COP Notes from Oct. 21, 2008 Meeting

[Nancy]

PMMI Technical Training Community of Practice
Meeting – Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Oystar Jones
Cincinnati, Ohio

Attendees: Marie Ferrante (PMMI), Nancy Cobb (Partners in
Possibilities), Justin Hawes (Kroger), Bruce Larson (Goodman), Bob
Trimpe (Jones) , Mark Anderson (ProMach) , Nick Wilson (Morrison) ,
Karen Henneberry (Nestle Purina), Olivia Khan (AIDCO), Andrea
Hadjison (Schwan’s Foods), Peter Loschnig, Karl Borgmann, Mike
Mahoney (Pearson Packaging)

WELCOME AND OVERVIEW OF COP –
Maria welcomed the group and was especially happy to see the new
members, some whom also serve on the PMMI Education Committee. Since
there were 5 new participants Nancy presented a short overview of what
a Community of Practice is and how we have evolved to this point after
a year and a half of existence. New members included:
Mark Anderson, ProMach – CEO
Karen Henneberry, Nestle Purina, Sr. Project Manager
Olivia Khan, AIDCO International, VP Mkt. & Organizational Development
Nick Wilson, Morrison Container, President
Andrea Hadjison, Schwan’s Foods, Learning Solutions Manager

INTRODUCTIONS
As always our roundtable introductions provided an update on
activities from each member, new or renewed interest in certain
training issues and topics, or in the case of the new members
background about their companies and their training initiatives. Other
ongoing members who were unable to attend sent a few updates. Ray
Goode of Anheuser-Busch will be retiring the end of October and moving
out east. Kevin Grandey, formerly of Pactiv and now an independent
consultant, was called away to an emergency project so he was unable
to attend but wanted us to know that he is developing training
software he’ll be looking forward to showing us at the next meeting.
Peter Loschnig and Karl Borgmann are now independent consultants for
their own firm PIQK Training.
Some of the common topics/issues echoed during these introductions
included:
SOPs, changing demographics (Gen X & Y) in the workforce and how to
train them, high turnover, aligning training with business results,
finding qualified technicians and maintenance staff in general,
keeping skill sets updated, how to train all parts of a project when
you are an integrator, how to blend training into operational
processes, how to train staff in a Greenfield site. The PMMI
certification program was mentioned as a good stepping stone toward
effective training techniques and that it is a competitive advantage.


BEST PRACTICES
1) Justin Hawes, Reliability Training Manager, from Kroger shared the
pilot SOP program at their Irving, TX plant on the new PET Blow mold
Line.
(His PowerPoint will be attached for your reference and detail)
o The project was used as a trial for Kroger MFG.
o The goal was to develop valid and effective SOPs for the line by
start-up (this was over 200 SOPs) as well as design a prototype that
could be rolled out across Kroger plants.
o The three areas developed were the Master SOP schedule, the Tracking
files and the Standard SOP template.
o He emphasized how the SOPs were incorporated into their other
processes - in particular the start-up process - which was a high
priority.
o Once the project was completed the ownership was turned over to
maintenance, production and QC.
• Kevin shared the process, lesson learned and next steps. The
discussion within the group as he presented was quite enthusiastic as
most participants were using SOPs and/or wanting to improve their
current process.
• Some group discussion centered on how nice it would be if there was
an industry standard for SOP consistency.
• Another focus was on who is doing the SOPs and how more end-users
would like to see OEMs doing them.

2) Bob Trimpe, Manager of Documentation and Training Services shared
the Jones training philosophy and some of their innovative new
approaches to be added to their training options.
(PowerPoint is attached)

• Bob stressed a point that was made earlier that training has to
focus on productivity and reliability and how important it is to focus
on the customers “pain” /specific needs.
• Jones’ philosophy states that training should be innovative, have
substance, is a good buy and reusable. He then reviewed all the
training options they offer. The key was to customize to the needs of
the end-user.
• Bob mentioned that he is seeing an increase in request for
certifications, individual testing and hands-on activities.
• Jones will be introducing two new training options/tools at Pack
Expo.
o PIVoT (Portable, Interactive, Video, Trainer) – an iTouch that can
be attached to a person’s arm – on an armband - that will demonstrate
how to do a changeover on video while the person is actually doing it.
You could call it JIT training, self-directed learning or
reinforcement training. The tools will capture the interest of the
learners especially the Gen X and Y staff who thrive on technology. He
mentioned that the cost was low. It is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth compatible.
o Virtual Reality Training Modules – Bob demonstrated the tool showing
the three steps to each lesson – the reference mode (learning), the
practice mode and the test mode. The developer that Bob worked with is
Product Animation, located in Chicago.

MEASUREMENT FOLLOW-UP Discussion
Since there was so much discussion during both Justin and Bob’s
presentations there was little time left to adequately complete the
follow-up discussion on measurement.
Karl and Peter briefly reviewed the possible next steps but stressed
that since the topic is so broad we really need to start by
identifying what the QUESTION we want answered is.
Karl’s original recommendations to consider were 1) use the existing
data, 2) set up a quasi experiment and 3) set up a real experiment.
Based on the high interest there were many ideas/thoughts briefly
thrown out ranging from using SOPs as a tool for measuring training to
the feeling that training can’t be measured.
With today’s agenda being so full we closed the discussion but decided
that the next step would be to conduct a Webinar to continue the
discussion but in a more focused way.

PLANT TOURS
JONES - Bob conducted a plant tour of the Jones facility and pointed
out the many different types of equipment on the floor under
construction.
KROGER – The group was treated to a tour of the State Avenue Grocery
Products plant. This plant is about 85 years old, employs over 300
people and manufactures salad dressings, jams and sauces.





• Conduct a webinar to discuss our measurement focus - Date TBD
Because of Pack Expo this will not be held till late Nov/early Dec.
• Identify next meeting location (originally set for December but now
we are looking at January)
• Future topic: Standard SOP templates for OEMs/End-Users