Page 28 - MetalForming Magazine May 2023

Special Section: FABRICATION
PRESS BRAKE TRAINING
26 MetalForming/May 2023 www.metalformingmagazine.com
training for others, with zero confi- dence that in reliability of the training. “We seek to help companies identify the tasks and workplace activities ideal for training, and then create opportu- nities to train within the natural flow
of work,” explains King. “The average employer will use less than 10 percent of an employee’s time on the job to provide structured training, the rest spent on production. As a result, employers must make decisions about
when, how and how often to dedicate an employee’s time to training.”
MWG’s Pay Scale Based on Ability and Achievement
When NIMS began to work with MWG on its press brake-training pro- gram and pay-scale challenges, it sought a measurable way to bring everyone in the department to the same skill and pay level.
“We wanted pay to be based on abil- ity and achievement,” says Mondillo.
NIMS started by working with MWG to define the duties necessary to ensure that the department would perform productively, daily. It organized duties into roles based on responsibilities, using these standards to drive the development of all training materials. For MWG, this process defined a skills hierarchy that featured three specific roles, each with a defined pay scale to eliminate subjectivity:
• Entry-level pedal pusher
• Mid- to advanced-level press brake operator
• Leadership-level press brake supervisor.
At this point, an evaluator was selected and trained to review employ- ee performance and assign roles based on the ability to perform the duties listed. Pedal pushers, for example, stay at this level if they can perform some but not all of the duties within the role. They know exactly what they need to learn to become fully credentialed pedal pushers, and acquiring those skills require that they find opportu- nities within the regular production cycle to learn.
“The trainer and the trainee know the production schedule,” says Mondil- lo. “They agree ahead of time that when something comes up during produc- tion, the trainer can stop making parts and move over to the trainee to teach or observe.”
Basing training on opportunity is a big productivity booster, ensuring that training occurs within the natural flow of the production cycle and that train- ers are pulled away from their tasks only when they’re teaching, rather than
An MWG press brake evaluator/trainer works with a designated pedal pusher-level operator to teach him how to ensure that he properly part places the part in the machine.
One of MWG’s pedal pusher press brake trainees displays a finished part. Pedal pusher is one of three skills-based roles in the press brake department, along with mid- to advanced-level press brake operator, and leadership-level press brake supervisor.