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Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
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June 2024 #16299 Page #22
Retention and Staffing of Employees f you are a manufacturer who desires high efficiency with high-quality products and services for your customers, then you know you need good employees to deliver them. Many claim that employees are the most important part of their business. So, it should not be a shock that poor productivity and quality issues are caused by too few employees and too many new employees. How can a company be at its most productive when constantly Todd Drummond hiring and training new employees? I know what some of you are thinking at this very moment: “Oh, Todd, we treat our employees very well, and it’s not the company’s practices causing these issues.” But it is all about the employees if you truly want to resolve production and quality issues in any department. High turnover disrupts workflow and hampers the development of a skilled and experienced workforce, leading to lower productivity and compromised quality.
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When Comparing to the Industry Net Profit Averages, Companies who have: Best Employee Practices are Consistently 10% Above the Average. Poor Employee Practices are Consistently 10% Below the Average. TDC has Witnessed this Again and Again without Fail. Industrial engineers are taught that most workers in semi-skilled positions take an average of three years to reach their full potential. Typically, a worker with three years of experience is twice as productive as a new hire. But don’t take my word for it, go ask any production manager how much more productive and higher quality the work of shop employees is when they have three years versus three months. Experienced workers also produce more units per hour at a higher quality standard with fewer mistakes. So how can any department within a company reach maximum output if they have a high percentage of new employees with very little experience? The answer is simple, they cannot. I have heard my clients say all too often: “Oh, but Todd, how difficult is it to cut lumber or assemble trusses?” To focus on that deceptively simple question ignores the bigger picture. Let me give you an example to illustrate the hand-eye skills needed in the truss manufacturing process. If I am working on my house, adding a new room, or fixing the roof shingles, my wife will know this simply by seeing me at the end of the day. I do not have to say a word to her. Now, why is this? It is simple because, at some point in the day, I will have injured my hands in some way. That’s right, I will have smacked my finger or cut myself. I do not use my hands like this every day, so my hand-eye coordination is poor compared to any shop employee assembling trusses all day. Now, I consider myself a semi-intelligent individual who knows how to perform the different tasks involved in the truss manufacturing facility. (I teach how to do this faster and better for a living!)
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