In competitive industries, a skilled workforce is essential for delivering high-quality manufactured parts and components on time. Just like with any other company, a CNC machine shop needs a skilled labor force to compete in a tough market. Productivity isn’t just a means to an end — it’s what you sell to customers.
Overall, a good note to keep in mind is that talent and skill are mandatory for building a competitive advantage.
Planning and management
Building a workforce that delivers results won’t happen overnight. Managing your workforce requires the ability to identify needed skills and services, not only for the current market, but for the future as well. To find the right employees for your shop means developing your current staff and hiring talent from local technical schools, colleges and other businesses.
Identify and analyze
Any good manufacturer knows all about data-driven strategies, consistently gathering numbers to drive decisions and tracking data to monitor progress. So, why not attach numbers to the workforce to identify your needs?
A number of businesses have adopted a matrix to analyze employee skills, tasks required and competence levels. This matrix requires a number system and point scales, but you can get started with a simple four-point system.
With four being the highest and one the lowest, a shop can analyze whether or not an employee can complete a task independently with good results. Designating three points to an employee signifies that he or she has demonstrated some level of competence on a task, but may lack some experience or needs support on occasion.
This matrix will give you a snapshot view of your workforce; illuminating tasks where more support is needed and helping you discover inefficiencies. Infrequent, but needed tasks, like prototype development, will likely need to be outsourced.
For these cases, call a reliable prototype manufacturing service like Product Development Solutions for a fast quote. You’ll soon discover the potential in your business.