Industry Week's Best Plants 2011 - Tooling U Interview with Hamid Farzad

Congratulations to our IMTS Challenge Winners!

• Tomasz G.
  Prince Industries Inc. – Carol Stream, IL


• Sam F.
  HTR Machine – St. Louis, MO


• Marvin E.
  Decimal Engineering - Pompano Beach, FL


• Brad P.
  BorgWarner - Auburn Hills, MI


• Mike B.
  Northcentral Technical College - Wausau, WI


• Marty H.
  Kirby Risk Precision Machining- Lafayette, IN

SME to Acquire Tooling U to Address Skilled Labor Shortage

Measuring Organizational Effects of Training

Organizations do not implement training initiatives without expectations. However, these expectations differ from one organization to the next. For each company, there is a key question: “Why did the company consider the training program?” There are many answers to this question and each answer can validate the training investment:

• Training is needed to satisfy ISO audits.
• Training is needed to get new jobs completed.
• Training is expected by employees.

None of these answers are incorrect, but ultimately training needs to have a positive effect on the organization as a whole. These organizational effects produced by training ultimately determine if the training is worth the effort.

The Training Effect

When a training program is initiated at a company, a great deal of effort must be exerted to make everything run smoothly. There are many areas that must be addressed before the training begins, such as marketing the training internally, making employees aware of training benefits and constructing a training launch plan. Once all these activities are completed, the training can be launched successfully. A training program that is properly launched and that is adopted by the company will cause many changes within the organization. The changes happen at all points during the training program’s cycle. But a question remains – when should these organizational effects caused by training be measured and reported?

The question of when to measure and report is extremely important for organizations who initiate training programs. Most companies assume that the ideal moment to capture results occurs at the completion of the training program. This would be a mistake! In any company, many elements contribute to overall success. Such obvious items are marketing of products, pricing discounts and focused resources on a certain aspect of business. These all have an effect on the potential success of an organization, and leaders of marketing and sales will certainly and rightfully take credit for these positive effects, even if it is not due to them. This taking credit for contributions to success is where some people who lead training programs in organizations fail. Does training have an effect on employees and company success? Absolutely!! But often the effect that training has is captured and reported too late.

The Beginning or the End?

A properly targeted and launched training program has profound, positive effects on a company. These positive effects occur throughout the program, not just at the program’s end. The ideal training plan includes reporting on the training impact on the business. This reporting is best scheduled throughout the training process, and the impact of training should be communicated to all levels of the business.

Since communicating the effects of training on the business requires talking to different levels, the message must be tailored to each level. Even though terms like “enrollments” and “completions” are important to the HR and Training divisions, they are not necessarily important to C-Level executives who are controlling the budget, or to business-line executives who care more about what their employees thought about the training. To have these conversations, you need to know your audience. For business-line executives, you should address consumption, attendance and satisfaction. For the C-Level executive, you need to trace everything back to the “big three”: profitability, productivity and revenue growth.

When you start a training program, in order for it to be successful, there are many areas that need to be considered. There are obvious areas such as who will be trained and what topics will be covered and also not so obvious such as how to communicate the impact that training is having on the organization. Although this step is difficult to deliver upon, it is crucial to the success of not only the current training effort but any future training endeavors.

Jim Kasperik

Director of Services

Certificates of Completion Upgrade

The Certificates of Completion students earn for completing ToolingU classes or competency programs for their organizations have been upgraded.

Functionality

The certificate system has been upgraded to create PDF files. The use of PDF files eliminates several issues regarding the different browser standards and the printing of background images. However, using PDF files does require the use of Adobe PDF Reader.

Design

Administrators are able to select any of the certificate designs to issue a Certificates of Completion to their students.

Students are able to select any of the certificate designs to use for their Certificates of Completion. Students who are a part of a corporate or educational program will be able to print certificates based on their organization’s setup, following these criteria:

1. If an organization uses a custom certificate, a student will only be allowed to print certificates using that custom design.

2. If an organization has opted to display their logo on the certificate, a student will only be able to select one of the four certificate designs created specifically to show an additional logo.

3. In all other situations a student will be allowed to select their preference (provided their administrator has granted them permission to print certificates of completion).

Tom Torres
Web Developer

Robotics and Rigging Training

This month, TOOLINGU.COM is releasing two new departments to enhance our already robust catalog of manufacturing classes. Our company has created the robotics and rigging departments to offer you even more manufacturing-specific training opportunities.

The new Robotics department offers a comprehensive overview of modern industrial robotics, including installation, maintenance, the basics of programming, and more. The various components of robots are explored in-depth, including end effectors, drives, and vision systems. These classes add to the large curriculum for maintenance professionals already available on our site.

Our Rigging department is focused on some more "back-to-basics" classes that can be used with new employees at any company that does heavy lifting. This new department focuses on the proper attachment and use of cable, chains, slings, and hoists, as well as other essential topics such as proper load calculations and rigging safety.

Robotics:
Intro to Robotics 110
Robot Safety 115
Robot Components 120
End Effectors 125
Applications for Robots 130
Robot Axes 140
Robot Sensors 150
Robot Troubleshooting 160
Robot Maintenance 170
Concepts of Robot Programming 210
Robotic Drives, Hardware, and Components 220
Robot Installations 230
Robotic Control Systems 240
Vision Systems 250

Rigging and Installation:
Intro to Machine Rigging 110
Rigging Equipment 120
Lifting and Moving Equipment 130
Rigging Inspection and Safety 210
Rigging Mechanics 220

Greg Herlevi
Director of Content

What do Training Regulations Mean for Your Business?

Productivity mandates, reductions in workforces and cross-training initiatives often create unintended consequences. Recently, a plant manager told me he couldn’t afford to lose production time for training and could not afford to pay overtime. Another told me that paying his people to train when others at the plant were getting laid off would send the wrong message. In both cases, I recommended they offer a voluntary training program “off the clock” – taken on the employees’ own time.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has been striking fear in the hearts of managers for 71 years, thanks to some hefty fines and legal judgments levied upon corporate wrongdoers. It has also spawned a number of state laws, union work rules and, unfortunately, several common misconceptions. Here’s the good news:

Attendance at training or educational programs normally is not considered working time and therefore does not have to be compensated if:

• Training is outside the employee’s regular work hours


• Participation is voluntary


• The employee does no productive work while training, and


• The program is not directly related to the employee’s job. If an employee on his own initiative attends an educational program, the time is not considered hours worked even if the program is related to the job.

If you would like to read the exact wording in the Dept. of Labor documents without wading through the whole book, see below. Remember that only a small portion of the FLSA, which established a minimum wage and regulated important issues such as child labor and unpaid overtime, deals with training issues.

You may, however, live in a state with stricter regulations. To the best of my knowledge, all states allow training as long as it is voluntary and does not constitute productive work. But I’m no lawyer and you’ll sleep better if you ask one to verify the standards in your location.

If you would like to become more versed in the intricacies of the FLSA as it relates to training, I recommend an online class offered by a distance-learning colleague: The Human Equation.

What about the union?
ToolingU was recently written into a collective bargaining agreement with an automotive manufacturer where union leaders embraced the voluntary initiative to learn new skills on their own time. Management responded by providing a wage incentive plan tied to the successful completion of Toolingu.com classes and arranged into three levels of accomplishment.

Another Toolingu.com customer has a strict policy of paying employees for training time. However, the company negotiated a union concession to have training hours paid in “straight time” rather than “time-and-a-half,” even though the training time is performed in addition to the work week’s 40 hours.

There’s a growing recognition on the part of both labor and management that some of the decades-old work rules do not necessarily apply to the modern manufacturing environment. Communications and openness to new ideas are benefitting all concerned to make these companies more competitive.

Len Scaffidi

Senior Client Executive

____________________________________________________

CHAPTER V—WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
PART 785--HOURS WORKED


§ 785.29 Training directly related to employee’s job

…Where a training course is instituted for the bona fide purpose of preparing for advancement through upgrading the employee to a higher skill, and is not intended to make the employee more efficient in his present job, the training is not considered directly related to the employee’s job even though the course incidentally improves his skill in doing his regular work..”

§ 785.30 Independent training.

Of course, if an employee on his own initiative attends an independent school, college or independent trade school after hours, the time is not hours worked for his employer even if the courses are related to his job.

§ 785.31 Special situations.

There are some special situations where the time spent in attending lectures, training sessions and courses of instruction is not regarded as hours worked. For example, an employer may establish for the benefit of his employees a program of instruction which corresponds to courses offered by independent bona fide institutions of learning. Voluntary attendance by an employee at such courses outside of working hours would not be hours worked even if they are directly related to his job, or paid for by the employer.

§ 785.32 Apprenticeship training.

As an enforcement policy, time spent in an organized program of related, supplemental instruction by employees working under bona fide apprenticeship programs may be excluded from working time if the following criteria are met:
(a) The apprentice is employed under a written apprenticeship agreement or program which substantially meets the fundamental standards of the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training of the U.S. Department of Labor; and
(b) Such time does not involve productive work or performance of the apprentice’s regular duties. If the above criteria are met the time spent in such related supplemental training shall not be counted as hours worked unless the written agreement specifically provides that it is hours worked. The mere payment or agreement to pay for time spent in related instruction does not constitute an agreement that such time is hours worked.