Workforce Rightsizing to Enable the Digital Manufacturing Journey

The Business & The Challenge

A global agricultural and food ingredient manufacturer with USD 165 billion in revenue and operations in 67 countries aimed to:

• Develop an optimal labor model for one of its business units across two     continents
• Use benchmarking, productivity analysis, and automation level evaluation
• Prepare for future integration into a Digital Manufacturing framework

The main objective:
➡️ Right-size the workforce through best-practice sharing and data-driven productivity benchmarking — without sacrificing output or efficiency.

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Approach Details

Falconi implemented a comprehensive workforce diagnostics and transformation roadmap, moving from assessment to execution:

1. Baseline & Drivers Definition

• Initial interviews and FTE allocation analysis across processes
• Segmentation into 3 work intensity clusters:
   
  • Automatic
   
  • Hybrid
   
  • Manual

2. Productivity Analysis

• Compared real vs. benchmark productivity (volume/tons per FTE)
• Identified productivity gaps across five sites
• Modeled right-size staffing levels accordingly

3. Span of Control Analysis

• Defined leadership layers per site
• Identified variation in managerial structures
• Right-sized leadership roles for operational efficiency

4. Additional Diagnostics

• Leveraged Tower Analysis and the ZBB Digital Platform
• Ranked leader contributions by delivery effort and cost
• Designed a new workforce blueprint based on site-specific data

📊 Results Achieved

Metric                                                         Value

Baseline FTEs                                         2,445

Target FTE Reduction                         213

Actual FTE Reduction                         281.2

New Labor Level                                    2,163.8

Efficiency Gain vs. Goal                     +32% above target

% Gap Closed                                         66%

% Improvement Over  Baseline      11.5%

✅ Model was 32% more efficient than initial goal
✅ Delivered a future-ready labor structure with an additional 6.7% improvement for long-term gains
✅ Full workforce redesign anchored in productivity and automation benchmarks

Why It Worked

• A cluster-based labor analysis ensured role alignment with automation maturity
• Cross-site benchmarking revealed where inefficiencies could be resolved
• Falconi’s blueprint methodology created repeatable labor models across     locations
• Focus on leadership right-sizing unlocked hidden management inefficiencies

Conclusion

Falconi enabled this multinational food and agriculture leader to reduce workforce costs while preparing for digital transformation. The program delivered an 11.5%workforce efficiency gain across two continents — setting a global standard for productivity-aligned workforce planning.

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