The situation
The client — a US-based luxury kitchen appliance manufacturer with approximately 3,000 employees across manufacturing and distribution operations — needed reliable ongoing support for their UKG Workforce Central environment, plus eventual modernization to UKG’s current-generation platform.
Managed workforce management at manufacturing scale is operationally demanding. Plant-floor time tracking and shift scheduling for production employees have different requirements than administrative time tracking — production shifts, overtime rules, break tracking, and the integration of time data into downstream systems all need to work precisely, every pay period, without exception. A mis-calculated overtime calculation for 50 plant-floor employees creates immediate operational and trust problems. The work has to be right.
How we approached it
Our engagement spans two phases that reinforce each other:
Phase 1: Ongoing managed services (2020–present)
RJR manages the client’s UKG environment end-to-end — day-to-day operational support, configuration changes, plant-floor time tracking, shift scheduling, overtime calculations, and the administrative drumbeat of a growing manufacturing operation. Beyond day-to-day operations, we provide strategic advisory: quarterly reviews of workforce operations, roadmap planning for platform evolution, and guidance on organizational decisions that intersect with workforce management.
Phase 2: UKG platform modernization (delivered across 2025–2026)
After five years of operational partnership, the client chose to upgrade from UKG Workforce Central to UKG Pro Workforce Management — UKG’s modern cloud-native workforce platform. Given RJR’s operational depth with their environment, the client selected us to lead the upgrade alongside continued managed services.
Why the pattern matters
This engagement shape reflects what long-term consulting relationships actually look like when they work. Five years of consistent operational delivery earned the right to lead the platform modernization. The upgrade, delivered without disrupting ongoing operations, reinforced the relationship for its next phase.
The alternative — a firm that delivers the upgrade cold, then hands operations to a separate managed services provider — creates predictable friction: knowledge gaps, configuration inconsistencies, the client having to coordinate between vendors. A single partner with deep operational familiarity handles the modernization with fewer surprises and cleaner continuity.
Outcome
- Stable, well-run UKG workforce operations across 5+ years of managed services, spanning plant-floor and administrative employees
- Successful platform modernization from UKG WFC to Pro WFM delivered across 2025–2026
- Strategic advisory embedded in operations — quarterly reviews and roadmap guidance alongside day-to-day support
- An ongoing partnership continuing into the new platform — the relationship has outlasted multiple platform generations, which is the strongest signal in consulting
What this demonstrates
Long-term managed services relationships where RJR earns the right to lead major modernization through sustained operational excellence. Manufacturing workforce management depth — plant-floor time tracking, shift scheduling, and overtime calculations at scale, delivered reliably pay period after pay period. Strategic advisory embedded in operations, not separated from them. Platform upgrade execution (WFC → Pro WFM) delivered cleanly within an ongoing operational environment rather than as a disruptive event.
The kind of multi-year, multi-phase engagement that’s only possible when the firm does the smaller, steadier work consistently well.