Organizations suffer in a big way due to the lack of Knowledge and Skills on the part of employees. Very often this suffering is silent, and it is accepted as ‘Normal’. This leads to Companies accepting low skill / low Capability and try to have more people to do the same work. That is a poor alternative and Company suffers more due to higher number of Low skilled employees. 

Let us discuss a few examples.

01.  Anish joined as Production Manager in the Capital Equipment manufacturing company. He has 15 Years of experience. But he was never involved in Lean Implementation environment. Resultantly he simply does not know where to start in terms of implementation of Lean. The Company seem to throw more and more people at the rising Production. Company seem to lose more as it produces more!! The Company has at least 50% people more than it requires. This is applicable to Blue Collar and White Collar alike.  

If Ashish can be taught and certified for his Lean Manufacturing skills, the Company can improve its’ Profitability by at least 3%. 

02.  Ketan is the Procurement Manager in a Compressor Manufacturing Company. He is not familiar with the Global Sourcing Practices and Cost Reduction. The company is expecting a at least 5% of Procurement value as Cost Reduction from his efforts. 

If Ketan can be helped now, the Company can get ahead of its’ competition in the market and capture more market in Local and Global Market. 

03.  Varsha is the Quality Manager of Automotive ancillary company. She has to deal with Internal and External Quality issues and improve the Quality of Company’s Processes and Products very quickly. The Company’s Customers have given an ultimatum that if the Quality does not improve significantly, they will start looking for alternative suppliers in 9 months’ time. 

If Varsha can be helped right now, her company may avoid losing a Big  Customer and their Business ! 

04.  Exwhyzed Pvt Ltd is a Electronics Manufacturing Company. It’s Business is growing and it has a lot of problem in retaining the employees. It recruits employees under NEEM , Company Trainee, Government apprentice categories. But, it loses at least 40 employees every month and 40 new employees come in. The losses in terms of Quantity (speed) and Quality are huge. 

If Exwhyzed can be helped with Learning solutions, it can improve its’ turnover by at least 20% this year. 

There can be many more such situations in Companies that are almost getting accepted as ‘Normal’ and companies are simply not putting up a fight in tackling such situations and trying to skill up their teams. 

India is at a very low place on the People Productivity Scale among Manufacturing Nations of the World. We don’t belong there! We are capable of much more!! 

Many Indian Companies are trying to implement Industry 4.0 elements. But, you can’t use these modern tools unless you have the Basics such as Lean Manufacturing Practices and Basic Productivity. 

Change the Learning Paradigm

Now, Indian Companies need to believe that it is possible to do much more in the area of People Productivity. They have to rise their Targets / expectations in every area. 

Bring in a Learning Partner: A Learning Partner from outside can help a Company to rethink its’ strategy in the area of Learning. 

A Learning Partner is someone who would have Skills in the area of Manufacturing and Modern Learning solutions. 

A Learning Partner can do the following:

a)     Evaluate the areas where the Company is currently losing and where it can earn more if the employees are given timely help.

b)    Skill up the employees. Here, a Learning Partner may help the Company with Blended Learning. Theory and Practice. 

c)     Look for specific results in terms of Specific measurable Business Improvement agenda. 

d)    Keep improving the Learning agenda of the Organization to Proactive from the above Reactive methods.

Today, we have modern tools that can help make the Learning @ the Point of Need and as required by Business exigencies possible. They can generate more results when paired with Traditional Training methods. 

Establish the Learning Architecture

As explained in my earlier article, a Company needs to establish some Learning Architecture in the Company. 

Important among them is making ‘Learning’ as the Centre of the Organization and the way Business is done in the company! 

-      It should mandate a ‘Weekly Learning time’ of at least 2 hours per employee. 

-      Learning should help Employee to deliver a specific result in the next three months.

-      Company should adapt Modern Learning methods such as Video based learning / E-Learning / usage of LMS. 

-      It should reward the employees on the basis of Learning and their resultant Skills. 

This is the only way Indian Companies can improve their Profitability and stay relevant in the Competitive International environment! 

A Company that focuses on Learning and improve its’ efficiency can graduate to using the Modern Technology in terms of Industry 4.0. 

Without Basic Skills of employees going up and without Basic efficiency not being there in the Company, thinking about usage of Industry 4.0 can only remain as a Dream!! 

How are Basic Skills of Employees in your Company? Get them Certified by Experts!