Again and Again and Again
We have all heard the observation “you can never train enough”. Being the slightly cynical person that I am, I always thought that was a philosophy of those neer do well HR people who always wanted to justify someone’s poor performance by blaming me for not training them well enough. And when I sat in their training sessions, all I was really thinking was that my competitors were calling my customers saying “I can get you the same thing as Stover only cheaper!” Needless to say, training was never high on my agenda.
But that being said, I do attempt to keep everyone relatively well informed on our new products and programs. What I missed however was that most of the things we do here build on our previous experience and knowledge. Our basic product drive is to analyze how mounting and laminating is done and try to fabricate products which take steps out of that process. So what we think we know (always a questionable commodity!) is critically important. And as much as you as you document and communicate, you still make assumptions. And as we all know, assumptions can lead to some very bad results.
What brought this home was we were fabricating a board we have made for 4-5 years and we had to change the adhesive to be compatible with a certain paper. When we went to process the order, we ran the board in an opposite orientation to how we always have processed it before. When we had issues and we talked about it, it was noted that the order details did not mention orientation and the notes in the file were for other the adhesive so folks did not think that was important. And remembering things is difficult as everyone wears several hats and is doing more than I ever asked them to do.
So, being humbled and understanding that I have been that 1950’s type of boss (and need to change yet again!), we have asked all of our major suppliers to come in and work with us to provide a training review of their products. They have all been very agreeable to supporting us in this and while I may have glimpses of a relapse to see my competitor talking to my customers while we train, I know we will be more competitive as we will minimize the expense of mistakes and provide more consistent products going forward.