Increasing Market Demand
M A N U F A C T U R I N G

The Challenge

The engineering division at a large tool and die company was experiencing a change in market demand. Increasingly, customers sought special product features that required customization and short production runs.The company had the necessary equipment, yet the staff was finding change difficult.The company was beginning to lose market share to the competition.

Management believed that without properly trained and adequately prepared technicians on the floor, the company would not be able to deliver the new products, keep up with market demand, or retain even their long-term customers. In planning the new hiring, management anticipated resistance and opposition from the current staff as new people with new skills and front line responsibilities came aboard.

The Solution

SkillSolutions™ was used initially to define and clarify the exact skills required and then to conduct a skills inventory to determine the magnitude of the gap for the new kind of production. Through SkillSolutions™, the company found that many necessary skills were lacking. The technical staff needed certain computer skills. Just as important, current technicians needed the skills that would enable them to deal directly with customers -- something they had never done before. Finally, they needed to see themselves as part of the delivery team, part of the company's process of customer response.

The good news was that the skills gap, once identified, could be closed. Information from SkillSolutions™ was utilized to develop a plan to remedy the situation. The company offered appropriate training and encouragement to current staff. SkillSolutions™ was used regularly to track results, and to plan and schedule additional training and assignments.

SkillSolutions™, the Resource PowerTool, assisted management in retraining the current personnel and to provide them with the skills they needed to maintain customer satisfaction and meet the change in demand. The market erosion that had begun was reversed, the operation ran more smoothly, and sales increased.