How to create a training matrix!

You can create a training matrix on an excel spreadsheet. On the spreadsheet, you should normally have the list of all your employees, the nature of training they have received, the frequency of such training and the standard of the specific training.
The training matrix must be updated as and when required subject to new employees’ training, retraining and additional training.

Determine the scope of your training matrix!

What you have to do as a first step is to understand the training requirements specific to your office, nature of business and associated activities. A textile plant would have different training requirements than an office housing a firm of chartered accountants.
Normally, certain training modules are mandatory irrespective of where you work and which profession you are in. For instance, fire safety, evacuation training, personal safety training, first aid training and some more are adhered to by most companies.
If you have an employee who takes care of the pantry in the office, he needs to be trained on the washing liquids, cleaning methods and how to maintain proper hygiene and ensure every item in the pantry is safe to be used. This can range from training on normal cleaning to imparting knowledge on the use of chemicals and even disinfecting methods.

Standards of a safety training matrix!

Most safety training modules have standards set by the federal government. Employees who work on risky jobs have to be trained to meet a certain standard. For instance, those who clean the exteriors of a skyscraper need to be trained on harnessing, fall safety methods and on various equipments that they would go about using while on the job. The man offering first aid in the office needs to be trained on the on sterilizing the instruments used, if the need arrives, and such training has to meet acceptable standards.

Why you should have a safety training matrix in place!

It is almost impossible to know for sure, if all your employees are trained on all the modules that your profession or workplace demand. A training matrix works as a quick reference at a glance of the status of all training procedures and the status of all employees.
Although extensive specific training is mandatory for those on the specific job, it is always wise to have every employee be aware of all the training that is within the scope of your company’s training matrix.

You can consider a static board to be like a notice board. You put some information on it, and it is going to remain there until you decide to update the data. The information which you are going to put here can be about the goals, objectives, targets, KPIs, departmental information and data, measurable targets achieved, and other such information, visit does not need to be updated on an hourly or a minute by minute basis.

On the other hand, an interactive screen is going to be giving you the latest information. Your team members are encouraged to update the particular data and information which is going to be placed on the screen. They are also going to be monitoring it. That means there are no time lags between the display of the information and the assimilation of the project’s status in the mind of everybody who reads the information on the interactive screen. Interactive screens have another plus point. They have software which is immediately going to change the status of every single piece of data on the screen, depending on the new information fed to them. So, for example, if a numerical value is less than an already fed in value, the screen is going to show a red colored status. Anybody looking at that screen is going to understand that there is something wrong, somewhere.

However, if you use a static production control board to give this sort of data, there is a possibility that you are going to change that data so that it shows up in the screen, and there it is going to stay, until a new result is achieved.
So if you are looking for up-to-date information which can make all the difference between the success and failure of a project, you need to put up an interactive screen. If you want to give people information which can stay “put” for a long time, you can use a static production control board. Your decision is definitely going to depend upon the type of business, the type of project, the use to which you are using the interactive screen or the static production board, depending on your company’s or your team’s requirements.

However, we cannot afford such a time lag, in today’s fast-track world. There is a reason why you need up-to-date minute to minute information of how a project is progressing and what may be the potential pitfalls it may face in the future. This can be given to you by the information which is displayed on a visualization board on your production floor.

So how do you use your visualization boards as part of your continuous improvement strategy?

Visualization boards or production control boards are visual management tools which give your employees important information. This information is a part of the necessary communication flow between the management and the workers. It can also be the information give-and-take between departments, and individuals. These production control boards can be modified to your own requirements and specifications. You can put any sort of information on these boards. They can either be in the form of charts, graphs, scoreboards, KPIs, status reports, status signals, color signals (RAG – Red, Amber, Green), et cetera

Proper information given to your team at the right moment is going to help you avoid a lot of hassles in the long run. That means the moment the production control board is updated through the computers with the latest data about a production status, you can understand whether everything is going smoothly or there are some potential snags which would need to be ironed out in the next stage of production. The given data along with availability of human resources and raw material needed for the next stage of production can give you time to get all the necessary equipment and human resource, well within the deadline.

Just imagine that you have a visualization board in your department. It gives all the people in your team information about the goals achieved by one of their team members. It can also give them information about previous records, if your business is target oriented. This target is normally highlighted in an easily recognizable color – black. The achieved target is going to be highlighted in green. It shows that the team has been working to the optimum of its potential. A red sign on the visual board shows that they have come up with some problems. These problems need to be tackled immediately. The management and the experts have to find an immediate solution to that problem. These boards can also be used as a subconscious incentive to the people in your team to challenge themselves in trying to achieve their periodic targets, or try going beyond them.

So some of the information or data which you need to display on your production control board is the immediate status of a project. Apart from the numerical data and the chance, showing its status according to schedule, the Green colored status showing that everything is going well, the red status showing that it has hit a bump somewhere and the amber color showing clearly that all the problems are being tackled and being ironed out, are just some of the things which you can display on a production control board.

In the same manner, minute by minute updating of the information on a production floor can tell you all about the units being produced, taking in the view quality control and time management skills utilized in that activity. It is necessary to display information on these boards which is measurable. Just saying “our goal is to increase the popularity of this company,” is definitely not something which you would want to display on this board. Not only is this goal and realistic, because it is not measurable, but how are you going to go about increasing the popularity of the company, which in itself is an elusive, unquantifiable idea?

Therefore make sure that your production control board has information which can be readily understood, analyzed, studied, investigated, evaluated, scrutinized, and then assimilated. All these actions are mental processes which are done by your brain automatically the moment you have some information in front of you. In the same manner, your eyes are looking at color coded symbols, which can tell you the immediate status of a particular project. This is some visual information which you are going to display on your production boards. In the same manner, you are going to be using charts, lines, graphics, scoreboards and other methods of information to pass on data to your employees.

These are just some of the ways and means in which your production control board can be used in an effective, efficient, and systematic manner, to give the right information to your team. You can also use KPIs on this board, which are measurable key performance indicators. Here, your goal is to increase productivity to its maximum. Along with that, you are going to be keeping worker safety in mind.

Your visual display boards can also show status symbols and signs related to production activities. Digitalized numerical values coming up as information is being updated in computers, can be done in these fields – delivery schedules, cost, availability of resources, quality, number of units produced and of course safety measures. The intervals in which this information is going to be updated, depends on the data and the field or area to which it is related.
So now that you know what to display on your production control board, add to the efficient running as well as the effective communication within your company by using them to the optimum for data display and information dissemination.

Just imagine that you have a self appointed deadline to produce 120 cars in a day. This is just an example. Your organization has set out these goals. A working team managed to achieve that goal about 3 months ago. Seeing a stylish golden colored target met within time period status symbol right in front of their names on the production board is not only going to be a subconscious incentive for the rest of the teams to try to achieve that status, but also they know that this is possible, because it is a measurable key performance indicator.

Achieving given goals is definitely not very difficult when you know that the expectation is realistic. Trying to produce more than what your resources, – both material and human – are capable of producing, is not a sensible, pragmatic, reasonable, rational or practical option. However, once you know that goal has been achieved, and that can be seen in the status symbol on your control board, you know that that particular goal is something which is possible and feasible.
In the same manner, having a status symbol which is going to tell you all about the stage of production and its status is another way in which your employees can get to know about whether your project is going well within schedule or something important has come up, which is holding up production. This symbol in red can immediately tell everyone that something has gone wrong somewhere. If that same status symbol is in green, it means everything is moving smoothly. In the same manner, if any status state is displayed in amber, the mind is immediately going to assimilate the fact that there was a problem, it is being solved, and production is soon going to start in that particular area.

That is why having up-to-date status symbols on your control boards can give your people proper information about the stages of production, the performance status, the smooth running operational status, availability of materials necessary for the next stage of production, availability of necessary technology and skilful human resources, both white-collar and blue-collar to help in bringing your project to a successful conclusion.

Numbers, charts, graphics, and other ways of imparting data to your employees are some ways in which information can be disseminated within the ranks and files of the organization. However, it is going to take a few seconds for your people standing in front of the production board to read the information, and analyze it. On the other hand, if they see a green status symbol at the end of a line with numbers written in different columns, the mind already has accepted the fact that everything is going smoothly. The moment they notice a red symbol, they are going to look at the information and wonder about what went wrong, how that problem needs to be tackled and other reasons which are preventing them from achieving their goal in a proper and systematic manner.

So these are just some of the ways in which using status symbol can make your control boards more effective, in the long run.

Along by using visual signs on the production board, safety signs can also be used for giving important information about important notices, danger, performance, safe areas, potential hazardous areas, work orders, raw material availability, work schedules, deadlines, and so on. Apart from being used as security measures, these signs can also give the workers and employees on the floor necessary and pertinent knowledge and facts about production trends, safety measures, et cetera

Safety Signs in bold and colorful designs added to your display boards, during the testing and the rollout of a particular product can take the place of verbal supervision and verbal instructions. These signs in real-time also eliminate time constraints, especially when you are in a tight schedule. Just imagine that your production is in a particular stage, when workers need to put on protective clothing. An immediate safety sign coming up on your production board to the accompaniment of a signal is both an audio as well as an aural way of communicating “we are now on such and such stage, put on your safety clothing.”

There is another reason why safety signs are a key element in your visual Management roll out. Just imagine that you’re working in shifts. One shift is on that particular production stage where a safety sign can tell the workers in the other shift about the production status. So they can take adequate measures, before they start on their own scheduled work for the day. Easily visible production boards with these highly demarcated signs are thus excellent ways and means in which this up-to-date knowledge is transmitted to everyone on the production floor.

So it doesn’t matter what sort of communication tool you are using on your floor in order to transmit important information and knowledge to your team. It can take the form of communication charts and boards, traditional production control boards, scoreboards, and other visual Management informational methods. The point is to keep important data and information on the forefront of your team’s mind. This interaction can be between the team workers and the management, the individuals and their department heads and between different departments. Using safety signs as one of the important visual management tools to impart information to the people in your organization is thus a sensible option for any far seeing Management board.

Now just imagine that a number of these visual tools, indicators and information boards are placed at key places all over your production floor. These boards are color-coded so that it is not difficult for anybody lifting up his head and looking at the board to know any pertinent information regarding production.

One of the main reasons why color coding your visual board is a helpful option is because your mind “recognises” colors a fraction of a second before it recognizes numbers. It is going to take about a couple of seconds, before your mind can translate numbers into proper informative data. On the other hand, it is going to take a while before your mind can analyze the information given to you by the numbers shown to you on the information board. Also, colors can be seen from a distance but you have to be near a board to “understand” the numbers properly and systematically.

Here is some of the information which can be displayed on your production board. You can either use colors to highlight any of this information as well as your production status or you can use charts, graphs and numbers to do that at regular intervals of time.

• How strictly are you adhering to the given schedule?
• What is the production status at the moment?
• Have you managed to achieve the goal for the week?
• Are all the necessary products and raw materials available and at hand.
• Do you have the necessary human resources?

These are just some of the points which you can put on your production board. With a little bit of experience, your team members are going to make it a habit of looking at the production board occasionally. All the important information, data, costs, delivery schedules, safety measures, production status, and even quality-control measures and areas can be represented on your production board.

The production status can be upgraded hourly. The safety status can be recorded once a day. Targets can be colored in blue or black. The results are recorded in either green or in red. Anybody looking at the production board can immediately understand the importance of these colors. So if you want to learn your production status immediately, make sure that all the important information and data goes on to your production board right now!

So how can visualization boards lead to increased efficiency?

Once upon a time, the project status reports were given in the form of weekly reports to the management, by the production manager. The team had limited access to the information about the status of the project and how successful it was, till date. The production manager would attend the weekly or periodically scheduled meeting and then inform the management about the progress made. Any potential problems were then discussed, brought out and tackled. Workers and team members were perhaps then asked to “show cause” why a particular goal was not achieved within a given time period, after proper analysis of these results. This was a long drawn process.

But nowadays, you can consider a visualization board to be a subconscious tool for spurring your team into putting in more effort to achieve a goal. When the updated information is placed on the production board, and has been seen by members of the team, visual aids in the shape of colors can give them immediate inkling about the status.

The RAG principle of Red, Amber and Green can give them immediate information about whether everything is going smoothly, (green), some area has hit a snag somewhere (Red) or the production team has come up against a problem, which is being solved, but production has not stopped (Amber). Now that the team members know that the management knows about the problems and is taking firm steps in solving it as soon as possible, they are going to be encouraged to put in their best effort to get the work done on time.

How can a team work efficiently with the judicial use of production boards? A lot of time and energy was spent in weekly meetings, cutting in production time, in the past. But thanks to production boards, team workers have easy access to information right on the site itself. They can understand the information set out clearly on the board. They know that they are going the right way in achieving their goals. Thanks to this easy access of information, they are going to get real-time data. This can include the days’ goal; the target achieved or not achieved the previous day, product delivery status, production status and other pertinent information which can streamline the production process.

So once you have that information, you can encourage your team to work harder, work smart and work more efficiently, to reach beyond a given target. As long as the goal is achievable and has been done before, your team will try its best to achieve it, yet once again. And if it has not been achieved, they can challenge themselves to try to achieve it, keeping efficiency, time management and product quality within their minds.

Reinforcement – Just imagine that you have invited somebody to visit your plant and he can see the production of a particular product going on right in front of him. He has the visual proof in front of him, but when that information is reinforced with the help of a visualization board, it is going to have a much greater impact as it demonstrates close monitoring of the production process.

Immediate assessment – This visualization board, also known as the production control board, not only shows the operational status and how far it has progressed, – well in keeping within the deadline, – but it also can give you a really accurate picture and assessment of the daily and weekly goals and how they are being met.

Proper and regular updates – a visual display board is going to tell you a story. That includes the progress made in the past, the present status, the daily target achieved, the weekly trend and the monthly development and growth done by the team to achieve the required goals.

Flexible Customizable according to your own requirements. You can use flowcharts and different colored pictures on it, so that even a newcomer who is not very conversant with your production process can get a very clear picture of what has been done, is being done and shall be done in the future.

Immediate Performance Information – imagine that you are the production manager of a plant. You just have to stand for a couple of minutes in front of the visualization board and understand which particular area is not performing up to its optimum capacity. After that, you can take firm steps to rectify that problem or look for an alternative solution.

Demonstrates what’s happening on the ground – Visualization boards go someway into reducing the variation between company statistics and reports and actual reality. Normally the boards are owned by the team associated with the information ensuring accuracy.

Easy team access to pertinent information – this data in the shape of charts, lists, graphs, and process flows is going to be in real time, updated on an hourly basis. So every member of the team knows exactly what the status is, what needs to be done and how the goals are going to be achieved within the deadline.

On-site information – production display boards are normally placed on the site itself when the work is being done, instead of being set up in the main office. This is so that the team gets first access to the information rather than being informed by the management about the progress of the work and the goals/targets achieved.

Proper problem solution – you see some information marked in red. The immediate visual interpretation is “danger.” Your experienced team manager has this information at his fingertips and is going to look for the proper solution to the problem so that that particular danger area does not become the “weakest link in the chain.”

Tangible evidence of actual achievement – when the project was in its planning stages, the management had visualized a goal at the end of a given period of time. Now, thanks to a visualization board, it is going to see a tangible and measurable evidence of those achieved goals, right in front of their eyes. All this has been done in a systematic and thorough manner.

If you then multiply this task across the multiple commodity groups within most organizations you can see why for many companies supplier spend analysis is an unwieldy and unreliable beast to tame. The right understanding of your supply chain helps you identify weaknesses and opportunities

Most organizations will look at two things to leverage their profit – increase revenues and cut costs. When it comes to cutting expenditure, given that procurement spend represents such a significant proportion of most organizations outlay shouldn’t a systemized approach to understanding what goes on under the hood of the business be a priority? With multiple spreadsheets being worked and reworked then consolidated with other commodity spreadsheets. As you can imagine this capture and transformation task gives the opportunity for inaccuracy and complication. Do you think utilizing this mechanism will give you the results you need? And do you think you can manage your procurement activity without good visibility of category/commodity expenditure?

Where does the data come from?

Despite the prevalence of information systems in business its unsurprising that these are still often fragmented with various solutions being utilized for different functions. In particular procurement and financial transaction tools are often either divorced (separate systems) or at best loosely coupled (joined together by management information software).

For those involved at a strategic sourcing level wanting to understand the make up of the company’s activities this can provide a real problem of where your source data is obtained from. On the one hand – the financial systems will usually have accuracy but may lack the detail – the procurement systems may have the detail (what was bought and from whom) but lack financial clarity. Coupled with that the procurement system may also be missing spend that doesn’t go through the more traditional procurement routes (an obvious example being travel and expenses).

Many organizations will utilize their finance team to obtain spend data – this is a start but carries with it a series of issues – namely:

1/ Data is typically organized for financial reporting purposes i.e. GL code allocation rather than procurement needs – spend/commodity data.
2/ Supplier information can be “fuzzy” i.e.
• Consolidated spend for a company rather than seeing spend from different branches
• Incorrect supplier names used within finance (i.e. a payment center)
• Spend figures may be rolled up (i.e. total invoice rather than delineated into types of product bought)

The trick with supplier spend analysis is to obtain reliable category spend that can inform sourcing decisions. You want to know –

“What do I spend and with whom” and…

“How can I leverage that information to obtain better deals and help meet my company’s objectives”

Data helps to feed the engine

If you consider that the majority of initiatives launched by the procurement department in some way contribute to an organizations competiveness (reduced costs, shortened lead times) – getting reliable and useable data for the whole of the enterprise must be the first key step in improving your supply chain.

If we think of the common procurement objectives
• Getting spend under contract
• Selecting the right mix of suppliers to satisfy requirement
• Vendor consolidation tasks
• Cost saving objectives
• Transaction rationalization

How could any of this be achieved with success without knowing your start point?

Tooling up

So what does a best in class spend analysis system provide?
Let’s look at a few of the ingredients.

• A scalable solution that can combine the data from multiple geographically dispersed transactional systems into a single information point.
• Complete data incorporating all areas of spend.
• Granular data that can be rolled up from a top down view and expanded so you can see the detail i.e.
o What do I spend on this category in this timescale
o What did I spend on this part in this time period
• Hierarchical supplier view – suppliers part of a bigger family are included within a combined spend but can also be drilled down to individual branches or companies
• Standard commodity categories across all spend/elements of the enterprise
• Ability to manipulate “slice and dice” data
• Easy to update and maintain
• Identify opportunities for improvement
o Vendor consolidation
o Preventing leakage against contracted spend
• Actionable reports on a routine basis.
• Opportunity to integrate performance management, risk management and Relationship management elements.

Summary

Effective management of a diverse, geographically dispersed supplier base whilst leveraging the associated spend capitalizing on opportunities for efficiency and savings can be a key contributor to competitiveness. Supplier spend information is a key enabler to effective sourcing facilitating many of the decisions required to shape a modern supply chain. Without reliable information managers are blind to identifying reliable and realistic opportunities and constrained of monitoring the benefits of schemes that they deploy.