by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
When auditors sample worker performance for compliance with process documents and quality standards, they observe the employee perform the steps of the defined process and watch for accuracy. That is necessary for assuring repeatable quality output.
Yet process documents and references to quality standards do not a training strategy make. Technical documents were never intended to be training materials. Depending on the engineer’s style, they may be too technical or too verbose for the average user. Rarely are technical documents tested for readability (against the reading levels of the intended users) let alone repeatability.
Proliferating process improvement to the supplier in the form of process documents AND training materials they can use to train their workers to your evolving specifications is vital to maintaining consistent quality.
The experienced worker, who has somehow learned to interpret the process document and fill the gaps of missing information to perform the task as envisioned, has the opportunity to repeat that process in a self-standardized way in lieu of proper training. They retain the best practice through repetition. But new-hires and transfers have different skills and abilities and may not be able to identify and assemble the various bits of information into a coherent, repeatable best practice without guidance and structure. The learning curve may become unnecessarily long and costly.
For this among many reasons, structured on-the-job training is critical to efficient process performance and indicative of higher levels of productivity.
Why would a supplier’s experience be any different? Sometimes “out-of-site, out-of-mind” approaches lead to lost opportunities and staggering costs as less experienced vendors struggle to understand and deliver processes as you intended. Smaller suppliers may be able to cost-effectively perform the processes you sub-contracted to them, but may not have the internal resources to develop quality structured on-the-job training that is auditable by them and by you. Furthermore, engineers tend to change and improve processes that are sourced just as they do the processes that remain. Proliferating process improvement to the supplier in the form of process documents AND training materials they can use to train their workers to your evolving specifications is vital to maintaining consistent quality. Everyone who has used suppliers has an idea of the costs associated the minimal controls and yet to be confirmed faith in a supplier’s capabilities.
Proactively providing structured on-the-job training materials that exactly match the processes sent to the supplier leads to shorter start-up time, lower costs, and sustainable quality. Having auditable materials and metrics makes quality audits easier since your expected level of compliance is not left to interpretation. It makes simple sense.
For more information on the accelerated transfer of expertise™ for shifting, certifying and auditing process-driven tasks to a contractor’s employees, as well as training new-hire and incumbent workers to full job mastery, contact a Proactive Technologies, Inc. representative today.
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