Donnelly Custom Manufacturing of Alexandria, Minnesota, a short-run injection molding company, knows that proper training is vital to productivity and quality. Still, training at Donnelly was taking longer than desired and employees often weren’t retaining enough of what had been learned with traditional methods. Donnelly was committed to continuous improvement, and the company needed more advanced training practices to help employees more fully understand their jobs, improve quality, and eliminate any turnover associated with job confusion.

Job methods shatter the box you work in

Sam Wagner, job methods certified trainer at Donnelly, has this story to share about teaching Donnelly employees this method.

“One group I taught came to class in the second day with only one example for improvement rather than the two I had asked for. When asked why there wasn’t a second example, a trainee said he walked the floor from one end to the other but was unable to find a job that could be improved.

Unable to accept this, I asked them to randomly select a press on the floor and said we’d find ways to improve it. To test me, they selected the most streamlined and automated press in our plant.

We focused on the process from start to finish and, using the method, we began to list and then question every detail, leading to ideas for improvement that could be implemented immediately.

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