26 MiMfg Magazine July / August 2022
Premium Associate Member
New Hire Training to Accelerate Productivity and Quality
By Murray Sittsamer • The Luminous Group
The current workforce talent shortage situation in the U . S . is challenging . With a shrinking pool of candidates who have prior manufacturing experience and difficulty retaining skilled employees , manufacturers must put more effort into innovating an exceptional onboarding and new hire training experience .
Certified Operator Training can help
Effective Certified Operator Training ( COT ) is similar to a traditional apprentice program . COT has three main elements : lead operators trained to facilitate on-the-job training , a methodology to develop the content-based training and evaluation of trainee progress and employee competencies .
COT is effective because it standardizes your training to give lead operators training guidelines and tools while ensuring new employees have a structured approach to acclimating to their job duties . COT builds testing and verifications into the training process so that supervisors know their team members have the skills to be successful on the job . As a final measure of competence validation , all those who complete the COT program receive a certificate of completion .
COT Case Study — MAHLE St . Johns
In 2021 , the MAHLE St . Johns plant , with about 250 employees , had more turnover than ever in their history . The plant had an existing train-the-trainer process where lead trainers were certified ( and recertified ) on a three- to four-year interval . But over time , with turnover and reassignment of experienced operators to critical operations , the process and content of new operator training became outdated .
Promotion of a new Training Coordinator was the catalyst to seek professional assistance in redesigning the plant ’ s existing new employee training . The Luminous Group worked with MAHLE over a six-week period to integrate COT into their existing training program . According to Joel Honaman , Human Resources Manager at the plant , “ The program needed a facelift to help us enhance the training experience and create a more effective approach for training for our production team .”
Best of all , MAHLE qualified for Going PRO funding through the State of Michigan to offset the cost of their training overhaul .
Clearly Defined Training Phases
Ray Medina , MAHLE St . Johns ’ Training Coordinator , defined five training phases , each with verification milestones . According to Ray , these phases
The Luminous Group worked with MAHLE in 2021 to a develop a Certified Operator Training program at their St . Johns plant .
“ allow for us to confirm that operators have a deeper knowledge of their job . Instead of allowing operators to just know how to run their machines , they must know the reason why their job is important to the product and why certain characteristics are added during the process .”
The phases cover aspects including : initial orientation to the specific job , supervised practice with feedback , verification of knowledge and skills , troubleshooting for that job , understanding how defects impact down-stream operations and more .
Making COT Work for Your Organization
To assess your need to improve your new operator training , you can start by asking a few questions :
• What support and certification do we provide our current lead operators / trainers ?
• How frequently are our training materials , work instructions and other job aids updated ?
• When was the last time we asked for feedback from employees ?
• Can any of our current customer issues be traced to incomplete training of new operators ?
We can ’ t completely control turnover but we can be smart about who and how we train for new operators . When job training is well defined and verified , employees are safer , more productive and less likely to inadvertently produce defects or errors . The net effect of a comprehensive training program is to reduce turnover and make your plant more competitive in the long run . 6
Murray Sittsamer is president of The Luminous Group . He may be reached at 248-561-5802 or murray @ luminousgroup . com .
The Luminous Group is an MMA Premium Associate Member and has been an MMA member company since December 2017 . Visit online : www . luminousgroup . com .