Inland Label Avails itself of Heidelberg Program
March 8, 2013
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KENNESAW, GA—Feb. 27, 2013—The management team at Inland Label rarely misses an opportunity to give its employees the tools they need to continue to improve. The LaCrosse, WI-based custom label printing company, which currently operates three generations of Heidelberg’s flagship Speedmaster XL 105, saw in Heidelberg’s Operator Evaluation program the ideal vehicle to help raise its operators’ skills by assessing their knowledge of the XL platform and following up with targeted training as needed.
“We had a simple objective in undertaking the process,” said Inland’s Vice President of Operations Guy Billing: “Making our operators even better than they already were.”
Measuring Success
When low productivity cannot be traced to under-performing equipment or process flaws, Heidelberg’s Operator Evaluation skills-measuring program often can pinpoint a lack of operator knowledge in critical areas and chart a course for improvement.
Inland Label, which frequently collaborates with Heidelberg to accomplish its production goals, already boasts a long track record of instituting internal measures designed to ensure its operators’ skills are up-to-date. Two years ago, for example, the company put in place a very successful homegrown certification program for its sheetfed and gravure operators.
“Today’s manufacturing environment is vastly different from what it used to be, demanding a technologically sophisticated skillset few job applicants possess,” Billing said. “Consequently, as we have engaged with standardization and process control, it has become second nature for us to focus on operator training. What we have been missing are the metrics that would enable us to capture the results. Heidelberg’s Operator Evaluation testing supplies us with a helpful way to measure our success.”
Fears Allayed
Skills testing isn’t always the easiest thing to introduce in precision manufacturing environments like printing plants, where the link between job performance and job retention is obvious to everyone. For its part, Inland has positioned Heidelberg’s Operator Evaluation program as proof of management’s belief in the value of investing in the professional development of its employees.
“There was some fear and skepticism among our operators at first,” Billing acknowledged. “Some feared we were using the testing to get rid of poor performers, but all that fear went away when they realized that our goal was better and more targeted training.”
“We had a simple objective in undertaking the process,” said Inland’s Vice President of Operations Guy Billing: “Making our operators even better than they already were.”
Measuring Success
When low productivity cannot be traced to under-performing equipment or process flaws, Heidelberg’s Operator Evaluation skills-measuring program often can pinpoint a lack of operator knowledge in critical areas and chart a course for improvement.
Inland Label, which frequently collaborates with Heidelberg to accomplish its production goals, already boasts a long track record of instituting internal measures designed to ensure its operators’ skills are up-to-date. Two years ago, for example, the company put in place a very successful homegrown certification program for its sheetfed and gravure operators.
“Today’s manufacturing environment is vastly different from what it used to be, demanding a technologically sophisticated skillset few job applicants possess,” Billing said. “Consequently, as we have engaged with standardization and process control, it has become second nature for us to focus on operator training. What we have been missing are the metrics that would enable us to capture the results. Heidelberg’s Operator Evaluation testing supplies us with a helpful way to measure our success.”
Fears Allayed
Skills testing isn’t always the easiest thing to introduce in precision manufacturing environments like printing plants, where the link between job performance and job retention is obvious to everyone. For its part, Inland has positioned Heidelberg’s Operator Evaluation program as proof of management’s belief in the value of investing in the professional development of its employees.
“There was some fear and skepticism among our operators at first,” Billing acknowledged. “Some feared we were using the testing to get rid of poor performers, but all that fear went away when they realized that our goal was better and more targeted training.”
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