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Proskills calls on printers for lean manufacturing scheme
Proskills has joined forces with three other sector skills councils - Cogent, Improve and Semta - to help bring improved profitability through lean manufacturing to the print industry.
The PAC Programme is a new course set up by engineers with experience in lean process and manufacturing. It is being aimed specifically at smaller businesses and claims to have helped companies to increase their profitability by an average of £93,000 per year.
PAC's analysts visit businesses and assess their performance, before giving advice on techniques to improve productivity. Selected staff are encouraged to undertake a Business Improvement Techniques (BIT) NVQ.
Jonathan Ledger, strategic programme manager at Proskills, said: "Businesses can take advantage of what is effectively a government-supported investment for staff and business development.
"We also need businesses that want real and sustainable bottom line improvements to come forward and be a part of the PAC programme."
He added: "We are in discussions with a wide variety of employers who already have a potential of over 5,000 learners between them. The initial fee will certainly be returned many times over due to the results achieved.
"This programme is about equipping organisations to carry on with sustainable improvements after all the experts have walked out of the door, so this adds a long-term value."
Proskills was also keen to acknowledge Vision in Print's Premier Snapshot, a course now in its fourth year.
Richard Gray, director of Vision in Print, said: "We welcome the cross-industry support provided by the various councils. Our Premier Snapshot course has similar aims to PAC's course. It is very cost effective and would suit the majority of printers."
He added: "BIT NVQs will become more popular in the coming years as businesses see their value."
The PAC programme takes six to nine months with prices ranging from £3,000.
Ledger: the initial fee will be returned many times over
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Comments
Matthew Parker - 09 October 2008
Lean manufacturing has to be of benefit to all print businesses. However, there is a worrying lack of discussion on effective training for sales teams and customer facing staff. I'm interested to know if printers perceive this as an issue?
Matthew Parker
www.printandprocurement.com
Mark Snee - 09 October 2008
Whilst I think business improvement techniques such as Six Sigma, TQM and 'Lean' etc. can be very helpful to some businesses \(when we are not overwhelmed with the credit crunch and recession), I do think it is regrettable that Proskills and other Sector Skills Councils have decided to start selling training programmes to employers, competing in an already mature and somewhat crowded market led by many excellent providers such as Cranfield, the Manufacturing Advisory Service, universities and others.
The Sector Skills Councils were set up by government to be 'led by employers' in order to achieve a 'step change' in training in their sectors. Unfortunately, as has happened so often in the past, they can end up selling government funded services to the employers and we end up with 'tail wagging dog' situation.
In fact, supposedly objective advice gets skewed towards what the quango or funded body can deliver \(and can obtain funding for), irrespective of its real relevance, need or value to your business. And I say that from many years of experience of quangos trying to \(miss-)sell me products on their terms, not mine as a purchaser.
No doubt the Proskills Printing Industry Board will be told about this latest initiative when it meets in a couple of weeks time, and we may well endorse and support it, but it's not 'employer led' when these things are rolled out first and reported to the industry's employers second.
<i>p.s. The Business Improvement Techniques NVQs are effectively owned and controlled by SEMTA \(another Sector Skills Council) and generate an income for it. If SEMTA was in the Financial Services sector, it would be obliged by law to tell you that it benefited financially from your purchase before it sold you the product.</i>
Mark Snee - 09 October 2008
Matthew -
The Proskills 'Qualifications Reform Group' \(as we are now called) is working on a higher level printing 'National Occupational Standard' that is aimed partly at staff in customer-facing rolls and will include a wide range of interpersonal, management and technical skills and knowledge. This should lead to 'bite-sized' units that build into a qualification \(for those that want to obtain a qualification).
Jonathan Ledger - 14 November 2008
Matthew - as part of our role in this programme, we are building capacity not only for Analysts and Assessors, but also for the wider brokerage. The wider brokerage refers to anyone or any organisation that promotes or sells this programme to employers.
Mark - Let me be clear. Our remit is to develop capacity to enbale Business Improvement Techniques to be implemented - not to actually do any delivery of diagnostic processes or NVQ assessment. The analyst and the recommendations they make will be based on the results of the diagnostic and only implemented in agreement with the employer. The BIT qualification is not the main driver for this although in many cases, will be the main outcome. But it will be horses for courses and very much about bespoking interventions to ensure that it has a real bottom line positive difference for all employers - regardless of the courses undertaken to develop staff.
Not all employers will want BIT NVQs and so we will also make use of bite-sized and modular programmes at that already exist in the market place.
Many thanks
Jonathan
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