Train to retain

Finding and keeping skilled employees is a challenge for all businesses. Finding workers in skilled trades like machining, welding and toolmaking seems to even more difficult. The shortage of people entering the skilled trades has been attributed to lack of interest, low pay and other reasons, but this much is clear: Manufacturers will continue having trouble filling those positions well into the future.

Macrosolutions, such as increased government spending on vocational education, higher pay and promotion of careers in the trades, could provide some supply-side relief in the long term. Unfortunately, these fixes do nothing for today’s shortage. However, rigorous training programs that pass on to a new generation the skills an organization needs to remain competitive can help overcome the issue.

For example, welding requirements at our shop are stringent, because a failed weld can be catastrophic inside a turbine. Many of the welds require X-ray inspection and all receive a penetrant test for surface defects. In addition, because the materials are difficult to weld, few people can come in off street and do the job successfully. Therefore, almost all new welders enter an internal training program that teaches them how to make our welds and prepares them for the rigorous requirements.

We first administer a welding test to determine if training is needed. Some suggest we screen applicants using the test, but this could eliminate people who share our values and would make good team members.

We are in the early stages of forming a welding-related partnership with a local trade school. Students at the school do not get the opportunity to weld the high-strength superalloys used in gas turbine manufacturing because it is a costly process. To counter this, we plan to provide scrap workpiece materials and welding wire and send welding engineers and welders to share their experience and knowledge. The intent is that we can hire students from the trade school who will arrive at Mitsubishi prepared to make our welds, possibly eliminating the need to enter our training program.

Another avenue to train workers is apprenticeships. Unfortunately, apprenticeships have become rare at U.S. manufacturers because companies are less willing to invest in this level of training or else expect new hires to already have the necessary skills. However, it still possible to at least mimic the apprenticeship training model by utilizing mentors.

Many shops have one or two people who “make it happen” by, for example, performing difficult operations or programming a machine no one else can. These people have special skills and knowledge that should be passed to others. A program that allows experienced individuals to mentor the less-experienced creates a master/apprentice training model that transfers skills that can only be learned through experience.

Off-site or special training can be an excellent way to provide nonmonetary rewards for outstanding performance. Allowing team members who consistently perform well to learn a new skill is a strong motivational tool. When a company demonstrates its confidence in people by sending them to off-site, advanced training, it motivates those people to expand their capabilities.

Job rotation is another important, but often overlooked, training tool. Frequently, shops have one or more key operations that only one person can perform. In these situations, an injury or other catastrophic event involving that person leaves a shop in a precarious situation. At least two people should be proficient at every operation a shop performs. Rotating job responsibilities helps transfer and retain skills.

My most profound career experience in training and development was with a Tier 1 supplier to Toyota. The company manufactured parts using the Toyota Production System, which is the foundation for lean manufacturing and teaches that engineers and designers should have a deep understanding of manufacturing processes. Members of the engineering team were expected to understand all manufacturing processes from the operator’s perspective. Therefore, every engineer spent 3 weeks training on the different manufacturing lines. Every day we would perform a different operation, receiving the same training the line workers received.

Engineers tend to design a process, make some pretty documents, throw the package over the fence and walk away. Sending engineers to the floor to perform the operations drives innovation and creativity.

Engineers who can perform manufacturing operations tend to be insightful and connected to shop floor workers. These relationships often drive efficiency improvements that might otherwise go overlooked. Two months ago, three of our manufacturing engineers helped inspectors perform final product inspection. With assistance from inspectors, the engineers eliminated an hour of unnecessary inspection time. Had they not been engaged with shop floor activities, we might never have discovered the savings.

I expect the skilled labor shortage to get worse and a proactive posture will be necessary to remain competitive. Manufacturers must be creative and develop new training programs to propagate the skills needed for advanced manufacturing. CTE

About the Author: Christopher Tate is engineering manager, combustion shop, for Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas, Savannah (Ga.) Machinery Works. Email: chris23tate@gmail.com.