The language in the outlines is casual and without jargon. Many of the teachers start by reading it aloud before they relax into teaching with their own words.
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Talking about "The Soft Stuff"
"Frankly, if I had to choose, I'd say the soft stuff is more important to teach," says Edmunson. "A guy at a machine -- that's the clear focus of his job. If he doesn't know what to do, he'll ask. But stuff about what we stand for as a company, what he has to look forward to long-term (see first row of table), if we're not presenting that deliberately, it might never get done in a thorough way."
Two of Web's plants have even begun putting all employees through the training program, in part at the suggestion of new people, who say that what they hear in the sessions sometimes differs from what they hear on the shop floor. "The goal is to make sure there's a common understanding through the whole plant on all of these themes."
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Payoffs
"When someone is teaching somebody else, he's first and foremost teaching himself. When 10 or 14 people are involved in leading training, they become believers. We're finding that's the case especially when you spread the stuff like teamwork (section 2.2) and empowerment and creativity through the program. We're an employee-owned company [20% of stock is held by an employee stock ownership plan], and we're trying very hard to figure out how to make ownership real, day to day. The best way to do that is to involve people in more and more things. A problem in the past has been that when you hire someone new, if he's not catching on real fast, it's the production manager's fault. With this approach to training we have a lot of people invested in the new person's success."
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Don't Skip the Basics
The bulk of the work Web does is slitting huge rolls of materials into very thin strips -- to tolerances of up to .0005 inch. But, says Edmunson, a lot of people coming in need a primer on reading fractions and decimals, using calculators, and reading tape measures (section 2.3). "You can't take for granted what people know.
"We've also tried to weave into this not just lessons on how to add and subtract but also a discussion of terms (section 1.3). Because some of the vocabulary is even unique to our own company; we've agreed on certain ways of saying things."
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Don't Assume Anything's Obvious
"We've got spacers for the machines that are an eighth of an inch wide and precision-ground, and they might be worth 25 or 30 bucks. They just look like little washer tubes. A new guy, if he's not aware that this is an expensive piece, may end up tossing it in the trash dumpster (section 2.5). Or people may see an extra box on the floor and throw it away, not realizing that box may be worth $1.50 (section 4.4). That can add up."
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Make Customer Service Tangible
"We emphasize the notion that we have to compete for customers and that we do it through service (section 3.5). We're responding to other people's manufacturing needs, and we have to do it when they want it, the way they want it. Everything we do is customized. We feel it's important to tell people that up front, so that customer demands are not met with resentment. We need people to understand that that's our business."
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Update the Information
At the end of each four-week session, trainees are asked about what aspect of it needs improvement. The program has been updated once already. "The sections people have felt most uncomfortable with are the ones on math, which need more development, and the sections on work order and record keeping; it still feels like a lot for people to grasp all at once.
"Eventually, I would like to see that once a month for a person's first year, we would have another one-hour module, which would build on some of these things. We just haven't gotten that far yet."
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Lead up to Discussion
Edmunson ordered the classes by his own logic and says having 20 sessions was fairly arbitrary. One thing that was calculated, though, is building toward discussion sessions, rather than skill sessions, for much of the final week. "We find that the people being trained loosen up as the thing goes on. By the end of it, if they're able to enunciate some of these themes -- productivity, creativity (section 4.2) -- then you know the learning's really taken."
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Challenges
One challenge to the program, admits Edmunson, is that "our people don't have great teaching skills in the traditional sense." The trade-off, though, is presentations with conviction and feeling. "The sessions might not be polished, but people know what they're talking about."
Another challenge: institutionalizing the system. So far three of Web's five plants have used the program. The training seems to have "taken" at two plants and stalled at the third, where the person coordinating it has been ill. "Someone's still got to make sure people are up for it every day, that it's scheduled, that the little bit of hand-holding that's still needed takes place." Furthermore, at the Atlanta plant, 1991 has been a record year; workers are being hired faster than the training programs can handle them. But Edmunson thinks the system is working so far. "People feel more included. And I've heard that for some of the company regulars who are going through it, it's made them a little less cynical."
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Share Numbers
"Most of our plants now are having regular meetings reviewing the income statements for the month, and this session gives new employees a context for understanding those numbers. The payoffs? People are more cost conscious, and we're helping reinforce a sense of ownership (section 4.5). If there's stuff they feel is kept from them, that seems to get in the way of their perception of themselves as owners."
