by Julie | Mar 10, 2016 | Consulting, Employee Training, Management, Onboarding
A number of years ago when I was a “wee little chick”, I was called into a room full of managers and told that I had been selected to attend a training. I wasn’t given any of the reasons behind the training, the goals for attending the training or the duration of the training. To be honest, I don’t exactly remember my frame of mind when I heard I had been selected, but, according to the trainer, my body language clearly conveyed that I was skeptical of the training and the trainer. Over the duration of the training, I learned a great deal about myself and how to be an effective manager and to this day, I also have the pleasure of calling that trainer my mentor.
This story is a good reminder that most people are skeptical about attending training. Questions that may run through their mind include: Why am I here? Is this really important? What are the motives of the management team in selecting me for this training?
When it comes to preparing your employees, it is critical to be aware of these concerns and if possible, take steps to alleviate those concerns prior to commencing. Communication is an important part of ensuring your employees get the most out of the training. This communication can include why the training is important to the employee, why it is important to the company and what the company wants to achieve by investing in the training.
In some instances, training is a precursor to changes that are going to be instituted at the company. And the employee concerns may be around those changes and how it will impact him. Acknowledge that and provide the opportunity for the employee to share his or her concerns.
After the training, take some time to get feedback on the training, what worked well and what could be improved. Not all training needs to be as entertaining as a U2 concert but, it is important that the employee gains the necessary skills, understanding or mindset in order to have the desired impact on the organization.
There is no doubt that if my manager had a 5-minute conversation with me about the training and why they were sending me prior to the initial meeting, I would have been much more receptive to what the trainer was sharing. Yes, over time I did find value in the training, but, being prepared ahead of time would have allowed me to learn even more. As you send your employees to training, I hope you will learn from my experience and prepare your employees in order to optimize their learning.
For more practical tips for manufacturing professionals to attract, train and retain your hourly workforce, go to www.keyprocessinnovations.com.
by Julie | Mar 3, 2016 | Consulting, Employee Training, Interim Management, Onboarding
Over the past few months, I’ve been writing on a wide range of topics around how to attract, train and retain your hourly workforce. But, perhaps I should share why I find this topic so important.
First, it starts with safety. Nothing is more important than the health and safety of an employee. And, ensuring an employee is properly trained is a critical step in preventing workplace accidents.
Beyond that, here are some additional reasons why investing in training your employees is so important.
- The cost of replacing manufacturing employees ranges from 16 to 20% of their annual salary. That might not seem like a lot, but, depending on employee turnover, this cost can add up quickly.1
- Ten percent of the workforce over the age of 50 are expected to retire every year. Without a methodology to capture plant knowledge and a means to transfer it to newer employees, your business risks losing valuable information when a long-term employee retires.2
- It can take up to a year for an employee to reach peek job performance, however over 25% of employers do not have the necessary onboarding program to assist a new employee in gaining the necessary skills and knowledge during the first year.3 This results in lower job performance or higher employee turnover.
- Investing in employee training is a valuable tool for attracting and retaining employees. Employees, especially those from the Millennial generation, want opportunities to gain knowledge and learn new skills.
- Ensuring that operators are trained in multiple positions provides flexibility to the organization. This allows the plant to easily adjust to changes in work flow, varying product lines and changes to customer requirements.
- Employees who are properly trained are more familiar with the requirements of their position resulting in less scrap and increased productivity. Both of which will have a positive impact on your bottom line.
There is no doubt that having a robust operator training program will have an impact on your business. And the sooner you get started, the sooner you can help reap the benefits. If you know you need to improve your training program, but, you aren’t sure where to start, read this post titled It All Starts with One Step.
For more practical tips for manufacturing professionals to attract, train and retain your hourly workforce, go to www.keyprocessinnovations.com.
References:
1https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/report/2012/11/16/44464/there-are-significant-business-costs-to-replacing-employees/
2 Pitt-Catsouphes & Matz-Costa, 2009
3http://www.tembostatus.com/blog/how-career-training-can-reduce-employee-turnover
by Julie | Feb 25, 2016 | Consulting, Efficiency, Employee Training, Interim Management, Management
A lot of people claim to have a “6th Sense” when assessing a situation. But, when it comes to making a business investment, having a benchmark and being able to quantify improvements is essential. Making process improvements in your process may require an investment in financial, personnel or temporal resources and in order to justify the investment, you may need more than a sense in order to get the necessary support.
No matter what problem solving methodology used within your plant, most start by defining the problem. And part of this initial step includes identifying measures of process performance and establishing a baseline. An often overlooked reason for this step is to ensure the gains are sustained after improvements have been implemented.
Listed below are some metrics that can be used to measure process performance.
- First Pass Yield. This measures the number of good units produced against the total number of units produced. Depending on your process, this measurement can be broken down by department, by machine or by operator.
- Value Added vs Non-Value Added Time. Gathering data for this can be done via Value Stream Mapping or through Time Observations. From these studies, value and non-value added steps can be identified. As non-value added time is reduced, process output should increase.
- % Uptime. By defining % Uptime as outlined below, this measurement also takes into account set-up, changeovers, loading, unloading, idle time, breaks, cleaning, maintenance, etc.
% Uptime = (Value Added Time) x 100
(Operating Time)
- Process Capability, Cp or Cpk. In order for a process to be considered capable, it needs to be stable. Process stability means having consistent centering around the mean and predictable variation.
As you look towards making improvements in your process, try to pick a metric currently in use (or one that should be implemented) and use that to establish a baseline. Then utilize that metric to show areas which need improvement. Additionally after changes are made, data is available to document the improvement and provide a metric to sustain the gains.
For more practical tips for manufacturing professionals to attract, train and retain your hourly workforce, go to www.keyprocessinnovations.com.
by Julie | Feb 18, 2016 | Consulting, Employee Training, Management
Most manufacturers will admit that they don’t do a good job training their employees. It isn’t that they don’t see the value, it is rather that the task feels overwhelming and they don’t know where to start. But, like any other journey worth taking, it starts with a single step. Listed below are some steps you can take to improve your operator training program.
- Pick a Starting Point. What is the area that is causing you the biggest issue? Is there a department with high turnover? How about high scrap? Is there a bottle neck in your plant that shouldn’t be there?
- Assess the Situation. What are the tasks that need to be performed in a particular department? What are the skills needed in order to complete those tasks?
- Develop the materials. Review the established procedures against the current process and if a discrepancy is found, decide which should be included. Once that is complete, ensure the procedures are up to date. In addition to procedures, other training materials which may be of use include videos, standard work or visual aids.
- Quantify the skill levels. For each of the tasks, quantify the skill level and determine how the skill level will be measured. The skill level should range from Untrained to Fully Trained, with various levels in between. Using the defined skill levels, assess each employee against each of the tasks.
- Complete the skills matrix. Once each operator has been measured against each task, the skills matrix can be completed. And from the completed matrix, the gaps for the department have been identified and an action plan can be developed to address those gaps.
I would agree that implementing or improving an operator training system may seem daunting, but, having a process which results in fully trained operators makes the journey much easier to start.
For more practical tips for manufacturing professionals to attract, train and retain your hourly workforce, go to www.keyprocessinnovations.com.
by Julie | Feb 11, 2016 | Consulting, Employee Training, Interim Management, Management
The task of operator training is typically delegated to the department supervisor or lead. Rarely, if ever, is the supervisor or lead given the proper tools to be an effective trainer. And since the supervisor is also evaluating the operator’s performance, the feedback loop on training effectiveness may be lost. Being an effective trainer goes beyond knowing the material. It requires an ability to communicate in such a way that the trainee can learn the required information.
Listed below are some suggestions on how ways to improve the effectiveness of your training.
- Ensure the trainer has the necessary skills to conduct operator training. Check out this blog for what I consider the necessary skills to be an effective trainer. In some cases, it may be necessary to delegate training to an individual who may not be a lead/supervisor in order to ensure the training is as effective as possible.
- Periodically observe the training being conducted and provide feedback for the trainer.
- If possible, also have the trainee provide feedback on the trainer.
- Make sure there is some way to demonstrate the operator has learned the necessary information in order to do this task on his or her own. This can be through a verbal test, written quiz or a demonstration.
- Invest in some “train the trainer” training so the supervisors and/or lead can develop their skills as a trainer.
Creating an environment of learning can go a long way towards improving the performance of your plant. Increasing the skills of your trainers will help operators learn faster, be more engaged and ultimately improve the bottom line. And isn’t that the name of the game?
For more practical tips for manufacturing professionals to attract, train and retain your hourly workforce, go to www.keyprocessinnovations.com.
