Page 370 - The Handbook for Quality Management a Complete Guide to Operational Excellence

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parlance, operational employees are trained as Green Belts in the basic tools
of quality, including (most importantly) SPC, which provides a means of
understanding the systematic nature of process variation.
When jobs are reintegrated, the duties expected of each employee
change, often radically. Task-based training is necessary to help employ-
ees acquire and maintain new skills and proficiencies. Employees are
given new responsibili ties for self-control of process quality. To effectively
handle these new respon sibilities, employees must learn to use informa-
tion in ways they never did before. Often employees are asked to help
design new information systems, enter data, use computer terminals to
access information, read computer out put, make management presenta-
tions, etc. These skills must be acquired through training and experience.
Quality plans that do not include adequate employee training are com-
monplace, and a primary cause of the high rate of failure of quality plans.

Job Training
Job training is the vehicle through which the vast majority of training
occurs. Job training involves assigning the learners to work with a more
experienced employee, either a supervisor, peer, or lead hand, to learn
specific tasks in the actual workplace. The learner is usually a new
employee who has been recently either hired, transferred, or promoted
into the position and who lacks the knowledge and skill to perform some
components of her or his job. The experienced employee normally dem-
onstrates and discusses new areas of knowledge and skill and then pro-
vides opportunities for practice and feedback. There are three common
methods used in job training (Nolan, 1996):
1. Structured on-the-job training (OJT). Structured OJT allows the learner
to acquire skills and knowledge needed to perform the job through
a series of structured or planned activities at the work site. All
activities are performed under the careful observation and
supervision of the OJT instructor. The structured process is based
on a thorough analysis of the job and the learner. The OJT instructor
introduces the learner systematically to what he or she needs to
know to perform competently and meet performance standards
and expectations.
2. Unstructured OJT. Unstructured OJT often means sink or swim.
Most activities in unstructured OJT have not been thought through
and are done in a haphazard way. A common method of
unstructured OJT is to have the learner “sit” with another
employee or “follow the employee around” for a few days to see
what the employee does and how she does it. This “sit-and-see”
technique often leads the learner to pick up as much by trial and
error as he does by any instruction given by the more experienced

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