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36 SMT Magazine • August 2017 Inspired by the initiatives shown in Mexico, the Florida team commenced on a journey to certify nearly a dozen employees in Six Sigma Black Belt study. This provides tools for statisti- cal analysis of data and process improvement. It requires candidates to successfully lead a team through an actual project in Six Sigma process improvement. This is a train-the-trainer oppor- tunity. Master Black Belts certify Black Belts, who can lead and mentor Green Belts, who can take their co-workers through basic waste anal- ysis, elimination, and control. Cross-training within our facilities is a man- date from our COO. Flexibility to perform mul- tiple jobs gives employees opportunities to be- come more valuable to the organization. In this way, we can mitigate schedule risks caused by absenteeism or the departure of an employee. Cross training to eliminate a single point of fail- ure is a benefit for the company and is rewarded during employee reviews. Tracking this training is performed by their area supervisor and train- ing should be interdepartmental. We spend a great deal of time outside of our facility, benchmarking training methods and ideas for best practice. Through this pro- cess, we have adopted the following beliefs and practices: • Visually displaying training opportunities is important • Employees made aware of what training is available often seek out training and thus training becomes pull instead of push EMPOWERING THE WORKFORCE THROUGH TRAINING: AN INVESTMENT RETURN Figures 4a and 4b: MC Assembly's Boston facility employees undergo- ing Inctio Man Lean Enterprise Simulation training.