TRAINING
GLTC
The Training Centre will accommodate GLTC personnel from around the country on a yearly roster basis.
Robyn Grimsley
Lex Winson, recently appointed service manager for GLTC.
According to Anthony Fourie, director: Gauteng for Goscor, GLTC is currently the only forklift company in South Africa to be ISO 9001:2008 certified, which it plans to upgrade to ISO 9001:2015 this year.
Training and upskilling
The aim of the Training Centre is to provide for skills improvement, refresher training, and continuous product upgrade training for Goscor staff.“ Technology changes often require new programming, and we aim to familiarise our technicians with this in the workshop even before a forklift is delivered so that when they are out in the field on a service response call, they know how to diagnose and program the equipment,” explains Lex Winson, recently appointed service manager, who has over 19 years’ experience in the industry.
“ We need to ensure that our skills levels are top-class at all times,” he adds. This not only means offering refresher courses, but training new technicians as well. Such training encompasses an introduction to GLTC and its full IC and electric machine product range.“ This will give us a good understanding of the technician’ s capability and where this needs to be developed further.”
The administration and sales departments— and even management— will be exposed to basic forklift overview courses at the Training Centre.“ When a job is costed or a technical report is submitted, they will then be able to ask
general questions in order to drill down to the problem or solution that is required.”
The Training Centre will operate nationally, accommodating GLTC personnel from around the country on a yearly roster basis, and will include both theoretical and practical components. Technicians will be classified into A, B, and C categories according to their skills levels and requirements. The training will be provided by a factory-certified trainer who is well versed in the latest trends and developments.
“ With the size of the fleet and the range of equipment we have, continuous training and upskilling of our staff members is particularly important,” adds Winson, who was also responsible for overseeing the establishment of the Training Centre.
The Training Centre can accommodate six technicians for each course, and makes use of a smart board and interactive training programme during the theoretical component to facilitate the best possible learning experience.“ Everybody needs to make notes when training, and this allows us to save and print each technician’ s notes at the end of the class,” explains Winson.“ Through this, schematic drawings of electrical equipment and hydraulics can be put up on the board, and each technician can come up and fault how he believes that electronic or hydraulic flow operates.
“ After each technician is done, their slide can then be pulled off to the side until everyone is done, at which point the trainer can use a
master slide to illustrate the correct information. Once the section is done, they can all go through the slides and make notes of where any mistakes were made. At the end of the day, all of these different slides and notes can be printed out and a copy given to each of the technicians to keep for their files.”
Winson also explains that in addition to the courses from Doosan and other suppliers, GLTC plans to develop its own courses, incorporating faults and problems found by Goscor technicians in the field.
“ Customers will have peace of mind that all of our technicians have the most up-todate and relevant training in order to be able to attend to their specific requirements and applications. This will not only ensure that we offer a world-class aftermarket and product support service, but it will allow our customers to benefit from the lowest total cost of ownership,” Winson concludes. n
GLTC plans to develop its own courses, incorporating faults and problems found by Goscor technicians in the field.”
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NOVEMBER 2017