Best Practices: Charting Proficiency

When a print shop experiences a work surge, it’s easy to assume that adding equipment is the best way to catch up. But at the State of Tennessee’s Division of Printing and Media Services, Director Tammy Golden saves money by increasing the efficiency and capabilities of her staff.

The in-plant, which services all of Tennessee’s state agencies, had always operated a second shift, but only with digital print capabilities. A couple years ago, the print shop saw a sharp increase in work. At first, Golden wanted to attack the problem with more manpower and considered adding people to first shift. After some thought, though, she decided it would make more sense to add staff to the second shift and cross-train them.

Since then, the Nashville-based in-plant has built up its second shift to seven staff members, all cross-trained in digital printing, offset, binding and scanning. The second shift works from 3:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

“We added to it more and more until we built it up to seven people,” Golden explains. “We started with one additional pressman and added a scanner operator and built it up.”

While the cross-training initiative made for a more productive second shift, Golden says this year has seen the entire staff taking an active role in learning more skills throughout the shop. On June 1, the in-plant implemented a formalized cross-training program that encourages employees to expand their knowledge beyond their primary function.

The voluntary program uses a chart to detail the areas each employee has training in. All of the shop’s capabilities are displayed across the top, including all of its production and administrative tasks. Each employee’s name is listed vertically along the left side of the chart, and marks are placed to indicate each employee’s skills. When they have some downtime, employees are free to work with trainers in other areas of the shop. When the trainer and supervisor agree that an employee can perform a function unassisted, they receive a mark for that skill.

In addition to providing an engaging way to learn more skills, Golden says the chart allows the shop to see where cross-training is lacking.

“We’ve always been good about cross-training in production, but not done as well in the administrative areas,” Golden notes. “You could really see that visually.”

Though the cross-training system is only a couple months old, Golden says the in-plant is certainly seeing improvement in efficiency. Of the shop’s 57 employees, 56 are participating in the program, and as of September 30 trainees had logged 932 hours.

“It was a really easy way to see where you needed to be doing more,” Golden states. “The enthusiasm people had for it was nice to see, and how much people were enjoying it and how seriously they were taking it.”