WORKFORCE REQUIREMENTS
As a recruitment agency, we always try to scope what projects and companies may require. Without going as in depth as defining what specialties and qualifications each role would have attached with it - we can take a look at the staff that would be required for the workshop.
The base at the North Pole would obviously require more than just people building toys. It is the base for all of the Christmas toys production, so would need people for different roles, seniority as well as other support divisions too.
Going section-by-section, based from stories, the elves live near the factory, potentially on a private development belonging to the factory. This means that in order to run this part of the company, they would require at the very minimum a Residential manager and assistant to manage the demands of what is an expected large workforce.
On top of that, they would need multiple handymen in order to fix any maintenance issues, decoration or odd jobs that come in from elves. Above all of the residential team would be a Head of Residential who would also look at the efficiency of the running of the properties, scope any future sites and plan any future changes.
The reindeer are believed to be kept at the factory too and looked after year round. This would require elves to be able to look after them, feed them, clear out the reindeer area of any waste as well as deal with any reindeer issues to keep their health to a maximum, after all – they work hard on December 24th. The unsung heroes of Christmas.
In terms of a workforce in the modern Santa’s Workshop, this would be very varied due to the different types of toys and production technologies available today.
Going through the toy building process, there would need to be elves responsible for accepting and processing orders. These would be the Elves working in Toy Sales Admin. These ones would help put through what quantity of toys are needed and the specifications too through to the building side of the workshop. This team would have a head of department too to oversee efficiency and monitor inbound messages and stay on top of quality control.
Next up would be the elves design team. These would be the ones designing the toys, putting drawings and diagrams together specifying to those next up what the toy should look like and it’s dimensions as well as colours and bonus features if any. This team too would have a head of department to ensure that drawings and designs are kept to standard, elf performance on these tasks is kept high and to keep the designers in line.
The Elf Assembly line would be split up into different departments for the different types of toys. Behind it all across all the toy types would be a parts department, in charge of managing part levels and ordering in new stock such as materials, nuts, bolts, wires, circuits and tools if need be.
With all parts in order, each toy section would have machines processing the parts on a conveyor and assembling each toy as it is a modern workshop. Previously, each type of toy would have required many elves to manually process the parts together and bond them.
Nowadays with technology, thanks to the use of items such as CAD/CAM, 3D printing, AI and more, the need for human interaction is less needed on the physical product in many ways. By contrast, the need for elves to oversee the manufacturing machines and monitor output and machine levels as well as machine maintenance counters the loss of staff used to build the item by hand as would be the case many years ago.
With electronic toys on the rise, the mass production of circuits, motherboards, speakers, touchpads and more is easier than ever meaning the elves input here would be for soldering wires and circuits, quality control and helping progress items to the next stage of development.
With toys that require assembly from multiple parts such as bicycles, guitars, etc. – the materials would be processed on a conveyor belt having pre-cut and shaped by machines so that parts can be easily replicated with minimal chance of error.
The workshop would have a Health & Safety officer overseeing the workshop also making sure all machines are up to industry standard, seen as safe, making sure they pass things such as PAT tests, pass safety tests and also reporting any workplace incidents and putting measures in place to avoid accidents re-occurring.
Many other toys can be produced entirely from machine before reaching a quality control centre. The elves here would test the toys, look for any error with the toys and if so, report them so they can be fixed on the production line level.
Next on an electronic sorting system would distribute the toys towards a sorting office for their final destination. The elves in the distribution centre would watch over the machine, possibly changing toy sack for the sleigh at the end of the distribution machines.
For anybody not pulling their weight in the workshop, they would have to be watched
or possibly even fired if not performing better following a review. This would be conducted by an elf HR team managing contracts, personnel as well as the hiring and firing.
With department heads, levels of seniority through the workshop would be vital. The
heads of departments, all overseeing
their relevant area would report to a
bigger boss, Santa Claus, the CEO / Founder / Director.
20 | MANE ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING | DECEMBER 2018