feature
Table 7—HUMaN ReSOURCe PROGRaMS
Top Shops
Other Shops
annual review and raise program
87.1%
61.6%
Apprenticeship program
32.3%
23.5%
71%
44.9%
51.6%
43%
6.5%
5.9%
Formal employee training program
41.9%
25.9%
Formal safety/health program
51.6%
38.1%
Leader/supervisor development
38.7%
26.8%
Paid medical benefits
74.2%
59.7%
Profit or revenue-sharing plan
41.9%
29.5%
Teaming/team-building practices
54.8%
24.1%
bonus plan
Education reimbursements
Employee-ownership options
compensation and the shop can realize
improved productivity. In addition, a significantly greater percentage of Top Shops
provide annual review/raise programs and
team-building exercises. Both facilitate
communication within a shop. Review/
raise programs enable managers and
employees to come together to discuss an
employee's strengths while mapping out
a path for growth within the organization.
Similarly, team-building exercises help
improve how employees interact within the
company and make it easier to overcome
obstacles because people come together
to solve problems.
In addition, a higher percentage of Top
Shops have formal training programs. That
said, the relatively low values reported for
the amount of annual training punctuate
the reality that numerous manufacturers
have eliminated internal training programs.
Top Shops and other shops offer essentially
the same amount of annual training per
employee. More than 80 percent of them
16 MMS August 2013 mmsonline.com/topshops
provide 20 hours or less of training per
employee per year. However, some shops
are not only being more proactive about
training and adding new talent to the manufacturing labor pool, but also employing
atypical strategies to do so. One such
approach is detailed in the article "Not Just
a CNC Degree." This article details how the
relationship between a shop and a nearby
college might ultimately evolve into what
could be the 21st-century model for manufacturing instruction.
The human resources Honors Program
Winner is Micro-Matics, located in Fridley,
Minnesota. Micro-Matics specializes in
Swiss-type machining of components and
subassemblies ranging in diameter from
0.010 to 1.250 inches with tolerances to
±0.0001 inch. The shop produces these
complex parts primarily for the medical,
defense, dental, aerospace, commercial,
automotive, computer and telecommunications industries.
Rick Paulson, general manager, says the