"Companies with familiar household names have been using Georgia Quick Start for years and singing the agency's praises," says Cartersville manufacturing executive Ballard Mauldin, a board member of the Georgia Industry Association and a member of Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor's Georgia Manufacturing Roundtable. "We always said, 'Well, that's great, but what about those of us already here? When will we be able to benefit from Quick Start's expertise?"'

The answer to Mauldin's question has come — a $1 million allocation from Georgia's legislature in 2001 that enables Quick Start to provide training to existing companies.

Quick Start's training and retraining support helps Georgia businesses pare down training time, increase employee retention and enhance skills development. Established companies already taking advantage of these Quick Start services represent a wide range of industries, from textiles and apparel to chemical manufacturing and automotive suppliers. Mauldin is clear about the potential returns from the recent leadership effort put forth by Lt. Gov. Taylor and industry executives to get the allocation approved. Mauldin's firm, Chemical Products Corp., is among the more than two dozen companies benefiting from Quick Start's work with Georgia's existing industry.

Here's how Chemical Products Corp. and two other Georgia companies are applying the skills that Quick Start has to offer existing firms:

CHEMICAL PRODUCTS CORP., CARTERSVILLE

Two components of television glass are strontium and barium carbonate, the chief products made by Chemical Products Corp. (CPC). This glass is used in the faceplates of TVs to absorb the X-rays from cathode ray tubes. Founded in 1933, the company has survived some difficult times. The most serious economic factors CPC has faced in the past 10 years include shrinkage of the trade surplus previously enjoyed by the U.S. chemicals industry, and an increase in the number of foreign companies setting up chemical manufacturing operations in the United States.

"The general economic recession now being widely discussed in government and by the media has been a reality in the manufacturing sector for more than two years," says Mauldin. "It all adds up to a vicious business environment."

In the highly competitive global market for chemical products, CPC knew it needed to explore options for additional inorganic chemicals. Readiness to explore the markets also meant preparedness at home.

"CPC's retention of a highly qualified workforce is important not only to the company but also to Bartow County," says Connie Smith, vice president of economic development at North Metro Technical College. "We are pleased to be able to assist the company in its effort to be more globally competitive."

Quick Start has provided CPC with lean manufacturing training, a methodology that identifies and eliminates waste in areas such as time, materials and process completion. By examining the flow of work from beginning to end product, the system focuses on common errors, such as wasted motion on an assembly line or unnecessary stock on hand, and then refines the process to eliminate them.

Meeting management skills and visual dialogue modeling are the other two project areas Quick Start has provided for CPC since September 2001. They are part of a one-year training plan that will involve more than 225 employees at the plant.

"Quick Start has effectively packaged so many basic skills," says Mauldin. "We are impressed with the trainers' expertise and the visual representation of our operations. The training sessions have really opened the eyes and stimulated the critical thinking skills of our employees."

APPLIED THERMOPLASTICS RESOURCES, CARTERSVILLE

One of Quick Start's first existing industry projects was with Applied Thermoplastics Resources (ATR), a company that produces nylon recycled from Georgia's carpet industry. Doug Edmundson, ATR's vice president and general manager, calls Quick Start's efforts "a good fit at an ideal time." ATR, which now employs about 80 people, sells its product to the automotive and recycled carpet industries. Edmundson and two partners bought ATR from a previous owner in 1999 and had just doubled the company's production capacity and automated processes when funding for this untried Quick Start initiative was approved.

The timing couldn't have been better, as management was wrestling with the lack of a formal training plan, common pay scales and a consistent workforce. (Previously, ATR's employees had been hired through a temporary agency.)

"Quick Start was able to send in a team of experts in fields where we are not players," says Edmundson, who credits the Quick Start training with saving the company six to eight months in time and effort.

The ATR training plan, courtesy of Georgia Quick Start, consists of training in the company's job classification system, measurement tools, and documentation that includes an orientation manual and work instructions for each job. Quick Start is also providing training in areas critical to individual employee safety.

With more than half of the plan complete, Quick Start has concentrated on International Standards Organization (ISO) compliance procedures for the first part of this year. Internal audit procedures and documentation training will round out the project.

After that, it will be up to ATR's management team to maintain the new environment and ISO certification audits with the help of North Metro Technical College.

"With the help of five or six people from Quick Start," reports Edmundson, "ATR is well on the way toward having the type of safe, cost-effective operation we envisioned."

MOUNT VERNON MILLS, TRION

A lucky coincidence brought Quick Start and Mount Vernon Mills together after Quick Start management made a presentation at a Georgia Textile Manufacturers Association (GTMA) meeting. Today, there's a real-life experiment between the two groups that will have a positive impact on the textile and apparel industry statewide.

"Our project is a sounding board for textile firms in Georgia," says Mike Bowers, Mount Vernon's HR director and the training/education chair for GTMA's Textile Academy. "A better-trained employee is a more valuable asset."

Al Hutchinson, vice president of economic development at Northwestern Technical College, agrees with Bowers that a quality training program can create a stable workforce and add value to a company's bottom line.

"Mount Vernon is the single largest denim manufacturer operating at a single location in the United States," Hutchinson explains. "We needed to be able to create a win-win situation for that size capital investment — a win-win for the employer and the employees."

The Quick Start pilot project currently under way at Mount Vernon Mills involves nearly 100 employees. One critical hurdle facing this company — as well as other textile manufacturers — is training maintenance personnel, who can frequently range from newly hired employees to those with years of experience and seniority. Quick Start has devised a solution that customizes its prescription for each employee, eliminating redundancy and taking into account skills the employee has already mastered.

Among other textile firms that stand to benefit from the training are Milliken, Shaw Industries, Southern Mills and Synthetic Industries.

Visit www.georgiaquickstart.org to learn more
about Quick Start for existing industry.

Georgia's #1
in the Nation

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When corporate executives consider new locations for their businesses, one of the key factors in their decision-making is the quality of a state's workforce. Without skilled, reliable employees, even the savviest of CEOs will be denied success.

So it was high praise for Georgia's technical colleges and Quick Start when Expansion Management magazine reported in October that the state was voted #1 in workforce training in a survey of site location consultants.

"Georgia — the Top Dawg in Work Force Rankings," reported the magazine that is considered an industry standard for companies looking to expand or relocate their businesses.

Georgia claimed the title because its workforce training programs offer "flexibility in use, lessened bureaucracy, minimal costs to the employer and customization to fit a particular company's needs."

The article quoted Roman Roman, Best Buy's General Manager in Dublin, who testified to the effectiveness of Quick Start's program.

"In all the dealings we've had with Quick Start," Roman said, "they have never said 'no,' there has never been a time where they said that something couldn't be done."

"We do whatever it takes," said Jackie Rohosky, assistant commissioner who runs Quick Start. "We directly customize to the company."

And obviously, that focus is paying off.

To Read the Article go here.