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.