A Hard Skill to Identify the Soft Art
CAPTURING THE NUANCES OF YOUR SKILLED WORKERS In a survey recently conducted by AKT and the Northwest Food Processors Association, manufacturers expressed concern about finding employees with the necessary skills to fill open positions while nearly all respondents...
We Tried That, But, It Didn’t Work
OVERCOMING THE OBSTACLES OF BEING A UNIQUE ORGANIZATION As you look at your organizational challenges, do you have some nagging issues that you can’t seem to resolve? One manufacturer shared they do a good job of implementing process improvements, but, they don’t seem...
Cooking and Process Improvement
Tips to Enhance Employee Involvement in Process Improvement I enjoy trying new recipes but if you know me at all, I’m not very good at following instructions. So, the first time I try a recipe, I will try to follow the instructions and for the most part, use the...
The Key to a Healthy Work Environment
Training Supervisors on Conflict Resolution Dealing with conflict is an important part of a healthy work environment. And making sure people have the skills to resolve those issues was so important that Job Relations Training was included as one of the four programs...
Do I Really Need a Training Methodology?
Introducing Job Instruction Training One way to remove variability from your process is to ensure the operators are properly trained. Sounds easy enough – but how do you go about doing that? Fortunately, a proven methodology has already been developed. Job Instruction...
The Foundation of Operator Training
TRAINING WITHIN INDUSTRY Over the past few years, I have had the pleasure of being an instructor at the Investment Casting Institute’s Process Control Class. It was in this class that I had my first introduction to Training Within Industry. During World War II, there...
Onboarding
THE START OF SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL Starting a new job can be a little stressful. Meeting new people, learning new tasks and an adjusting to a new workplace culture. Can you think back to your first day with your current employer? Were you nervous? Excited? How were...
Safety, Icebergs and Business Profitability
The goal in manufacturing is to SAFELY make an end product that meets customer specifications with the lowest cost possible. There is nothing more important than the safety of the employees. But even looking beyond the employee, having a strong safety culture also...
How Do You Manage Your Process?
WITH RIGIDITY OR FLEXIBILITY? One of the reasons operators are trained to do a task the same way is to ensure uniformity and reduce process variability. However, this approach may not take into account how operators should react to slight process variations. Yes, we...