Boomers retiring, a shortaged of skilled laborers, lack of interpersonnal and leadership skills. To confront these challenges and others, many organizations are developing specific training and development plans to ensure they'll have the talent needed to compete in the future. There is no doubt that training can have many positive benefits. But how do you know if your investment in training and development is delivering the bottom line results you're looking for? Click on the link below to learn more about methods for calculating ROI and bottom-line impact for your training and development programs.

Source: Development Dimensions International, Inc.

As a manager, having a clear understanding of how the roles and responsibilities of each member of your team support your vision for the future can help you identify training and development opportunities to improve quality and impact your bottom line. DACUM (Developing A Curriculum) is an innovative approach to job/occupational analysis that can make that connection for you. Use the DACUM process to:

• Conduct a needs assessment
• Develop relevant training plans
• Plan for effective succession management
• Improve worker performance evaluations
• Create and/or modify job descriptions
• Meet ISO/QS 9000 and TQM standards

Manufacturing Symposium

There is a common misconception that lean manufacturers have no real need for automation and robotics. Similarly, automation and robotic systems integrators often give little consideration to lean fundamentals such as one-piece flow, product pull, rapid changeovers, etc.

As part of May is Manufacturing Month, Moraine Park is sponsoring Leveraging Lean Through Automation. This seminar features industry experts and will explore ways manufacturers benefit their bottom line through automation and robotics and examine the business case to support such an investment.

When: May 7, 2008, 8:00 a.m. to noon

Location: Moraine Park Technical College, 235 North National Avenue, Fond du Lac, WI 54935

Learning one's craft and advancing one's career can present challenges for any of us. Imagine what it's like when the very language your coworkers and work materials use is not the one you grew up with. That is the situation for a group of Mid-States Aluminum Corp. employees who are Hmong. Moraine Park worked to customize a solution that would teach the employees the fundamentals of English language in a way that was relevant to their work. "Our goal was to develop a solution to close the communication gap that existed in the workplace, and prepare employees for advancement opportunities at Mid-States Aluminum," said Kathy Schlieve, Moraine Park's economic and workforce development business representative.