“Warm Bodies” and Training
To paraphrase an old election slogan – “It’s the people, stupid!” It’s a no-brainer that the best way to improve productivity is to train your present staff. And then what……..? You need more than Dogbert, Dilbert’s evil human resources director, reminding everyone of their real and imaginary shortcomings; you must build on your staff’s strengths. This only works if you hire more than warm bodies, extend an initial hand, and remain involved to congratulate them on their success. The key to achieving this is a defined training program for all employees. First give them the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job for which you hired them, then provide cross-training, and finally make sure, by job rotation, that the cross-trained skills are used.
My first job title was engineering assistant. In reality I
was a “gofer” and one of my tasks was to hire new shop workers. Louis, my boss,
would call the employment agencies with requests for carpenters and
cabinetmakers (even though their starting jobs would be on the final assembly
line) and when they arrived I was told
to hire anyone who looked alive and could read a ruler to a 1/16”. On the first
day I hired five workers and when I reported back to my boss I said to him: “ These
guys aren’t cabinetmakers! The agency
knows your test and teaches them to read a ruler.” Louis gave me a look of
disdain and said: “Howard, of course I know that. What I’m trying to determine is if these workers can
remember a basic instruction for the fifteen minutes it takes to get to our
office.”
As desperate as Louis was for help he realized that it was stupid just to hire warm bodies and always looked for (and was willing to pay more for) trainable people. Everyone started as an assembler but there wasn’t any formal training program. Louis simply paid more for machine hands than assemblers, and a lot more for those who could make their own setups. He didn’t push you into more training, but if you learned skills you were rewarded. How did you learn? There was no formal training program and in many cases a language barrier. You’d get a friend to show you how to run a machine during breaks and then plead with the group leader to try you for the next opening.
The time was long before OSHA and I remember driving many bleeding workers to the emergency clinic. Even though the company paid the doctor’s bill and workers comp, accidents were always considered to be the workers fault. Three, no matter how minor and you were fired. This in a shop where safety glasses were rarely seen and which had more than fifty unguarded table saws and shapers. Louis didn’t want accidents, but the combination of machines which lacked today’s safety features and second hand operating instructions was deadly.
The law has changed, but training still is neglected. Often the work environment encourages “macho” behavior and belittles “Mickey Mouse” rules and regulations. Forklifts are a good example. What do you know about your driver’s capabilities? Doesn’t driving a car to work qualify someone to drive a forklift? Recently in Tampa, a forklift operator didn’t notice an overhead powerline. He burnt down a city block of new houses, a post office, part of a church, and many peoples’ dreams. Damages were estimated at over $40 million. For openers (before the lawsuits), a $100,000 fine was levied by OSHA because the driver was never offered any forklift or safety training.
Certification. Forklifts are ticking time bombs – sooner or later there will be an accident and you will be lucky if only a machine gets banged up. Good layout and flow practices can minimize forklifts interaction with machines and people but I’ve yet to see a factory without any. You need an operator certification program. Almost every forklift supplier offers operator training programs and the first step is to ask to see your candidate’s driver’s license. Develop formal training programs, supplementing your supplier’s basic program with information about your products and facility. Then, make it known to all employees that non-certified operators will be dismissed.
Forklift driver licensing is easy to relate to (because everyone understands that outside the workplace automotive licensing is required): but certification is really needed for all jobs. It protects your equipment, the worker’s safety and ensures product quality. It is the sign of mature shop floor management. How do your supervisors know who is qualified for a task? Few workers will refuse the opportunity to run a forklift when the supervisor yells “Hey you, get that load of lumber!” (All of a sudden, I hope you are realizing that the supervisor now has to act more like an adult.) More important, his job becomes more difficult as licensing and certification programs put realistic limits on employee labor re-assignment. The first step is to post a skills roster; then make it known that you will pay a premium for higher skill levels and to cross-trained employees. In some companies this is motivated by competition between work cells. Of course, this needs more than lip service as the company needs to formalize the training process.
Job Rotation. A simple demonstration: clap your hands until they hurt. Say three times quickly: “Repetitive Stress Injuries”; then try to reach for your wallet as this is becoming one of Workmen’s Comp’s biggest problems. Allowing operators to focus on the same short cycle task all day long is destructive to them and to your company. Sure it makes life easier for your group leader, and may maximize a workers incentive earnings but it is a poor long-term strategy resulting in injuries and prevents other workers from using their cross-trained skills.
FYI - On 11/15/2000 new OSHA regulations were issued that focus on repetitive stress injuries. Companies became responsible not just to prevent them but prevent their aggravation regardless of what caused the initial injury. These rules were overturned by Congress in January 2001 but perhaps they were really just swept under the rug for awhile. Regardless of their status, the bottom line is that companies must educate workers about the possibilities of work-stress injuries and take steps to re-engineer work stations that can cause stress.
Vestibule Training. In an ideal world (it does exist at a few companies) new employees spend the first week in a prototype or repair shop working as helpers with highly skilled craftsmen to get an overview of the company and so the company can evaluate their capabilities. The worst thing you can do is to throw new employees onto an assembly line with no orientation to the company, the products, the process and quality expected. All their learning is at the whim of their co-workers who might honestly try to help them, but may perceive new workers as a threat to their own job. At the very least, start new hires off in a quiet classroom, explain their jobs, demonstrate the process, the equipment, etc. (make sure that safety issues are reviewed).
Communication and Culture. Excuse me, did all this talk of formal training turn you off? Did I hear you say that you can’t do this because your supervisors don’t speak the same language as the workers. Miss Manners would put it politely: “Pray tell, what is your exit strategy?” A short-term solution to communication problems is to use the buddy system; making an experienced worker responsible for the initial training and orientation of each new employee. Long term this is bad news because it creates a shop with loyalties to a shadow/tribal management. Remember: your workers aren’t your clones– otherwise they would all be managers not production laborers. You have the education and ability to reach out to them and you must do it to ensure that they are getting all of the company’s messages about safety, quality and productivity. If you fail to communicate your factory will fail.
I’ve talked about how to survive while getting the job done but not how to actually do it and do it efficiently. If you think, as Louis did, that the only thing that the worker relates to is his weekly paycheck, it’s time for you to leave the plantation and join today’s world. Sure Money is an M word right up there along with the others Management and Motivation. What Louis couldn’t understand, (as a workaholic), is that for some people life starts when they walk out the factory door but to most it is an accepted part of their existence (maybe not the best part) and they are concerned about recognition, the factory as a community (group dynamics), structured time, continuity, and their general mental comfort level.
A history lesson. In the 1800’s New England mills needed tens of thousands of workers but they just didn’t exist and immigration alone couldn’t meet their needs. They convinced local young people to give up the comfort level of their farm families (love, shelter, etc.) and trade hard farm work for hard factory labor. They built dormitories, schools and churches, and the letters home bought more workers because their new roles offered community and recognition. (A lot of the recognition was through piece work and today this still can have a place in motivating and retaining employees.) Although this same type of paternalistic urbanization of the work force is going on today in developing countries I’m not suggesting its return here, instead reminding you in this time of labor shortage that you need to innovate, realizing that the paycheck isn’t always king and that work environment is an important factor in hiring and retaining employees.
Robb Willoughby (metalworking consultant) commented on this article and expressed concern that re-certification of training was also important " "As with your drivers license, every couple of years you have to show you still know what your doing. Further, this re-certification training should be mandated any time new equipment is introduced. Don't just toss the keys to a new forklift to any forklift driver and walk away, certify him on the new machine. Also needed is a feedback loop. After the company has trained them, how do they determine the workers are following the training? Management needs to have a formal system for this and also to determine if and when the training program needs to be changed based on input from the shop."
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