Recently in Plastics Training Category

It is common to believe that advanced training will automatically cause your employees to function at a higher level. Unfortunately, advanced training does little to change behavior if your employees lack a good understanding of the fundamentals. A great example of this is the decoupling of 1st stage filling from 2nd stage packing.

Let's presume you have a technician who has been filling the mold completely during 1st stage fill for the past 15 years. Now you send this  person to a class focused on the finer points of optimizing filling and packing based on the foundation of a short shot during first stage fill. This employee would learn very little which is directly applicable to his job since he still believes filing the mold completely during 1st stage fill is the best way to process.

-Andy

When possible break ideas into their simplest form such as an equation or concept. Keep in mind the issue is very often math not tolerances. In this case, focus the attention on basic math and calculator usage first before moving on to part tolerances.

-Andy 

We typically recommend between 1 and 2 hours a week. It is always much better to provide your employees a slow, steady, & consistent stream of information over an extended period of time. One hour a week for 40 weeks can be much more effective than one 40-hour week in altering the behavior and improving the skills of your employees.

There is always a place for multi-day training sessions, but they are most effective in teaching a specific skill rather than relaying general knowledge.

-Andy

The issue here is not time, but education. If your employees are not taking time to document, it is likely that they do not fully understand the importance and benefits of good documentation. If they understand the ways it can simplify their job and improve their effectiveness, they would be more interested in compliance. Unfortunately, this is not a simple fix... it require the employees to not only understand the benefits, but also know what to do with the information they are given.

-Andy

Training is good, but it is critical that you tie the training to each job function through the use of a training plan. Without a structured training plan focused on job title you will not be able to make a change to your workforce. In general, your employees will not go and train unless there is a structure to show them what they are supposed to do when they train.

-Andy

What is the best way to process, and why don't we just have everybody process that way starting tomorrow?

I told her that there were ways that there are many ways to process, and there are a few methods which are far superior to others. Unfortunately without a strong background in processing knowledge your employees will have no reason to understand why this method is better.

Essentially, people who have been making a living molding a particular way do not just change their entire approach to processing because someone tells them it is better. You need to educate them on plastics, machinery, materials, processing, and tooling to ensure that they know why it is a better way.

There are always steps which your employees can take to improve the process. As they see the success they will continue to employ more cost saving, and process improving techniques. This is one of the reasons why it can be easier to teach someone who has never processed that to teach someone who has processed for years.

-Andy

Purged plastics can cause some of the most debilitating injuries because they have a tendency to not only burn, but stick to or inject under your skin as well. When purging goes well, the conditions are relatively safe, but it is not uncommon for a explosive discharge to occur as a result of nozzle blockage or gas buildup.

If you are not wearing a face shield, heat resistant gloves, and long sleeves while purging; you are opening yourself up for serious injury.

In all our training courses, we stress the same PPE recommended by most machine manufacturers which includes the wearing of the following when purging:

-Andy

There the 5 things that I always look for:

These rules apply to injection molding, extrusion, and blow molding alike.

This list seems pretty simple, but I have found that most molders skip at least one or two of these steps whenever they process. 

-Andy

I recently received a request from a social-networking site to discuss the complications companies encounter in locating well-rounded employees. In this post, I want to address the underlying problem, which is the lack of comprehensive training for production employees.

The most effective training systems provide the employees with (1) the information and skills to work and make effective decisions in their job and (2) prepare them for new challenges and advancement opportunities.

Regarding the second goal, it is critical that you prepare your employees for professional growth and advancement. Once you train your employees enough to become competent and capable at their job, additional training should then be made available.  Although some employees are content in their job, do not assume that your workforce is content to remain in the same job doing the same thing until the end of time. The best scenario is to have a cue of overqualified employees waiting for advancement. If a job is not currently available, many employers will offer them the opportunity to fill in (typically with the corresponding pay differential) when a higher job function calls in sick, goes on vacation, or takes an extended leave. 

Change is can be either slow and gradual, or quick and unexpected. Comprehensive employee training combined with effective advancement training will help you prepare your business for change, new markets, growth, and even downsizing.

-Andy 

The most effective training systems provide the employees with (1) the information and skills to work and make effective decisions in their job and (2) prepare them for new challenges and advancement opportunities.

Regarding the first goal, the employees needs to know more that what is 'necessary' to do their job. For example, teaching the employee the basic steps in a die change is not effective long-term training. An effective die setter should have a fundamental understanding of many aspects including general safety, job-specific safety, tooling, machinery, processing, and the basic economics involved. Without this strong background, they lack the full knowledge and appreciation to bring true value to the company. Such a trained employee may be very helpful in identifying more efficient procedures, evaluating newer technologies, developing new solutions, and troubleshooting complications when they arise.

It has been said that your workforce is your most valuable asset, yet this is only true when your employees are treated as more than simple robots. Robots who perform specific functions can be easily replaced... competent and capable employees, on the other hand, will help your company improve, grow, expand, and take on new challenges.

-Andy

It should be safe to process, but it is critical that you vent the fumes from both machines to prevent corrosion of your equipment. You should also take the time to educate your employees on the dangers of combining these materials.

It is critical that you create a system to prevent any chance of cross contamination. This may be as simple as a color-coded system so that the color of the container matches a panel next to the machine. Personally, I would create a fool-proof system where the container for VC is not compatible with the acetal material delivery system and vice-versa.

-Andy

We plan on keeping all these materials here as before so they can be used as a resource while people use your training.

Training materials are only useful when they are incorporated into the overall training plan. As a rule, employees will not open a book or take training unless they are directed to do so. They are typically too busy to just sit down and read books or take training unless it is requested of them. Believe it or not, if the training is captivating, relevant, and self paced, employees will be very interested in taking training when asked to do so.

It is better to fill your training room with instructional aids such as part prints, sample defects, and work instructions.

-Andy

I recommend reviewing some of my previous posts on this topic:

-Andy

An in-house training initiative gives you a competitive edge in today's fast-paced plastics industry. Well trained employees can better cope and adapt to changing product lines, customer requirements, and production strategies. Today’s customers are sensitive to quality, economy and efficiency. Most customers are impressed with a job delivered on time and on budget, and from a safe plant.

-Andy

It is critical that you retain current samples of each part defect your company encounters. These defects should be placed in a visible area to ensure the employees will walk by and see them on a routine basis. This make a great training tool and will help provide a common ground when defect-related questions arise.

Please review your defect board a few times a year to ensure the parts are up to date and still defects. I have seen many parts that are so old that factors such as dust and dimensional creep will make the intended defect invisible.

-Andy

Although most industry training has some merit, you need to develop a structured approach. For instance, if one form of training turns out to be beneficial for a technician, then it should be evaluated as part of an overall structured training plan for all technicians, both current and future.

-Andy

note: During this discussion, I asked the supervisor where the operator would get a calculator for this purpose. He searched around and realized they would have to walk all the way across the production floor to locate one.

Mount a calculator to each profile dump table so the operator can both count the profiles and use the calculator at the same time. Once I made the suggestion, he started to point out other tools they should also make readily accessible to improve the operator's job performance such as pens, job booklets, quality standards, etc.

Keep in mind that many employees will often skip a step, or substitute something rather than go out of their away to locate something crucial to their job. It is your job to ensure your employees have the tools and skills necessary to succeed at their job.

-Andy

It is true that it is impossible to teach someone all that all at once, but an employee can learn all this over time. The best way to approach this is to break up the instruction by responsibility. Let the person learn a specific aspect of their job sufficiently before moving on to the next function. For example, have then learn how to inspect the parts and become proficient in that role before teaching the job function. If you make each steps in the progression clear and defined, it can give the employee a sense of accomplishment as well as an understanding as to where they are in the development process.

Many companies create interim job functions such as an apprentice or technician level 1, 2, and 3 to differentiate a trainee from a full-fledged technician.

-Andy

The trend in the plastics industry is the following: Companies who are prepared to handle new and more complex challenges are the ones most likely to receive the business these challenges bring... Your potential customers are not going to wait for your employees to catch up when there is a globe of processors waiting to take the business.

If your employees thoroughly understand their job and the fundamentals of processing, they will be more prepared to handle the unique challenges they face in the future.

For more on this, feel free to read:

Although there are many reasons why people start reading ahead of the presenter, but the most obvious reason is because the materials are there. In my experience, if you give people the materials you are presenting, many will read ahead... especially if you present the same material they are reading. My recommendation is to avoid distributing directly-related materials to the participants until after the material is presented. This allows them to focus on your presentation, and then refresh themselves with the handout materials.

I am not adverse to providing materials to the students ahead of time, especially if it is a reference such as a worksheet of manual. You just want to avoid giving a handout which contains the exact information you intent to teach.

-Andy 

This unsolicited post, entitled Plastics Engineering Tutorials for Your Classroom, discusses how plastics processing training can be helpful for cross-training part designers and students.

To review this post and learn more about teaching for SolidWorks, please visit: http://blogs.solidworks.com/teacher/2011/06/plastics-engineering-tutorials-for-your-classroom.html

-Andy

-Andy

Basically, this is not a standard data protocol or format. Any SCORM-compliant course can be played by a SCORM-compliant player. This does not mean the course meets any specification regarding content quality, but it does meet a specific playback protocol.

For comparison, a PDF,  'Portable Document Format',  file is a standardized document which can be opened using a compatible .PDF reader. The.PDF does to relate to the quality of information in the file, just the way it can be viewed.

-Andy

The official website can be found here: http://ausplas.com/

Since it occurs once every three years, there will be a relatively large number of important exhibitors present.

If you wish to see a small promotional feature about the upcoming Ausplas show click here

I hope to see some of you at the show.

-Andy

Personally, I believe that shadowing alone has shown to be the most costly for any company to rely on for many reasons. First, the best you can hope for is that the employee learns the minimal information necessary to perform their job. Second, any success relies on the knowledge of the guiding person and their ability to convey this information properly. Third, constant retraining and reminding is always needed since the minimal information is conveyed to begin with. Forth, this process requires the labor of two employees, the training cots add up quickly.

Since people only learn the 'how' of a process, they lack the full understanding as to why an action, procedure, or step is required. As a result, the employees seldom put little emphasis on adherence to procedures in such scenarios. The result is generally a higher level of csrap and damage than that of a well-trained workplace.

-Andy

Most people equate 'shadowing' with 'on-the-job', or OJT. According to Merriam Webster, shadowing is 'to accompany and observe especially in a professional setting'. This type of training acquaints the learner with the workplace but is not a good form of instruction. You would not want your cars engine to be fixed by someone who watched someone fix an engine, yet many companies put the future of their company in the hands of people who essentially watched someone else work.

Shadowing is a helpful tool, but If you want to train on-the-job, you must actually have training available for your employees. This may be  in the form of worksheets, instructions, guides, visuals, etc. 

For more about on-the-job training feel free to read:

Basically, this is not a safety issue, this is a management issue. If management believes in an initiative, they need to support it. Managers, engineers, and administrators need to wear safety glasses when on the production floor. Personally, I prefer making everyone subject to the same reprimands or penalties as a result of not wearing the appropriate Personal Protective Equipment.

This may sound simple, but I have never seen an initiative succeed without management support. For example, every company I have seen have trouble with 5S excludes management. Employees are not going to take time to clean up their workplace if their boss has a messy office and the supervisor's desk is full of clutter.

Safety glasses are not a matter of preference... they are a matter of safety. People would be wearing safety glasses while shopping, driving, and watching TV if they were fun, interesting, or fashionable.

-Andy

The only exception to significant figures is when we are multiplying or dividing the number by exact quantities. If a quantity is definite then it’s considered reliable; meaning that you have full confidence in your number. If we know, for example, we have exactly eight CD cases - we do not have to consider this number when determining the amount of significant figures to be used.

For example, I just stacked two identical diskettes on my desk and they measure 0.66cm using a pair of calipers. When divided by 2, the average thickness equals 0.33cm/diskette, not 0.3cm. The reason this result can be used is because we have confidence that there are exactly 2 diskettes. In this case we could use 2.000, 2.0000000, and so on for our calculations, so that the resulting average is based on the number of significant figures on the actual measurement, not on the number of diskettes.

This does not mean that you have confidence that each of the diskettes in this example are exactly 0.33cm, but you do have confidence in the average thickness of those two diskettes.

Situations such as these are some of the reasons why we often recommend our customers put their management, engineering and technical staff through a refresher course in mathematics.

-Andy

Tell them that torque is a measure of rotational force. In other words, the force being applied to rotate something is considered torque. The way torque is calculated is by multiplying the force being applied times the distance it is being applied.

Try to use a few practical uses of torque within your plant. Technicians and mechanics often use torque wrenches to measure the rotational force being applied to a screw when they are being tightened. Additionally, extruders, such as yours, are often concerned with the amount of torque or rotational force being applied to the screw.

-Andy

OK, I know I need training, but if I train my employees, they will leave.

Some people will always believe this, and for those people, I can do little. One of the funniest responses to this I have heard is from Zig Ziglar who says 'If you don't train your employees... they might stay!'.

Ignorance is never a good retention policy... nor is it a good business plan. In our experience, turnover improves when you implement a 'production-wide' employee development system. This happens because your employees will develop a culture of learning and will begin to discuss, refer, and assist each other on a more consistent basis. The truth is, your employees want to do a good job, but they need the tools and skills to do their jobs well.

Keep in mind, I stated a 'production-wide' training initiative. If you just train a couple key guys, you are likely to lose them since they are not working in an environment which caters to their desire to learn. Basically, people learn best by being trained and having the information reinforced continually over time.

-Andy

After a few years, the best way to restart a training initiative is to consider it as though you had not done any training, or a fresh start. This recommendation is because the previous training initiative has fallen through the cracks and some time has passed... your employees are almost always in the need of either retraining or a refresher.

There is always an excuse to not train your employees, but it is never bad time to start training, or to restart a training initiative.

-Andy

Any company, such as this one, which lacks any structured training program, will benefit highly from a broad-based training initiative. Such an initiative should start from the top down, and begins with the basics. This creates a common knowledge and terminology as well as establish a baseline of knowledge from which everyone starts.

Don't assume that your employees already know everything just because they don't speak up and say so. It is a rare, and extremely valuable, employee who will let you know if they lack knowledge and need instruction in a specific area.

-Andy 

In reality, jobs with long hold and/or cooling times are very well suited for all-electric molding machines. In a hydraulic molding machine, the hydraulic pump is always providing significantly more hydraulic fluid flow than is necessary to mold the part. Even when a multiple stage, variable, or servo-driver pump is used, hydraulics are a relatively inefficient method of transferring electric energy to linear or rotary motion when compared to all-electric molding machines. These losses are amplified when you consider the added costs of water for the heat exchanger as well as additional maintenance expenses.

The latest news in all-electric molding machines is almost always focused on higher speeds, tonnages, and pressures intended to get all-electric molding machines into newer markets such as packaging and automotive where profit margins are razor-thin. As a result of this hype about the latest and greatest, the molding companies take for granted that the average injection molder already knows all the general benefits and how it applies to their own operation.

Industries such as robotics and automation are doing a good job in teaching the consumers about the benefits of servo-motor driven components. Many molders are replacing simple items such as pneumatic sprue pickers with high-efficiency servo-motor drive versions. When I hear molders tell me things like "I'd get an electric machine if I were doing more automotive" or "My cycle times are too long to justify an electric molding machine" it shows that the industry should return to the basics and teach it's potential customers more about the fundamental benefits of all-electric molding machines.

We recently created a series of training programs focused on all-electric molding machines to help educate molders about the functionality, benefits, and optimal processing of all-electric molding machines

-Andy

I like the idea of training my employees about extrusion, yet I need something specific to my operation and I don't have time to create it.

First off, generic extrusion training is always better than no process training at all. As one of our customers called it, "It gives them a plastics frame of mind". In most cases, supplemental systems such as on-the-job training materials can be created very easily, and most online training systems can be customized and modified easily.

It is always better to train your employees than not train them. Whether it teaches fundamentals, or company-specific details... it helps provide the information necessary for critical decisions making.

-Andy

There are many resources available where you can conduct meetings online. In most cases, these provide an open environment where someone can display their computer screen and everyone can communicate using a phone or computer microphone. These systems typically limit the participants to 10-15 people since more participants will have difficulty communicating openly. Ultimately, this is a great way to collaborate on a project, conduct a meeting when everyone cannot get together, or meet with people working off-site. I have talked to many companies who have used this tool very effectively for collaboration.

As a training company, we use similar tools to coordinate and collaborate on projects with our employees and training partners. It is also very common for us to use these tools to demonstrate specific concepts to our customers. In most cases, we will ask our customer to show us their computer using the software so we can see what they are doing... and help them complete a specific task.

-Andy

The important aspect is to consider is momentum. It's similar to housekeeping... everyone has to help keeps things clean, but there is always some task which seems more important than sweeping the floor. Unfortunately, if no-one does any cleaning, the place turns into a mess. With respect to training, the same occurs. Doing a consistent amount of training each week helps you get the ball rolling forward, resulting in a slowly improving workforce. In our experience, most forms of training we promote do not consume a large amount of time to conduct. In many cases, the training can be done at short 10 or 20 minute increments if necessary.

Since there is no quick fix to training, it is critical to ensure that your company makes slow steady efforts towards improvements as is should with all aspects of production including housekeeping, skills, procedures, maintenance, etc.

-Andy

Plastics processing will continue to advance towards more technical and capable equipment. As with all technical advances in the industry, the need for fundamental training does not diminish... it actually increases.

For example, when molding machines went from open loop control to closed loop control, the machine did not eliminate the need for training, it increased the need. Open loop machines only had a few adjustments which could be made, and were very simple to control... closed loop machines are actually more complex and have dozens of parameters which can be changed. Now that hydraulic molding machines are giving way to all-electric molding machines, the need for training is even more critical since the possible adjustments increase even more... and these machines have a greater potential to become damaged as their power, speed, and response increase with each generation.

Likewise, blow molding and extrusion equipment are becoming more advanced with closed-loop controls with more integrated downstream equipment. As these systems advance... the need for a better understanding of both the equipment and how it processes the plastics increases as well.

Some of our customers get into employee training because the equipment is so advanced, that they become completely dependent on engineers to coordinate the technology, yet they lose the less technical employees who had the fundamental understanding of plastics processing with turnover and retirement. The best approach is to train all your employees about the fundamentals as well as advanced training for technicians. 

-Andy 

I was asked this question the other day...

About 20 years ago, I had a friend who created a library at his company. This contained every relevant textbook, guidebook, magazine, and white paper he could find. He set up chairs, book cases, indexes, and made this available to all his employees. Furthermore, his employees could use any of these resources to learn on company time. The only time these resources were used is when an employee needed a specific piece of information to help with a particular problem.

There is an explosion of information available online both written and on video. With respect to companies, this information is a great resource for research and for investigation to help with a specific problem. Production employees will not search the internet to learn about plastics, materials, and processing... they just use the resource to help them with a specific problem.

Keep in mind, these video clips and written resources are no more effective in teaching your production employees practical skills than magazines and white papers have been in the past. The key is to teach your employee the information they need to make educated decisions when they encounter a specific problem and begin researching the solution.

-Andy

Good technical training teaches not only the specifics, but the fundamental information necessary for true understanding. 

In the situation above, having a good understanding of concepts such as how the drawing represents the physical part and how dimensions are calculated can be critical skills for good decision making. When this general understanding is combined with specific instruction on how to use in-house documents, the employee learns applicable skills along with additional information critical to good decision making.

-Andy

When you try to teach an employee just what they 'need to know' they might learn enough to be mildly effective in the workplace, but they will not learn what is truly necessary to really succeed at their job. For effective problem solving, a person needs to know the why, and not just the how. 

For example, if a die setter is told to use a torque wrench to tighten the bolts but does not know why this is important, they are very likely to just use the wrench in their hand to tighten the bolts rather than walk to the toolbox and retrieve the torque wrench.

Additionally, inadequate information can result in poor workplace safety because an uninformed employee is more likely to cut corners. Employees who reach under guards, tie off safety switches, and lit things improperly are usually just trying to save time without really understanding the consequences.

-Andy

Self-Taught: This expression implies that the employee actually guides, develops, and executes their own learning program, and is motivated enough to make it work. Although you have occasionally heard stories of those who are 'self-taught', these highly motivated employees are extremely rare.

Self-Paced: This expression refers to employees who are given specific training, tasks, exercises, and direction, and they follow this at a pace suitable to themselves. In cases where employees have reasonable goals and objectives,  virtually every employee has the ability to learn and grow professionally... especially when they understand how it benefits them professionally.

Basically, every employee wants to succeed at their job, but not all employees receive the training necessary to do their jobs well.

-Andy

The best approach to on-the-job training is to structure the training and combine it with other forms of training.

Let's assume you wanted to teach someone how to measure melt temperature, but you also want them to ensure they do this regularly as part of their job function. For the person to actually use the information, they must know why it is important to measure the melt temperature. As a result, you need to teach the person with three steps 1) explain why measuring melt temperature is important 2) instruction on how to properly measure the melt temperature safely 3) allow them to practice this test themselves.

Basically, demonstration alone does not teach the concepts. You must also teach the employee why something is important... or they will never perform the function consistently.

-Andy

-Andy

This action by itself seems pretty routine, but the operator forgot a key element... YOU MUST BACK UP THE BARREL AND PURGE BEFORE REACHING INTO THE MOLD AREA DURING PROCESS INTERRUPTIONS. This will help prevent the possibility of pressure build-up and melted material being injected into the mold area while the operator reaches into the mold area.

I know hundreds of people who have either been burned or know someone who has been burned as a result of this oversight. Hot molten plastic will either burn your hand or actually become injected under your skin. In either case, the result is almost always disfigurement, amputation, or death. Never let your employees do this.

Please review your procedures and ensure that your employees are not making this dangerous mistake.

-Andy 

I will address this in two ways... Frequency and Time:

Frequency of Training - When possible, try to train your employees at least once a week. This training could be an online course, focused on-the-job instruction, instructional presentation, or skill development exercise. This is crucial to advancing the behaviors and actions you wish to reinforce. Without frequency, people will become complacent.

Length of Training Session - Try to keep the training sessions around an hour or less at a time. Extended training sessions become cumbersome to the trainee, and their ability to retain information is significantly reduced over time. If you have a significant amount of information to present, break it up into manageable pieces.

To ensure long lasing effectiveness of employee training, the key is to have routine and ongoing training sessions to promote a healthy atmosphere of learning.

-Andy 

We recommend regular retraining of your employees for two reasons...

1) Each time someone takes the training, they will pick up, learn, or understand something new.

2) Retraining also ensures they do not lose track of the fundamentals, which can often happen over time.

Basically, your employees should always be learning and reviewing,,, especially in the complex and diverse field of plastics processing.

Any good plastics professional should be should always be learning and honing their skills. What I know, and the approach I take to processing adjusts, and improves as every year passes. Likewise, when I refer back to educational and reference materials I have used in the past, I always find good information that I forgot or have not used in a while.

-Andy

Regardless of the country or region in which you live, it is critical that you promote safe working standards for your employees. I understand that different cultures take varying positions on worker safety, but some situations are just unsafe no matter where you live.

-Andy

The best way to approach your employee training is as follows... If you believe that certain knowledge or skill is critical to the success of a particular job description, then all employees at that level should take that training. On the production floor, employee training should always be divided by job description, not personnel.

This is the best way to ensure consistency in both the training of the employees as well as the support of newly trained employees by those above them. This situation will create more conformity, better communication, and increased loyalty throughout the workforce.

In my experience, breaking up the training on an individual basis always creates division and resentment. In most cases, people who get excluded from a particular training initiative often ask to be included or complain about being left out.

-Andy