eLearning pays dividends at AB Thunder Bay

By Ron LaBrie, Senior Consultant, HumEng International Inc

BRUSSELS, May 31, 2009 (Viewpoint) - The training issues facing PM 5 at AbitibiBowater, Thunder Bay, ON, mill are many. First, in these times of lean operations, it is very difficult to free employees for training. No longer can the mill free four or five machine tenders for a whole day of training.

Then, there is the issue of demographics. The average age of mill employees is higher than that of the general population and they are retiring earlier than in the past. The mill is losing older, more senior operators at a very rapid pace.

Leaner operations and losing experienced employees during a time of increased competition for diminishing markets makes it imperative to examine the training/productivity improvement tandem much more closely.

The Thunder Bay mill has opted to tackle two challenges at once. The first is to capture senior operators' best practices before they leave for retirement and the second is to shorten the learning curve of younger, less experienced employees. HumEng International Inc. has been selected to steer the project using the School Without Walls eLearning curriculum.

Training audit

The project began with a training audit to identify where quick actions could be undertaken to capture best practices and reduce the learning curve. The audit process looked at existing training/procedure documentation, training infrastructure, the training process itself and bottlenecks. A review of the training documentation was done with the conclusion that many procedures such as standard operating procedures (SOPs), work instructions (WI), lockout/tagout etc were already in the system. Most were written either because a problem had arisen that needed a solution or because of health and safety issues. All could be used for training, but lacked a clear training orientation, both from the point of view of being supported with visual documentation and linked to a training roadmap.

Also, when employees were asked: "Why do you do it this way?", they had no clear understanding of the "why". In other words, they did not fully understand the theory of pulp and papermaking for that particular action, which creates problems for troubleshooting and quality problem solving.

Training roadmap

The second action was to produce a training roadmap for the top position on the paper machine line of progression: the machine tender. The roadmap identifies the skills required for the job. These are determined by interviews and site literature review. The examplar (best operator) is selected and interviewed. Validation with other machine tenders and supervisors is done. The first draft contains only the doing skills. Later, the required knowledge or theory is added to support the doing skills. These additions were mainly eLearning modules.

Relevant on-site training documentation, as well as job aids, SOPs, WI, etc. were referenced to the job skills. Training documentation did not exist for some skill areas and most knowledge (theory) areas.

The training roadmap serves two purposes: it is a checklist for on-the-job training (OJT) and eLearning, and it indicates those skills for which there is no documentation to support learning.

SOP production

Key skill areas for which there was no site documentation were selected for further work. Those areas were:

PM-002: Former startup

PM-006A: Starting up press section - Center press startup

PM-006B: Starting up press section - Pick-up felt

PM-006C: Starting up press section - 3rd Press felt

PM-006D: Starting up press section - 1st Press felt

PM-006E: Starting up press section - Nipping up center press

PM-006F: Starting up press section - 4th Press felt

PM-006G: Starting up press section - Nipping up the 4th press

HumEng staff were assigned to develop SOPs for the key areas with the mill's machine tenders. The SOPs were enhanced with visual aids to make learning easier and more adult education based. Other site employees as well as supervisory staff further validated the SOPs. Other existing SOPs and job aids will be upgraded to this format.

SOPs are intended to be used for OJT. Bob Hill, site line training supervisor, says, "The SOPs that HumEng developed with us ... will prove to be a valuable tool ... in creating consistency in our operation through standardized practice. The SOPs are worlds above anything that we had on site prior to this."

Example SOP page

eLearning

eLearning modules from the School Without Walls library were referenced to knowledge areas on the training roadmap to support the operational learning. The objective of the selected eLearning modules was to help machine tenders better understand the pulp and papermaking process. This knowledge would enable machine tenders to be more effective troubleshooters and problem solvers. The selected eLearning modules were:

• Wet end chemistry
• Stock preparation
• Sheet formation
• Pressing.

Initial results show that machine tenders upgraded their knowledge by more than 60% from a documented base line. This is in line with HumEng's experience in other mills in North America.

Before taking the eLearning, machine tenders are asked how this new knowledge will be applicable to their jobs. The training supervisor follows up to verify their comments. HumEng will be in a position to report on these comments in a future article.

Example eLearning page

Training best practices

Site trainers were coached on how to facilitate on-the-job learning by using more learner- centred SOPs, by tracking the progress of learners using the training roadmap and by asking learners to evaluate how the pre-requisite eLearning could help them do their jobs better.

Conclusions

Machine tenders, back tenders and winder operators increased their knowledge from a baseline, determined by a pre-test, by an average of 39%. To repeat comments from the training supervisor: "This is a remarkable achievement. It is fun .... because employees are motivated to continue with the program."

The fear of eLearning, of change, was subdued with learner-centred eLearning. The initial fear or apprehension was replaced by employees stating that they wanted more. A case in point is a particular employee who had been out of school for more than 30 years with less than a grade 8 education. He was terrified of eLearning. The site trainer introduced him to the eLearning and to repeat what Bob Hill said: "He completed the assigned module with a final score of 80% ... he was beaming, excited and wanted to jump to another one right away. We had to return him to his job ... we could only afford to have him off the work list a short time that day."

There is a conviction that the learning curve of new jobs will be shortened. There is also a belief that this targeted multi-media training approach will increase productivity as well as safety.

In six to nine months we will know for sure.

Ron LaBrie, senior consultant, HumEng International Inc; rlabrie@humeng.ca, sales@schoolwithoutwalls.com

Pulp & Paper International is FREE to qualified subscribers. Click here to find out more.