Labor is one of the biggest expenses in a brewery, and one of the easiest to lose track of.
You know what you spend on payroll, because you see the money leave the bank. You know how many people are on the production schedule, because you hired them. But do you know whether your production labor is efficient?
A simple way to answer that question is to measure labor per BBL.
I put together a simple Brewery Labor Efficiency Tracker to help you do exactly that. You can download it here.
Start With the BBLs
Each month, enter three production numbers:
- Total BBLs brewed
- Total BBLs packaged
- Total BBLs sold
Then pull two numbers from your payroll reports:
- Total production labor hours
- Total production wages
That’s it.
The tracker calculates two useful efficiency metrics: labor hours per BBL and labor dollars per BBL.
For example, if your production team works 500 hours during the month and you package 500 BBLs, you’re using 1.0 labor hour per BBL packaged. If production wages were $15,000, you’re spending $30 of direct labor per BBL packaged.
Track the Trend and Set a Target
One month of data doesn’t tell you much. Six or twelve months can tell you a lot.
You may discover that labor hours per BBL increase significantly during slower production months. You may see certain periods where overtime, staffing levels, or scheduling push labor costs higher. Or you may find that your team is becoming more efficient as production volume grows.
The goal is to match your labor resources to the amount of beer you’re producing.
Start by looking at your historical results. Establish a reasonable target for labor hours and labor dollars per BBL. Then compare your actual results against that target each month.
If labor efficiency starts moving in the wrong direction, you now have an early warning system and data you can act on.
Maybe the production schedule needs to change. Maybe you can consolidate brew or packaging days. Maybe staffing needs to flex with production volume. Or maybe there’s an operational bottleneck worth investigating.
Measure It. Manage It. Improve It.
Labor efficiency doesn’t need to be complicated.
A few numbers entered once a month can give you a much clearer picture of how effectively you’re using one of your brewery’s biggest resources.
Watch the explainer video below, download the Brewery Labor Efficiency Tracker, enter your historical numbers, establish your baseline, and set a target for improvement.
What gets measured gets managed and a simple tracking sheet can be the first step toward getting more BBLs from every production labor hour and dollar.
