We can no longer imagine working without Spica's solution

About Danfoss Trata

Danfoss Trata, d.o.o. is owned by the Danish multinational company Danfoss. As a manufacturing company, it specializes in heating solutions, air conditioning and ventilation. 

It employs more than 564 people at two locations in Slovenia, namely, in Ljubljana and Kamnik. It is a large Slovenian company, owned by one of the main global players in the field of production and development of heating and cooling solutions.

Danfoss Trata implemented Spica's Time&Space solution at the end of August 2020, and since then, the solution has been upgraded several times to meet the specific needs of the company.

Minimizing the possibility of mistakes and saving time

"Danfoss Trata has been actively working on its digitalization efforts for several years now, and we are delighted to be working with Spica. Together with them, we are co-creating presence and absence tracking at the workplace. 

At the same time, Spica's solutions contribute to increasing automation even more and to a paperless business, since they can be integrated with our other internal systems. 

I would like to specifically point out the accessibility and transparency of data. We have 24/7 access to up-to-date information on working hours and vacations. The automation minimizes the possibility of mistakes and saves us time," says Saška Rihtaršič, Managing Director at Danfoss Trata.

"On the one hand, it is easier for us in HR to manage the data and extract important information from it. This gives us an insight into what is happening in the company. And it also makes it easier for managers to manage their teams." Nuška Vihar Rakovec

Challenge: "I felt like a detective."

"At the start of the COVID epidemic, we did not yet have Spica's clocking and attendance tracking solution. Every day, I felt like a detective questioning the employees who were working from home at the time. How many hours did you work? What were you working on? Where were you working? How were you working? Spica's solution has made my life easier, and because of the transparency of data, the employees’ lives as well," says Hana Čuček, HR Specialist at Danfoss Trata.

Nuška Vihar Rakovec, HR Manager, describes her experience in a similar way: "To be honest, we can no longer imagine working without Spica's solution. On the one hand, it is easier for us in HR to manage the data and extract important information from it. And on the other, this gives us an insight into what is happening in the company. And it also makes it easier for managers to manage their teams."

Solution: At least 8 benefits

In what ways has Spica's solution helped Danfoss Trata employees? Let's take a look at some of the benefits.

Benefit 1: Transparency

Spica's solution has ensured transparency, since it enables all employees, including production workers, to access data on their working hours. This data is provided by three InfoZone information kiosks. 

The employees can also submit their requests there, for example for agreed extended working hours. They always have access to all their data related to time and attendance tracking. "We have two such kiosks in Ljubljana and one in Kamnik," says Hana Čuček.

"We have managed to automate the daily report generation, and this alone allows us to save quite a bit of time every day."  Hana Čuček

Benefit 2: Better overview for managers and easier administration

We have a lot of employees reporting to managers who are not based in Slovenia. The managers also have access to employees' data on working hours and can approve their requests remotely, from abroad. 

"As managers, we have access to various reports. We can check the status of working hours, vacations and sick leave in no time," says Matjaž Lavriha, Assembly Manager. These include reports on the current status of vacations (previously the manager had to check each worker’s status individually), an overview of work done from home, absences, business trips, etc.

"The analytical data for HR management is also very useful, for example the information on how many people are working from the office and how many from home," says Hana Čuček, adding: 

"We save a lot of time every day in the HR department because we have managed to automate the daily report generation. This gives us an overview of attendance, which is used by managers to calculate productivity in production. This was one of the solution’s upgrades that we worked on together."

They are currently working on the integration of their primary SAP Success HR system with the Spica solution. The aim is to automatically transfer data on new employees and changes in management as well as other data from our system to Spica's solution, so that it does not need to be entered twice in two different systems. 

The data to be transferred are personal data for HR purposes etc. The integration is being prepared by Spica's developers in cooperation with the Danish SAP system implementation specialists at Danfoss.

Boris Rustja, Production Systems Consultant, points to another advantage: "We have improved the connection between Spica's solution and the MePIS MES production system. Previously, a new employee had to be first registered in the HR system and then manually in the production system as well. 

This is where mistakes were made. Now the two systems are automatically connected. We only need to register the new employee in the Time&Space solution, and the same entry is then created and updated in the production system via a Rest API call." What is more, employees’ daily working hours are sent to the MePIS MES system and compared with the working hours registered on the production lines. Borut Rustja

"The managers at Danfoss Trata create vacation schedules exclusively through Spica's solution."  Matjaž Lavriha

Benefit 3: Data corrections

Hana Čuček: "We, employees with managerial roles, can submit our own requests if we have forgotten to clock in or out, or record our vacations, work from home, etc. 

Everyone with a managerial position and some workers in production have user accounts which allow them access to the "overview" and "approval" modules on the company intranet, where it is also possible to keep track of clocking and their working hours.”

Due to security reasons at Danfoss corporate level, employees do not yet have access to their data on their phones. But they hope that the updated mobile application will make this possible. "We would be happy to use it," says Čuček.

Benefit 4: Planning and company trends assessment tool

According to Matjaž Lavriha, Spica's Time&Space makes a great planning tool. The managers at Danfoss Trata create vacation schedules exclusively through Spica's solution. 

They have an overview of each department. The only thing Matjaž Lavriha would add is the possibility for managers to tick off specific departments in the program to be able to view several of them at once.

Nuška Vihar Rakovec adds:  "Up-to-date and accurate data makes it easier for us to react on time. For example, since the implementation of the Spica solution, we have been discussing the status of sick leaves in different departments more frequently, as it makes it easier for us to track the current sutiation. 

The solution also helps production managers plan job occupancy, while for those in HR, it can serve as one of the most important pieces of information for assessing the company trends. We can track variations regarding sick leave trends by season and month. We can predict what will happen in the future and prepare for it. Analytics is great for optimization and planning."

Benefit 5: Comparing key data

Those in production can keep track of how long an employee has been registered at the workplace. 

"But now this data can be compared with the data on when employees have clocked in and out of work" says Boris Rustja.

Benefit 6: Automatic night shift identification

Night shits no longer have to be set up manually. The Spica solution automatically identifies the shift based on the time the employee clocked in. Namely, the Ljubljana site operates on a three-shift basis, while the Kamnik one operates on a four-shift basis.

Benefit 7: Automatic processing depending on the type of pay compensation

Sick leave is processed automatically in accordance with all three national rules for pay compensation. This solution is used in payroll processing.

Benefit 8: Excellent visualization

"The visualization of functions is very user-friendly and intuitive," says Matjaž Lavriha. The terminals are very transparent.

Technical data

• Spica Time&Space
• Subscription system
• Modules:
  • PIF – exporting data for payroll preparation
  • AW – request submission and approval module
  • TSWP – personal web access for employees
  • AATL – application audit trail
• 3 InfoZone kiosk terminals where employees can view their data and submit requests
• Integration with SAP Success Factors HRM solution
• Time API module that enables integration with other systems via REST API protocol
• Special feature: printed RFID cards (personalization)

"Previously, a new employee had to be first registered in the HR system and then manually in the production system as well. This is where mistakes were made. Now the two systems are automatically connected."  Boris Rustja

Results

There are several advantages:

• For employees: transparency when it comes to keeping track of their own data.
• For HR: up-to-date data – access to real data at any moment (no more calculating using tables).
• For management: process optimization – automatic data transfer and report generation.

Photos: Danfoss Trata Arhive