- Specific Services
- .NET DEVELOPMENT
- MATHEMATICAL OPTIMISATION
- PROCESS OPTIMISATION
- SYSTEMS INTEGRATION
- UX – USER EXPERIENCE
- Category
- Web application
- DESCRIPTION
The Labatt brewery in Lasalle, Montreal, is the biggest in Canada, with 5 production lines. It called on Spiria to develop a Web-based automated scheduling and employee work-hour optimisation system.
- Results
Labatt employees benefit from the Web-based application developed by Spiria.
Labatt departments use the on-line automated scheduling and work-hour management platform.
Years of use and production with the Labatt Web-based application.
THE PROBLEMS
Each department used its own schedule management process, making scheduling management an extremely complex task.
Scheduling was done entirely by hand, greatly increasing the risk of errors.
Several key scheduling managers were due to retire all at once.
The upshot was that Labatt was receiving too many scheduling-related grievances.
Technical Challenges
Mathematical Optimisation
Developing and adapting a mathematical model tailored to the numerous and complex variables specific to Labatt’s.
Simulation
The Web-based application had to enable scheduling managers to try out various scenarios in order to pick the best solution.
User Experience
The Web-based platform had to have a Web-based interface that would enable users to make changes to their schedules.
Call-List Management
The system lists employees in the call-out order established by collective agreements, which was a challenge before this task was automated.
Employee Lending and Mobility
The system had to allow for the exchange of employees between departments and a certain amount of mobility among the staff.
A CUSTOM-MADE, COMPLETE, WEB-BASED SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION:
It had to do all that, and include the following features:
- Automated schedule generation: The Web-based application had to automatically plan employee schedules while following collective agreement rules, using a mathematical optimisation model.
- The Web-based punch-clock system had to automatically calculate normal working hours and link to the payroll system.
- It had to automatically calculate overtime hours worked.
- The user platform had to be simple and efficient. First and foremost, the Web-based application had to be efficient, in order to speed up processes while reducing grievances.
SOLUTIONS

Spiria used Microsoft’s SQL Server as the database management system in order to model Labatt’s Web-based platform architecture.

The application was entirely developed with Microsoft’s .NET Framework.

Given the use of .NET technology, a Microsoft IIS server was the ideal choice to ensure seamless integration with the other technologies used.