Archive for June, 2010

Maintenance Training Equals Plant Safety

Monday, June 21st, 2010

We don’t always react the right way or the way we’re expected to in life. But in a plant setting reacting without thinking can be a dangerous thing. For instance, when a machine begins to perform erratically, the operator might become frustrated and reach in to remove the obstructing material. But, this reaction may cause the operator to physically injury himself. By not adequately training your maintenance employees and technicians you’re only allowing similar situations to happen in the future.

So what do you choose? Do you provide maintenance training for your employees now or do you wait until something bad happens before you react? This is a challenge that many manufacturing companies face every day.

Consider that most accidents don’t occur when things are running smoothly and the equipment is operating at maximum efficiency. That’s because maintenance and reliability is one of the greatest drivers of productivity and safety. An effective maintenance training program is important for your plant. ITC Learning provides self-paced training programs that allow the individual to learn without fear of falling behind their classmates.

When a minor issue or machine failure occurs, your employees training will allow them to effectively fix the problem. Spending less on maintenance training can allow minor problems to become worse and spiral out of control. For instance, untrained operators may leave leaking pipes unfixed because they don’t know how to fix them, leading to slip and falls. Maintenance training does foster safety.

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Mechanical Training

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Since the industrial revolution, our society has becomes more and more dependent upon the use of machinery to power and operate our plants and factories. Today, there is an even greater dependency upon those individuals that are skilled at keeping those machines running smoothly. It’s the mechanics, hydraulics technicians, electricians, and operators who are the unsung heroes that keep everything from the power plant machines to electrical systems running smoothly. What would we do without them? The good news is that we’ll never have to find out.

In fact, ITC Learning offers a wide range of mechanical training courses to keep industrial companies staffed at all times. By utilizing our training courses, your employees will learn about the different elements necessary for them to do their jobs. The courses will also teach them how to maintain, modify, and fix different types of equipment at their plant. Regardless of the complexity of your employee’s mechanical jobs, ITC Learning has the mechanical training classes to suit your company’s needs.

By utilizing ITC Learning’s training program, even if you have only one trained mechanical professional on staff during each shift they should be able to fix any small or large problems that may arise. In today’s economic market, a well-trained employee is important to the continued success of your organization. This is one place where not providing adequate mechanical training can be detrimental to your company. So regardless of the mechanical task, as long as there is technology and machinery, there will be a need for well-trained mechanical employees.

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What’s Determines Your Maintenance Strategy?

Monday, June 14th, 2010

When you become sick and have to visit the doctor, the first thing he or she wants to know is what your symptoms are. It’s necessary for a doctor to know this so they can make an accurate diagnosis. In predictive maintenance, equipment operators do the same thing except they have a more hands on approach. They observe and note the indicators that may signal that there might be a problem. From there they will decide the type of maintenance measures that should be taken.

Although predictive maintenance may seem costly, training your maintenance employees to utilize this approach can save your company more money than you would expect. ITC Learning offers a comprehensive curriculum of maintenance training courses to help companies realize the importance of this approach. In addition, our courses will also show them that predictive maintenance should be used on up to 95 percent of all rotating equipment in the facility, not just the critical equipment.

Once the organization decides to utilize our maintenance training programs, your employees will be trained to check the equipment regularly and look for signs of abnormal activity. This way they can fix any small problem before it grows into a larger issue. They will also learn that predictive maintenance relies on assessing a machine for problems while it is operating to find the signals or erratic behavior. With predictive maintenance training, your employees will know how to listen to the motors complaining about overload, and hear the bearings whine about contaminated lubricants. Companies that utilize ITC Learning’s maintenance training program can rest assured that their employees are properly trained.

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How to Identify your Industrial Training Needs

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

You know when to walk your dog, change your eye contact solution and take your car to the mechanic. These things come naturally to us………… or the directions tell us when it’s time. But do you know when your employees need training? You can identify whether an industrial training program is need by asking yourself:

• How well are we doing?
• How productive are our employees?
• If there is already an industrial training program in place, how effective is it?
• What departments or employees could benefit from training?
• Does our current training program cover all our employees’ job descriptions?
• Are our employees’ familiar with all the equipment and operational procedures necessary to do their
jobs?
• Are they familiar with all the safety rules and regulations of our facility/plant?
• What’s the quality of our products or services?
• Has it improved or gotten worse over the past few months or years?
• Are our clients satisfied with our products or services?
• Are we on track to achieve our long-term business goals?
• Are we doing well compared to our competitors?
• How is our bottom line? Could it be better?
• What are our business goals?
• How do I achieve them?

After you’ve done this, you can talk to your staff one-on-one or in groups to identity their training needs and how the organization can improve its overall productivity. This is also a great way to find out insightful information from employees who have firsthand knowledge of what needs to be done.

You can compare the information you’ve gathered from your staff to the list you’ve created to see what you really need. Plus, by doing this you can identity what it will take to reach your company’s goals. Once you’ve done this you can start creating a list of the equipment and subjects your employees need to be trained on.

An in-house training program is the best way to go, and ITC Learning offers a comprehensive curriculum of industrial training classes. We will provide you with all the materials you need to do your training in-house. You can choose from our online, CD-ROM or DVD/Video training classes. We can even test your employees to see how knowledgeable they are about a specific topic. Remember, investing in an industrial training program is an excellent way to increase profit and productivity.

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What’s the Cost of Doing Nothing?

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Many people fear change, but sometimes the cost of maintaining the status quo is too high. Often, we would rather do nothing than upset the balance. It’s even become a default solution. But in a manufacturing plant, doing nothing can be detrimental to both the equipment and the facility as a whole. Yet in many plants, you can often see the cost of doing nothing many times throughout the day.

For instance, when a manager overlooks that the operator did not clean up the machine well or failed to notice that the mechanic has not repaired the leaking pump, this only increases the cost of doing nothing. Plus, when a manager has a new employee shadow another employee who doesn’t have adequate manufacturing training themselves, this will only lead to more problems. When people are afraid to change their current manufacturing training program then the results will remain the same.

Each time actions are omitted or executed poorly, the cost of doing nothing will increase drastically and your company’s productivity will decrease. When it would only have cost several hundred dollars to repair the machine, it now will cost several thousand dollars instead.

So before deciding to do nothing and just wait and see, you should try calculating the cost of not providing accurate manufacturing training to your employees and the cost of leaving small problems to fester. Although this is a common problem at many industrial plants in the U.S., it doesn’t have to be. Manufacturing training is the answer! By utilizing ITC Learning’s manufacturing training curriculum, your employees will be trained to find and fix problems before they escalate into major issues. Remember, the cost of doing nothing can be very expensive.

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Visual Aids in Training

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Humans are visual creatures. Most people prefer to see a picture than have to read the story, that’s why for years Google and Yahoo! have included images in search results of a search. With that said, you can see why visual aids are an important tool in teaching people in any field, even those in manufacturing environments, about a specific topic.

ITC Learning has incorporated this teaching principle into its online, CD-ROM, and DVD/Video industrial training programs. The interactive courses are divided into segments so that individuals will be able to process the information and not get bored. Employees that use these training programs will see images as well as illustrations of the equipment they’ll be operating. Not only that, but your employees will be able to listen to audio and watch video about a subject. ITC Learning’s visual aids will help to reinforce the information while engaging your employees with the different learning modalities. This is one of the reasons that ITC Learning’s industrial training programs are so effective. Plus, you can expect to find information created by a variety of expert professionals in the industrial field.

With ITC Learning’s training programs in place, we can maintain your employee’s interest while helping them gain, retain, recognize, recall, and later use the information to which they are exposed. You can take your industrial training program to the next level with our well-designed training classes.

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What Makes a Quality Boiler Control Maintenance Training Program?

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Most people wouldn’t mind substituting their Mazda for a BMW or a studio apartment for a house, but there are some things you wouldn’t want a substitute for. We all know there is no substitute for an effective training program, especially a manufacturing training program that offers interactive and accessible courses developed and taught by experienced instructors.

For instance, if your program is about boiler control then the course will emphasize all the essential abilities necessary for the expert upkeep of your industrial boilers. The subjects discussed in the course can include basic boiler components and operations, the basic control strategies for different boilers, how to troubleshoot boiler control systems, and the safety rules to follow. Although it’s important to provide your employees with a maintenance training program, it’s important the program covers the right topics. Not just any boiler control maintenance training program will do.

Upon the completion of ITC learning’s maintenance training program, your employees will be able to put their lessons into practice immediately. Our courses offer the right components to provide you with the most return on your investment. Remember, a quality maintenance training program is worth the time and investment because it provides your employees with the experience they need to do their jobs well.

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