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Case Study

How Precision Manufacturing Eliminated All Payroll Errors Across 3 Shifts

A Detroit automotive parts manufacturer running 24/7 operations with 86 workers and complex pay rates went from weekly payroll errors to zero discrepancies.

86 workers across 2 plantsDetroit, MIAutomotive parts manufacturer
Precision Manufacturing factory floor

The Company

Precision Manufacturing Co. produces automotive parts across two plants in the Detroit metropolitan area. They run three rotating shifts around the clock, with 86 production workers, quality inspectors, and shipping staff.

Carlos Mendez manages both plants. His teams operate on rotating 8- and 12-hour shifts with different pay rates based on role, shift differential, and certifications. Payroll was a constant source of errors and grievances.

The problem

"Three shifts, two plants, and six different pay rates. Something was always wrong."

Manual time tracking couldn't handle the complexity. Overnight shifts that crossed midnight were miscalculated. Shift differentials were applied inconsistently. Certified welders who switched lines didn't always get the right rate.

Carlos estimated 8% of every payroll run contained errors. Some overpaid, some underpaid. The union filed grievances, and HR spent hours on corrections.

"We were running our factory with precision machinery and tracking our workforce with paper and pencil. That disconnect was costing us $50K a year in hidden labor costs."

Workers operating manufacturing equipment

8%

Of payroll contained errors every cycle

$50K+

In annual hidden labor costs

3

Rotating shifts with different pay rules

Why Timedox

Why they chose Timedox

Carlos needed a system that understood rotating shifts, overnight crossovers, and multiple pay rates. Timedox's flexible shift rules handled all three out of the box.

"I set up our three shift patterns, assigned the pay rates by role and certification, and Timedox did the rest. Overnight shifts calculate correctly. Shift differentials apply automatically. It just works."

Fingerprint time clocks at every plant entrance eliminated the last-mile problem: workers clocking in or out at the wrong time, or having colleagues punch for them.

Factory assembly line operations

Flexible Shift Rules

Any shift pattern: rotating, fixed, split, overnight. All handled automatically.

Multi-Rate Pay

Different rates by role, shift, and certification. Overtime auto-calculated.

Biometric Clock-In

Fingerprint verification at plant entrances. Fast, accurate, tamper-proof.

What Precision Manufacturing Co. sees every day

The same Timedox dashboard every customer uses. No custom build, just clear data.

app.timedox.com

Dashboard

Project
00:00:00

Team Overview

Active now

18

+3 from yesterday

Total hours

142h

On break

2

Sites

4

Live activity
Real-time
SM

Sarah Miller

Headquarters

8:58 AMClocked in
JC

James Chen

Downtown Office

9:04 AMClocked in
ML

Maria Lopez

Remote

12:15 PMOn break
DK

David Kim

Field Site A

5:02 PMClocked out
The rollout

From signup to full adoption

1
Week 1

Time clocks installed at both plants

Fingerprint clocks mounted at every entrance. All 86 workers enrolled their fingerprints during shift changes. No production time lost.

2
Week 2

Shift rules configured

Carlos set up the three rotating shift patterns with their respective differentials. Overnight crossover rules were configured and tested against historical data.

3
Month 1

First error-free payroll

For the first time in anyone's memory, payroll ran with zero errors. No grievances filed. HR spent 3 hours on payroll instead of 12.

4
Month 3

Production costing enabled

Carlos started mapping hours to production runs and work orders. For the first time, he could see the true labor cost of each product line.

5
Month 6

Union relations improved

With transparent, verifiable time records accessible to shop stewards, grievance filings dropped by 90%. Trust between management and labor improved measurably.

Inside Precision Manufacturing Co.

Manufacturing assembly line
Plant workers at machinery
Shipping and warehouse operations
Results

The numbers after one year

0

payroll errors per cycle (was 8% of entries)

$50K+

in recovered hidden labor costs annually

90%

reduction in union grievance filings

9 hrs

saved per payroll cycle on processing

"Three shifts, two plants, zero payroll errors. I set the rules once and Timedox handles the complexity. The union is happier, HR is happier, and I'm not fixing payroll mistakes every week anymore."

CM

Carlos Mendez

Plant Manager, Precision Manufacturing Co.

Running multiple shifts across multiple sites?

Timedox handles any shift pattern, any pay rule, any number of sites. Start a free trial and see it yourself.

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