Background:
Jones Performance Products (JPP), located in West Middlesex PA, is a world-class manufacturer of custom-engineered and custom-made aftermarket truck hoods and truck components. JPP hoods and components are available for most semi and large truck manufacturers, including Volvo, Peterbilt, Kenworth, Mack, Ford, International, and numerous others. Now in its third generation, the company has cemented itself as a leader in aftermarket truck hoods and components and is dedicated to growing within their specific market and continuing to be the industry standard.
Business Issue:
As with most manufacturers in Western Pennsylvania, the lack of skilled workforce has affected JPP’s ability to hire needed personnel. With JPP’s expected growth, the lack of tenured personnel to ‘show, tell, and do’ is creating a gap in the required production goal. The capturing of tribal knowledge to keep production running and decrease downtime is vital to bridge the production gap. Downtime means money is not being made, productivity is affected, and on-time deliveries suffer. The trainers are newer themselves and now they are trusted to train the new employees and do not have the knowledge or skill set to be an effective trainer. The need to have information on hand that is the same across the board is needed to ensure all employees are getting consistent and quality training.
As JPP looks towards the future to ensure continued success and growth, they view employee training as both an area of need and improvement and are looking to extend the reach and usability of training videos. While many companies offer training at the point of hire and periodic intervals, JPP wanted to have these tools available for initial training and future reference tools. If an employee must fill a role in a different department for a day, these videos can be used to quickly get them up to speed. If a seasoned employee runs into a problem, these videos can be used as a troubleshooting resource. Having training videos which serve multiple purposes only ensures that this investment is going to increase not only company profitability, but will greatly increase employee efficiency, satisfaction, and retention.
Solution:
Professionally produced work instruction videos
Based on previous similar projects with manufacturing companies, NWIRC made the connection for producing a series of work instruction videos using one of the qualified regional videography companies, Continuum Creative Media of Titusville PA. Each video featured the following components: 1) step-by-Step, beginning to end, process workflow with supporting video at each step; 2) subtitles to allow a viewer to retain information in a noisy environment, pause the video for taking notes, connects better with literary learners, easily find specific sections of the video and; 3) closing FAQ / Troubleshooting section – in the event of any issues, an employee can quickly reference this section of the video to correct any of the most found issues or hang-ups.
Success:
The video project was completed for a total of 20 minutes of training for various processes. The end long-term goal for this training video library is to produce a more knowledgeable and happier workforce that will ultimately reduce employee turn-over and increases profitability and work efficiencies. Company leadership noted, “The videos gave us a new appreciation for processes in the shop – we think they will be a great asset for training new hires when they start. Initially the plan was to utilize the videos to streamline our hiring and training processes. In reviewing the videos, we found that we could also use them to correct errors and improve processes for current employees already on the job.”
Download the Success Story here:
