A failure mode and effects analysis, commonly known as FMEA, is a way to analyze the different ways a system, design, machine, component, process, product, or service can fail and the effects of those different potential failures.
The FMEA is recorded on an FMEA worksheet.
We’ll explain more about this technique commonly used in many industries in this introductory article. Stay tuned in the future, as we’ll probably also create a free downloadable FMEA worksheet for you.
We recently held a live webinar with Dr. Klaus Blache of the University of Tennessee’s Reliability and Maintainability Center and Jeff Dalto of Convergence Training discussing how to improve reliability & maintainability at your organization in general and how to use learning programs and online learning tools as part of that effort.
We’ve included a recorded version you can watch below anytime. Enjoy and let us know if you have any questions.
Plus, consider checking out our upcoming case-study webinar on creating training paths for maintenance-tech career development programs.
Also, check out our online maintenance training solutions and some highlights from our online maintenance training courses in the video below.
Define-Measure-Analyze-Design-Verify, also known as DMADV, is a method used for the development of new products, processes, or services. It’s often associated with Six Sigma and it’s sometimes considered one method of Design for Six Sigma (DFSS).
Don’t confuse DMADV with DMAIC (which stands for Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control). Both are somewhat similar, and both are commonly used in Six Sigma, but DMADV is used for the development of new services, products, or processes, whileDMAIC is used for improving existing processes/products/services. See our DMAIC infographic for more about DMAIC.
In addition to the DMADV infographic below, and the DMAIC infographic we just linked you to, you may also be interested in the following free downloadables:
Enjoy the free infographic and let us know if you need help with your lean/quality/Six Sigma/continuous improvement training efforts at work.
Download this free infographic to learn about the DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify) method commonly used in Six Sigma for product and process design.
A well-trained, productive, efficient, and proactive maintenance department is essential for success at many organizations. In recent articles, we’ve given real-life examples based on the experiences of real customers of how having a maintenance training program makes it easier for employers to hire new maintenance techs and how having a maintenance training program improves the retention of maintenance techs, especially those new hires.
In this article, we’re going to continue our focus on maintenance training by discussing the value of having training to help maintenance techs work their way through an well-developed career path.
So check out the story below and ask us if you have any questions about the facilities maintenance training at your organization. Plus, check out our recorded webinar on maintenance, maintainability, organizational learning, and continuous improvement and consider catching out our upcoming case-study webinar on creating training paths for maintenance-tech career development programs.
Your maintenance department is vital to your organization’s success, and it’s no stronger than the maintenance technicians who perform much of your maintenance work: corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, conditions-based maintenance, etc.
In a recent article, we explained how having a robust maintenance tech training program can be a great competitive advantage when your organization is trying to recruit and hire maintenance techs. We’ll continue along the same thread in this article, drawing from the experiences of some of our customers to show the importance of maintenance tech training in terms of properly onboarding your newly hired maintenance techs and, in particular, getting them fully up to speed at your workplace.
For now, read and enjoy the article, and let us know if you have any questions about your own facilities maintenance training program at work. Plus, check out our recorded webinar on maintenance, maintainability, organizational learning, and continuous improvement and consider catching out our upcoming case-study webinar on creating training paths for maintenance-tech career development programs.
So you’re thinking of adopting lean manufacturing at your workplace, huh?
But what will you tell employees and managers? How will you explain lean to them?
In this article, we’ve got some ideas, suggestions, and tools for you to use. We think these can help you introduce lean to rank and file employees and managers. Then you can go on to get into these ideas in more detail and to introduce more ideas over time. You might even want to roll out some lean manufacturing training courses.
Also, check out the bottom of this article, where we’ve provided a FREE “5 Principles of Lean Manufacturing” infographic you can download.
Lean manufacturing practitioners often talk about three different kinds of waste: muda, mura, and muri.
This can get a little confusing, because lean experts ALSO talk about seven or eight kind of wastes, but when they’re talking about that, they’re talking about seven or eight different types of muda (muda is a Japanese word that means something like futility, uselessness, or wastefulness). Please see our The 7 Types of Waste in Lean Infographic for more about the different types of muda.
But when people in lean talk about different types of waste other than muda, they are talk about mura and muri. Admittedly a bit confusing, yes, but are you with us now?
If so, we invite you to check out and then download our free 3 Types of Waste (Muda, Mura, and Muri) Infographic below for your workplace continuous improvement efforts.
Recently a commercial real estate maintenance company came to us looking for help putting together a comprehensive maintenance technician training program to meet the needs of not only their new hires but of their maintenance techs throughout their careers with the company.
Although this company had many reasons to want to improve their training program, one was that it was becoming difficult in a tight labor market to hire without being able to offer that benefit to their job candidates. Given that people in the labor force may have multiple job possibilities, letting job candidates know the company offered a training program, and letting the candidates see that program and understands how it works, was a significant competitive advantage in hiring.
Of course, the company benefitted in other ways from designing and creating a maintenance technician training program for their maintenance techs, but if you can’t hire employees, your continuous improvement, growth, and learning business goals are stopped before you start. So we’ll focus by explaining the program’s influence on hiring new employees, but stay tuned for additional articles that discuss equally important benefits of the new training program, such as employee retention, overall employee morale, maintenance skill development within the employee population, and better customer satisfaction from the company’s customers.
For now, read and enjoy the article, and let us know if you have any questions about your own facilities maintenance training program at work. Plus, check out our recorded webinar on maintenance, maintainability, organizational learning, and continuous improvement and consider catching out our upcoming case-study webinar on creating training paths for maintenance-tech career development programs.
So you’d like to add online training to your current manufacturing training program, but you want to take your time and make sure you’ll implement the solutions that are the best fit for your organizational training and learning needs? Are we right?
If so, we congratulate you, because there really is no single solution or implementation that is a perfect fit for every company, and even if there were, you’d still need to consider how you’d add online training to the rest of the L&D programs at your manufacturing facility.
To help you make the right choice, we’ve got a free GUIDE TO SELECTING ONLINE MANUFACTURING TRAINING for you below. It will help you consider big-picture things, like how online training fits into your L&D programs; what online training “mainly” means now and what it will probably include in the future; criteria for selecting online courses, learning management systems, and providers; and some tips for using online training wisely once you have implemented it.
If you’re thinking about getting some online training at your manufacturing facility, you might want to check out this free recorded webinar first. And don’t forget to ask us any questions you may have!
In addition to this webinar, you might enjoy our free How to Select Online Manufacturing Training Guide helpful as well as the following articles and guides:
Have a great day and contact us with any questions!
Want to know how to design, create, and deliver effective manufacturing training programs at work? The kind of manufacturing training that truly helps workers acquire new knowledge and develop new skills they can perform on the job? The kind that will have a real, measurable effect on key business KPIs such as average time to onboard a new employee and even production, revenue, and profit?
We’ve got a pretty simple, six-step formula for success for you to follow in this article. Just put these six steps into action at your manufacturing facility and you’ll have more skilled workers before you know it. The employees will thank you for it (after all, they want to know how to perform their jobs well) and so will your bosses.
This article explains each of the six steps in a good bit of detail below. But if you really want to take a deep-dive, know that we’ve provided links throughout the article so you can explain various aspects even more. (more…)
A learning management system, or LMS, is web-based software application organizations can use to manage and administer their employee training programs–that includes training that occurs online, naturally, but also training that occurs face-to-face, such as instructor-led training, field-based training, and so on.
There are many different LMSs on the market. In many cases, they provide similar features and functionality, but of course, they’re all unique as well. Some are bigger and more powerful. Some and smaller with fewer features. Some are really part of even larger software management programs geared around an organization’s hire-to-fire, talent-management efforts. Others are specially designed to help organizations in specific industries or even departments in specific organizations.
There’s no one learning management system that’s the best fit for all organizations. In fact, two organizations that are similar in many ways may STILL find their best suited to different learning management systems.
In this article, we’re going to give you some features to consider if you’re a manufacturer and you’re looking for a learning management system for your workplace. Read this article, and if you find it interesting, you may also want to check out our articles on Selecting Online Manufacturing Training and Things to Look for in Online Manufacturing Training Courses.
You might also want to check out our free, recorded webinar titled Online Manufacturing Training that Works–How to Select Online Manufacturing Training for Your Organization.