THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE in Gainesville, Ga., is less than 4 percent.
That's a good thing, right?
Don Wieser doesn't think so. Unemployment is so low that workers — especially skilled workers — are in short supply.
"We’re hiring people who were previously unemployable, people with limited skills," said Wieser vice president for manufacturing at Kubota Manufacturing of America. "We even had to change our hiring policies to fill vacancies."
KMA — a subsidiary of Kubota Corporation — has grown rapidly since it opened the Gainesville plant in 1988. And it plans to add another 150 manufacturing workers in the next year. That means KMA needs plenty of skilled welders, tool and die makers, and production/assembly line workers to manufacture small tractors and attachments for front-end loaders and mowers. But lately, they can find only unskilled workers to fill these positions.
So when Russell Vandiver approached him about sending Kubota employees to a new training program, Wieser listened.
Vandiver, vice president for economic development programs at Lanier Technical Institute, offered to provide Certified Manufacturing Specialist training to Kubota employees. Designed by industry training professionals in 1995, the CMS program teaches workers basic manufacturing skills. And to bolster enrollment, he persuaded Kubota to give employees a tangible incentive to become certified.
"[At Kubota] we made a guarantee: You graduate from CMS and, we give you a $1 per hour increase," said Wieser.
That amounts to a trade of 160 hours of voluntary training for a $2,000 per year increase in salary. Not bad.
Kubota employees go to class on their own time and their own expenses about $675 for tuition. However, most trainees use a Georgia HOPE scholarship to pay for the course.
"You and I know that the employees went to the training for the $1," said Vandiver." But in the process, they learned something."
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Left to right: Calibrating the robotics. Packing accessories. Welding station.
(Photo/Kubota)
The curriculum covers everything from common manufacturing topics to basic interpersonal skills. About 20 percent of the instruction is done at Kubota and involves actual work simulations. The rest takes place at Lanier Tech.
"Before taking CMS, many employees had no idea that what they do affects the bottom line," said Vandiver. "The classes show workers how making a better product at a low price helps you keep your job."
The resulting mindset has spread like "an infectious disease," Vandiver said. Supervisors see a positive change in the way CMS graduates view their jobs. With enhanced skills, graduates approach work as a team, contribute more ideas and even ask for the latest tools to help them do a better job.
"The curriculum is really good — blueprint reading, precision measurement, gauges — these are all areas important to what we do," said Wieser. "And anytime you teach work ethics it's worth it."
Lessons on work ethics have translated into a reduction in tardiness and absenteeism.
"We've got 300 full-time manufacturing people and 95 went through the class," Wieser said. Another 100 are expected to sign up this next year, including "The $1 increase serves several purposes," he said. "We were going to have to go up anyway. But by tying the increase to learning, everybody wins."
Now other Gainesville-area companies are ready to sign on:
Avery Denison, a pressure-sensitive label manufacturer, will tie CMS
training to advancement opportunities within the company.Siemens Automotive, manufacturer of window lift motors for automobiles,
uses CMS as entry-level training.
In the 2-1/2 years that Georgia technical institutes have offered CMS, more than 2,200 workers have been certified. By raising the bar for manufacturing sector employees and helping companies succeed, CMS contributes to good economic development.
"I would like to see companies in Northeast Georgia get to the point that employees have CMS or a comparable program as their minimum level of education," Vandiver said. "So when a prospective company thinks about locating or expanding in Georgia, we can say, 'We have a certified workforce.' That makes Georgia competitive."
For more information about the Certified Manufacturing Specialist program, access
www.dtae.org/econdev/cms.html or contact your local technical institute.
-Kathleen Cason
©1998 Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education. All rights reserved.