Archive for the ‘Maintenance Training’ Category

Industrial Training Tips

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

When it comes to training industrial employees, creating a program that is tailored to your organizations specific needs is key. If your training initiatives are not planned with your employees in mind, there’s a good chance you will not achieve your desired outcome. As a manager your priority is to make sure the implemented training program is effective and maximizes your return on investment. Here are a few tips to ensure your goals are met:

Training should be relevant to your organizational needs

The training program that you put in place must relate to the day to day tasks of your employees and should make a distinct connection with the workplace or even your employee’s specific workstation. If this connection is not made, training becomes unrelated and employees are likely to get bored and pay little attention.

Incorporate hands on training

Online courseware, like ITC Leaning’s, is a great way to allow industrial employees to expand their knowledge on their own time and in a comfortable setting. But while reading and doing practice assignments can be helpful, nothing is more beneficial than hands on training. Integrate real life situations into your training program to ensure employee will know what to do when they are no longer reading words but are actually working with industrial equipment. Describing how a process should be done is very different than actually being able to perform the task in a real life scenario, once training is completed.

Spell it out

Your trainees should know exactly what is expected from their training. Explain to your learners how their newly acquired industrial skills will apply to their day to day work. Let them know the basic knowledge they’ll need to have in order to perform well in the training courses and what they are expected to learn from the program as a whole.

Track progress

The only way to know if your industrial training was effective is to follow up. Assess skill sets before and after training to determine if your program was successful. Let your learners know that they will be evaluated on their applied skills once training is over, this may help engage them from the start.

Industrial training is a pertinent aspect of operating an efficient and proficient industrial organization. If not done properly, a lot of time and resources can be wasted. Make sure your goals are well defined and your selected courseware is accurate and up to date. ITC Learning strives to provide superior online courseware for your employees in an effort to improve industrial skills and help your business succeed.

Ensure Your Employees’ Skills are as Current as Your Equipment

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

As technology continues to evolve the manufacturing industry is sure to follow. Computers and robotics have undoubtedly changed the industry and in some ways made it more accurate and efficient. The Association for Manufacturing Technology and The American Machine Tool Distributors Association reported that in July of this year, manufacturing technology consumption amounted to more than $500 million dollars. The amount shows a 93% increase from July of 2010, when machine tool sales totaled around $260 million. Overall, sales have gone up an astonishing 102.9% from 2010. AMTDA’s president says that the ups and downs of the stock market have had little to no effect on the demand for new machinery in plants. He predicts that eventually this pace will slow as orders are fulfilled, however in the meantime business is booming. Regionally, the Midwest has seen the greatest success with sales reaching $159.26 million. While the Northern region reached just over $75 million. The increase in manufacturing technology consumption may shed a light of hope on the condition of the industry’s economic standing, allowing it to continue to improve and develop more advanced systems.

With machine tool sales doing so well, manufacturers must ensure their employees are properly trained to operate and oversee their updated equipment. Just like the evolution of the industry the training skills of industrial employees must progress as well. ITC Learning is devoted to ensuring your staff is duly trained so they can operate the newest technologies in your plant safely and correctly. Inadequate training can result in injuries in the workplace. While accidents cannot be predicted, together we can do our best to ensure they are prevented. Not only is proper operation of your machinery important to your business’ success but also the maintenance of your tools. ITC’s online industrial training aims to help your staff maintain an advanced knowledge base of new and basic skills. We also offer maintenance training to ensure the upkeep of your equipment is performed properly and regularly. Protect your business, your employees and your equipment by investing in ITC’s skills training courseware.

To read the full report released by USMTO, click here.

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net & Suat Eman

Heavy Machinery Training

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Heavy Machinery training is a must for any employees who will operate this type of equipment. Even experienced employees should take a heavy machinery training course because keeping up-to-date  refresher course is important to keep employees knowledgeable about certain aspects of the forklift or crane operation. The refresher course would cover the areas in which the machinery operator is weak or lacking in knowledge. Although manufacturing managers might know the benefits of re-training full-time employees, they might not see the need for training temporary employees. Yet, temporary employees should receive the process training skills to operate the equipment especially, if they will be working directly with them. In fact, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandate that all employees operating heavy machinery be properly trained to use them.

How to evaluate if your employees need improved training skills:

  • Discussion with their supervisor about his or her performance
  • Observation of the employee operating the equipment i.e forklift or crane
  • Administration of a written test or a performance test in the warehouse  (ITC Learning can customize a written performance test)

You must require your employees to take a refresher course if:

  • An operator has had a poor evaluation or has violated company safety rules
  • The operator has been involved in a minor or terrible accident
  • A operator was assigned to a new forklift or different brand
  • The operator has been assigned to a different work zone

Since manufacturing firms are responsible for the safety of their employees it’s imperative that heavy machinery training be given to the individuals operating the machinery whether they’re a veteran, new or temporary hire. ITC Learning can help you implement a heavy machinery training program to improve the process training skills of all your employees. This training course can help you reduce accidents and accident-related injuries, improving employee morale by raising operator confidence, reducing product damage, minimizing costly equipment repairs, and increasing overall forklift productivity.

With manufacturing technology up, can your workforce keep up?

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

In February, the Association for Manufacturing Technology released a survey that found that manufacturing technology consumption was up 138.1 percent since February of 2010. Companies looking to up their output are investing in technology to expedite and streamline the production process.

“The dramatic year-over-year growth further underscores the manufacturing renaissance that is taking place,” said Douglas K. Woods, President of AMT.

To get a detailed report, you can check out the full report that even breaks down tech consumption at the regional level. But, with an emphasis on streamlining and investing in manufacturing technology, there comes an added expense in educating employees on the new processes.

Five ITC Tools That Can Help

ITC Training  Tool #1: On-Line Products

ITC offers a complete line of on-line courses, from electrical skills training that address AC/DC Motor theory to mechanical training series that offers equipment repair courses. Additionally, the on-line courses are SCORM and AICC compliant. No matter how you plan to deliver the modular content to educate your employees on your new equipment, this ensures you’ll be able to deliver up-to-date industry best practices.

(more…)

Poll suggests economy showing substantial improvement

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Economists expect a 2 percent increase in sales in 2011

Economists expect a 2 percent increase in sales in 2011

A recent survey conducted by the National Association for Business Economics says that the U.S. economy’s health is improving “substantially.”

“Companies appear to be positioning themselves for a firming economic environment,” said Shawn DuBravac, an economist with the Consumer Electronics Association, who analyzed the findings.

The survey is conducted quarterly and expresses the views of economists from a select size of trade groups and privately held companies. Results are measured by the Net Rising Index (NRI) which measures the percentage of those that report better outlooks over those whose outlook is less optimistic. (more…)

Training for DC Motor Technicians

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

The 1800s is credited with numerous inventions that have revolutionized our daily life. The DC motor is one of them. Since it was accidentally partnered with another instrument and produced voltage it has been used in conveyor belts, elevators, cranes, ski lifts, extruders and mixers. Today, the DC motor has become one of the most popular equipments used in manufacturing plants, apartment buildings and airports. Since these machines are frequently stopped and started, technicians must have the right training skills to maintain and repair them.

Through ITC Learning’s DC motors training course your employees will learn how to handle and understand how DC motors work. In addition, they will learn how to control how fast (and in which direction) a DC motor operates.

A few other topics covered under ITC Learning’s training skills program include how to identify wear patterns and the causes of arcing and uneven segments and know how to correct them, understand how to prepare a commutator for reconditioning and how to clean and check the commutator after maintenance as well as how to inspect, select, install and seat brushes.

The DC motor has and continues to be the motor system chosen by machine builders due to its low inertia. So it’s important for your manufacturing facility to address these topics in the DC motor training skills course since employees need to know how to fix common motor problems before they become a disaster. By planning ahead, you can identify the topics you want your employees to learn about. Since DC motors are commonly an expensive piece of machinery, fixing a problem before it becomes a big issues is always important to increase or maintain the machines lifetime.

The Importance of Industrial Process Control

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Most gamblers spend their lifetime guessing, but an industrial manager doesn’t have that luxury. Control system failure in an industrial plant is never really an option, but if and when it does happen it’s important to be prepared. For process and manufacturing facilities, control system failure — even for a second — will cause tremendous damage. But with the right training skills any crisis can be handled smoothly.

When it comes to developing your employees control training and other training skills, topics such as how to control, measure, and manipulate the variables of a heat exchanger system; identify the system response for various control modes and determining the setting of the controller’s proportional band and gain on a pictorial representation of process control action are just a few of the important topics to be covered in the industrial process control course.

In addition, other topics will include developing your employees understanding of the single loop and multiple loop control system. For the multiple loop control system in regards to industrial training, employees will learn the operation of several types of digital process control systems, how to identify the benefits of advanced process control strategies as well as how to compare feedback and feed forward control.

The goal of Industrial Process Control Training

The goal of ITC Learning’s training industrial process control training courses is to help your employees maintain production uptime and utilize additional control devices to help prevent accidents. In addition, managers and employees will understand that they need to find that delicate balance between safety, production, and reliability when operating or upgrading the production control systems.

Providing training courses for these skills is never a useless task because it’s essential to having qualified employees who have the industrial training skills to keep your manufacturing facility operating smoothly.

What is SCORM?

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

SCORM compliant modular training

What does SCORM compliant mean?

SCORM stands for Sharable Courseware Object Reference Model (SCORM), which is a set of specifications that, when applied to course content, produces small, reusable e-Learning objects. A result of the Department of Defense’s Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative, SCORM-compliant courseware elements are easily merged with other compliant elements to produce a highly modular repository of training materials.

SCORM in layman’s terms

Basically, in a general sense, SCORM compliance means that videos and e-Learning tools ensure that it can be played across multiple platforms. Think of it in the context of a DVD release. Say, MGM launches a DVD, but it can only be played on MGM DVD players. Well when you want to watch a Warner Bros. DVD, you have to purchase a Warner Bros. DVD player. You don’t want 10 different DVD players to watch 10 different movies. That’s what SCORM compliance is. You and your business aren’t interested in downloading 10 different video platforms for e-Learning content. SCORM uses a universal code so companies across the board can use the same material. The benefits, along with streamlining the process, allow for a universal adoption of training standards as well. So when a company hires workers that are certified or trained in a particular area, they are hiring an employee with universal training.

E-Learning online courses

The goal is to streamline and simplify the e-Learning experience. Not only do we meet SCORM compliance standards with our instructionally sound and easy-to-use training videos, we minimize bandwidth and security concerns.

Why Boiler Control Training?

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Boiler systems are often the most commonly used steam or hot water generators in an industrial plant. As a result, great care and attention should be given to ensure that they continue to operate efficiently and safely while responding rapidly to changes. By incorporating boiler training into your plant’s training program, it will allow your employees to develop better control techniques, as well as enable you to have greater flexibility in deciding which employees to assign to specific tasks and ultimately reduce operating cost.

The basic principles of boiler control include understanding proper drum level and the basic techniques for controlling that level. The issue of low boiler drum levels can cause boiler tubes to overheat and become damaged. Too high of a level can interfere with separating moisture from steam causing reduced boiler efficiency and carry moisture into the process or turbine. A happy medium is necessary in order to keep boiler systems running smoothly. In addition, your employees will learn how to ensure that the steam pressure or the temperature of the hot-water system is always constant for any load demand placed on the plant. No boiler training course is complete without teaching the associated safety skills to handle boiler control issues when they arise.

Goal of boiler control training

The primary goal of ITC Learning’s boiler control training course is to improve the skills of employees working in an industrial plant. In addition due to technological advances, this type of training course is definitely a significant part of keeping your employees trained and up to date on boiler control operation and troubleshooting.

How important are air compressor repair and maintenance training?

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Air compressors are among the more important tools for your business, making air compressor repair and maintenance training worth investing in.

Would you ever consider running an auto repair business out of a truck? It’s not the first place to start, but it is possible. Branden Riggs started his company, Highway Auto Repair, with a truck, some tools and an air compressor. While Riggs noted he would’ve been able to operate without the air compressor, it certainly made things easier, allowing him to move effortlessly along Casa Grande roads and sometimes the freeway, helping broken down motorists.

Riggs has found a new home now, in downtown Casa Grande. Would it have been possible without an air compressor? Probably. But it would’ve come with a little more sweat. Not to mention, spare tires were always flat and Riggs said he needed something to fill them up. It all adds up, and now he and business partner Daniel Barnes are excited about the new digs.

“We have plenty of room to do what we want to do, and we have plenty of room to grow,” Riggs said. The new shop also includes 12 pneumatic hose slots, just waiting to be filled with air compressors, and inevitably, the two will be prime candidates for air compressor repair and maintenance training.

Why air compressor repair and maintenance training?

Barnes’ story may not be the same, but for industrial employers, they have long recognized air compressors as a must-have. There is an immediate ROI for air compressor repair and maintenance training, especially when the pneumatic giant can get an otherwise derailed assembly line back on track or a forklift with a bad wheel moving pallets at light speed.

As we discussed in our “Air Compressor Maintenance” post a couple of months ago, this mechanical component is sometimes critical to the industrial manufacturing operation. Unfortunately, even the most maintained air compressors suffer the elements and need to be fixed. ITC Learning offers a comprehensive two-part course in air compressor repair and maintenance training.

Air Compressor Repair: A two-part course

ITC Learning’s Activ® interactive multimedia training offers a two-lesson mechanical training CD set, giving participants the knowledge to understand, disassemble, inspect, troubleshoot and repair reciprocating air compressors.

Class One: Reciprocating Compressors: Principles and Troubleshooting

The main objective of this course is to inform and teach participants to troubleshoot and execute the most common air compressor repairs.

Class Two: Reciprocating Compressors: Disassembly, Inspection, & Repair

The second CD is a more comprehensive look at air compressor repairs, including disassembly, inspection, clean and repair.