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A large, American-owned company in the Mid-West of Ireland identified a significant skills gap in their workforce that was hindering their ability to address problems in a systematic manner and transform their business. The burden on middle management to constantly deal with recurring problems with little time to manage was negatively impacting productivity across the plant.
The challenge was to establish the skills gap by measuring the current skill level with the future state skills level. Once this was established, an extensive training plan had to be designed to take account of the individual skill levels and the time constraint on the different departments.
The initial task was to work with the HR team in compiling a skills matrix on the levels of competency across the site. Each employee completed a questionnaire on training completed and their desired training. The result of the questionnaire indicated where the skill gap was greatest and also where the biggest demand was for training. Across the site there was minimum Problem Solving or Continuous Improvement training.
Over a three year period an extensive training programme was completed, organised jointly between HR, Manufacturing and LBSPartners. The programme was tiered so that everybody on the site had to complete a Lean White Belt course delivered over half a day (online or on-site). A cohort of senior operators, supervisors and team leads completed Yellow Belt training over two days on-site or four days online, with each participant completing an individual in-company project. These projects deliver at least €10,000 in savings to the company. Each project was accredited by University of Limerick.
All managers, senior supervisors and team leads were identified for Green Belt training which was delivered over five days on-site or 10 half-days online. Each participant completed an in-company project delivering at least €25,000 in savings to the company.
In parallel with the roll out of the training programme, a Visual Management measurement system was implemented which reviewed daily performance and identified issues. As a result of the training programme, problems were now being addressed at floor level and over 86% of daily problems were resolved at Tier 1, with just 12% requiring management input, and only 2% being elevated to Tier 3 for senior management decision.