Exploring Advanced Manufacturing Technologies. Steve Krar
cheerful. Don’t burden or depress those around you by dwelling on your troubles and small disappointments.
6.Keep an open mind; discuss, but don’t argue. It is a mark of a superior mind to disagree without being disagreeable.
7.Let your virtues speak for themselves. Refuse to talk about the faults of others, discourage gossip. It is a waste of valuable time and can be destructive and hurtful.
8.Take the feelings of others into consideration. Wit and humor at the expense of another is never worth the pain that may be caused.
9.Do not pay attention to ill-natured remarks about you. Remember the person who carried the message may not be the most accurate reporter. Simply live so that no one will believe the story.
10.Don’t be too anxious about the credit due you, do your best and be patient. Forget about yourself and let others remember. Success is much sweeter that way.
TRAINING - THE KEY TO COMPETITIVENESS
As metalworking technology becomes more sophisticated, the people who use it must become more skilled. In shops across the country, a well-trained workforce has become a priority item. Things started to change in late 1990 with the beginning of the recession when it was realized that U.S. companies were losing out to world competition because of a lack of productivity, skills, and education.
Educators have long criticized manufacturers for a lack of investment in training the workforce to adapt to changes in technology. Few companies have provided direction and support to vocational schools and institutions.
We have also observed that changing machine technology in the workplace requires a parallel change in human technology. The worker who does his or her repetitive job in isolation is gone. The new worker is a team worker who is valued by the employer and works jointly with co-workers to solve production problems, determine schedules, improve quality, and access, enter, and manipulate information on databases. Increasingly, workers are actually being given a major role in determining their own compensation. But many companies have yet to adapt to these changes. To support the widespread application of the new human technology in the work place, training for the human skills needed must be studied and adopted by our educational systems at all levels.
At a time when jobs demand more education and higher skill levels, the United States seems to have been slow in retooling the workforce. Productivity is a major problem according to manufacturers and they mentioned the major cause of this was people. If the problem is people, companies seem to be investing in faster, more technological equipment and not in personnel training. This choice may actually retard productivity if workers lack adequate skills, training, or supervision to use the advanced equipment to its fullest potential. When investing half a million dollars in a machine tool, it seems unwise to turn untrained people loose on it.
DOES TRAINING PAY?
A company that considers making a $5 million investment should not expect untrained people to be able to run the new machine effectively. Proper training can mean the difference between success and failure of any new technology. The training that vendors offer is cost-effective; the price of the machine is only the beginning of the story. Add the cost of downtime and loss of profit through operator problems. Then look at the cost of sending an operator to a course or on-site training.
Even though on-site training means tying up a production machine for days or a week, training at the user’s site is often the best choice. Sometimes a combination of classroom work at the vendor’s center and on-site training works well. In many cases, the staff can be trained to program the equipment, rather than paying the supplier’s team to do it.
Suppose a robotic spot-welding system is being installed, an applications engineer could go to your plant and program all the robots. On the other hand, three operators could go to the vendor’s training center to learn basic programming and stay for a few more days to learn the programming specific to the system. They could then go back to the plant and program all those robots.
A Preference For Knowledge
Progressive companies always stress training, even in times when they do have a lot to spend. They know that the company’s future and their growth depends on the ability to find enough skilled people. They share a belief that human potential should always be developed as much as possible, for the good of the organization and for the good of the individual. Good training is not just a way to develop good people, it is also a way to attract them. Getting the right workers to begin with is critical to their success, so companies place a great deal of emphasis on recruiting.
Educating and training the work force are very important today, mainly because it has been considered unimportant for so long. In a manufacturing assembly line situation, specialization was the key factor in employee utility. The work force was adjusted to the importance of performing one job expertly. Once the job was learned and the product component or assembly line service accommodated, expertise had been achieved and learning was no longer as important.
The key to employee usefulness is versatility and willingness to adapt to rapid changes in job description, skill required, knowledge to assist change, and ability to cope with an agile environment. While the skill level of an employee will not necessarily decrease, the skill level required of the future employee will increase. There will be no comfort level achieved by performing the same job one did the day before. Quite the opposite, the discomfort that accompanies constant change, unchecked by additional training, will lead to performance degradation and employee turnover.
Many firms are dedicating more money to worker training; this demonstrates the sense of long-term employee investment that characterizes some of the most successful companies. Yet, while an increasing number of companies provide their employees with the training and skills necessary to stay competitive, many others are slow to invest in training solutions. They fear loss of production time on the factory floor or the loss of a trained employee to a higher paying job. Traditionally, many have had limited resources to invest in training of any kind.
The irony is that companies that invest in worker training realize many benefits such as: higher productivity, increased profits, higher employee compensation, and better working conditions.
TRAINING SYSTEMS
U.S. industries have made tremendous strides over the past decade to regain world leadership in manufacturing. This was due to the development and expanding use of new technological manufacturing processes. To maintain our present position, we must concentrate on training more of our workers to use this technology to its fullest so that we can continue to enjoy the benefits of high prosperity and the standard of living that it offers.
Some companies see training as a way to generally improve the working environment and the overall quality of their work-forces. According to the Partnership for a Smarter Workforce, companies (especially smaller firms) that institute learning programs for their employees see definite declines in late arrivals, absences, worker compensation, health costs, along with higher morale. The improvement in these areas led to higher productivity and greater employee retention.
A study of entry-level and supervisory employees by some companies showed that newly hired employees involved in workplace learning programs are two-and-one half times more likely to be retrained over the course of a year, than newly-hired employees who do not participate in the training. In addition to empowering retention, the study reported that 75% of participants showed improvements in communications and 55% in safety and quality. Overall, 80% of participants showed improved self-esteem.
You cannot expect HIGH-TECHNOLOGY WORK from LOW-TECHNOLOGY WORKERS.
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Transition to MODERN ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY can only be accomplished with an AGGRESSIVE WORKER TRAINING PROGRAM
To continue to develop new technology and use it wisely, an ever- increasing number of well-educated and capable employees will be required. The future benefits of technology depend on good human resources.
Training Sources
There are many training sources and methods available for the training and retraining of personnel in the use of advanced technological equipment