Keeping Training Costs Low
Every company today is having trouble with Budgets. Budget control must be the number one reason companies begin to slide on their technical competancy in Product development and ongoing quality improvement. The reverse should be trus. When cutting back, the maintaining quality levels and continuing to improve and prevent failures is still as important if not more so. So the question has to be asked….. How can we improve the level of quality while fighting tight budgets?
The answer is not cut everything, rather it is to take a more cautious approach. We have developed a blended approach through the years where a company or individual could sign up for a web based self paced course and later take a workshop class. The traditional workshop course will always be available as well. The third leg of this approach is Consulting and Facilitation based on the specific need and level of expertise necessary to deploy the technical topic desired.
An example: I am in the beginning of some FMEA work on the Space Shuttle rplacement (ORION). The traditional way to develop the product and process is to have a detailed requirements and specification documnet developed which is followed religously. Who can argue with the success in the past with this approach. Except where a collaborative risk based approach deployed while the Design of the product and Process could find potential failure modes and/ or possible simplification ideas which can save timeand money.
The teams involved may have no idea about the process that we will use, so a wb based course can provide them with the level of understanding that can help their involvement from the start. A training work shop is also offered to improve the skill levels of the proactioners, and finally the Consulting and Facilitation of the process. The Facilitation approach (optional) was also selected because of the nature of the failures modes and the catastrophic effects of the failures (Main Engine Assembly).
The blended approach keeps the cost down and applies the necessary technical expertise precisely where and when it is needed.
