Most plastics manufacturers tend to stay in a fairly narrow range of training alternatives available to them. This is their “training comfort zone”. There is a case to be made for that approach. It goes back to the old saying “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.

For companies with a robust training program in place, that approach works fine. However, over 60% of the companies we’ve surveyed tell us they “Have No Formal Training Program”. That can be a significant problem in the high-tech world of injection molding, extrusion, blow molding and the other plastics processes.

If your company falls into the “No formal training program” category, here is a proven way to get a robust training program off to a good start for your employees.

The first thing you’re going to need are training materials. Obviously, here at Paulson Training we have a lot of training assets in injection molding, extrusion and blow molding that can be deployed in your plant. But if you have someone in your company who already has the technical expertise to put together even a half-day program, that is certainly worth considering. If you don’t have that person, or if you can’t spare that person from his or her regular duties, a quick way to get started would be to send someone out to an multi-day seminar to get trained and also become familiar with the process of training people – what works and what doesn’t.

The Paulson Plastics Academy has training, both entry-level and advanced, for injection molders. We’ve also just added a 4-day seminar for extrusion personnel. Whether you attend one of our seminars or someone else’s, what you will have at the end of the training taken by the person(s) attending is a qualified expert in that particular plastic process as well as someone who could put together a training program for use in your plant.

You can start very simple… overheads and books are fine to get the ball rolling. Once you’ve integrated this training with your employees and your day-to-day production activities, you can add layers of sophistication. You can dig deeper into injection molding or extrusion and add to your existing course. You can implement interactive computer based or online training (Paulson’s online training is called InSite 360 and includes our entire training library). You can even bring in consultants to help you out.

Many companies use off-site (or even on-site) 4-day seminars once a year or so to get everyone on the same page and get some additional people qualified to teach.

So, to get started with at least some formal training program, you don’t have to spend a lot of money or time. Get 1 qualified employee either through hiring them or sending one of your existing employees out to a seminar. Then have that person put together a simple training program for key personnel on your injection molding (or extrusion) production floor. A program like this can be tailored exactly to what your plant needs, including any special procedures, modified equipment or rules you want everyone to be aware of.

One of the important side benefits of having even a simple training program in place is that you get everyone talking the same language on the production floor and also get everyone trained in the same procedures. We can help you get started with this approach. Just give us a call – 1-800-826-1901.