Manufacturing is all about people. Plant facilities, equipment, robots, software, computers—none of these can actually "make" anything without people. And the better trained those people are, the more effective they can be at dropping profits to a company's bottom line.

Every good manufacturing executive knows to the penny the investment his or her company has in its workforce. Just as it makes economic sense to regularly maintain and upgrade equipment, it makes perfect economic sense to monitor workforce performance—and invest in upgrades at regular intervals. And just as one poorly performing piece of equipment can drive up production costs, a badly designed workflow can eat away at profits.

The MAGNET Workforce Consulting team has certifications in adult learning and instructional design. Our consultants have deep experience in applying best practices in front-line manufacturing. We teach you how to hire and train people who are able to innovate, and who will internalize your company's work ethic and goals.

Custom workforce solutions available from MAGNET include:

Our structured approach will help you create a sustainable solution. We define your needs, build on your internal resources, measure the results, and develop your internal ability to sustain the benefits. There are four main steps in our process:

• Analysis: Assessing the strengths of the people and the organization;
• Planning: Aligning people's needs to meet the organizational goals;
• Designing: Developing the plan to deliver the right training and coaching; and
• Deployment: Blending traditional personal interaction with online or computer-based training.

MAGNET's Workforce Consultants will work with your team to develop a training program to address your company's unique needs. Here are two examples:

Pipeline Development Co. (PLIDCO) had undertaken a multi-year lean process improvement project. The company's management wanted to quickly bring all 85 employees up to speed on lean concepts, without having an impact on production. MAGNET's Workforce Consultants developed an online training module that allowed PLIDCO's staffers to work at their own speed, at times that did not slow production. The online training, combined with MAGNET's Lean 101 one-day on-site course, helped the company double production in just one year. Learn more.

A manufacturer had two manufacturing plants in different cities, but only one electrical maintenance employee who really understood the systems at both facilities. When an unexpected problem would occur, that employee had to travel from one location to another, creating unacceptable downtime. This employee also needed advanced training, but was so essential he couldn't be absent from the job. Supervisors wanted to upgrade the skills of other maintenance staffers to eliminate the bottleneck. They also wanted to create a standard system to train new maintenance hires, but they didn't have much money in the budget. MAGNET consultants helped the company identify a state-sponsored workforce grant to defray the costs of developing and implementing a workforce training program.

To find out how MAGNET Workforce Consultants could benefit your company, contact MAGNET today!