developed by the tech solver significantly enhanced the retailer's operational efficiency and employee satisfaction, according to Mr Yu.
"The OIP is a great platform for both businesses with a problem statement and vendors with a solution. It was a smooth process from the onboarding to the development of the prototype," says Mr Yu.
"We look forward to leveraging such platforms to continue improving our workplace and services," he adds.
Learn more about IMDA's Open Innovation Platform on their website and sign up for their mailing list to stay updated on upcoming OIP Challenge calls.
