As plastic injection molding continues to increase in popularity, (and despite what you may have heard, 3-D printing will not replace it any time soon), there is a growing shortage of employees skilled enough to add value to companies.
On-the-job training has always been the go-to method for training your employees but it is expensive in terms of efficiency because it reduces or even eliminates the economic input of one employee — the trainer — during the period when they are taken off their normal duties and paired with the trainee. The more complex the job function, the greater the economic impact.
Asking an employee to handle his or her own training is much more economical, but takes much longer and might not even be viable for employees who are not natural students or good readers. Attending seminars and workshops is a much more cost-effective approach, but can be hard to access for some companies due to their location and irregular schedules.
So what are molding companies to do? There’s really only one alternative: formalized training by third-party companies who specialize in the plastic injection molding arena. A quick Google search will surface a variety of options in this area. Another option is to visit an industry website such as Plastics Technology and search for advertisers or on the resource page for training firms. Most of these companies offer a combination of on-line and bricks-and-mortar training that have been honed over the years for maximum efficiency. While there are many benefits of formalized training, here are some of the most important:
- fewer accidents
- less wear-and-tear on molds and dies
- reductions in downtime
- improved quality
- higher profits
The quest for highly-trained employees is never-ending but plastic injection molding companies have a powerful new weapon in on-line training produced by professional training companies. An investment in training such as this will produce a positive ROI for years to come.