Article prepared by C. Clint Bolte, C. Clint Bolte & Associates, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. For additional information please call 717-263-5768, fax 717-263-8945, or e-mail to clint@clintbolte.com.

Training does not have to be expensive. . .

With quality expectations increasing, servicing turnaround times shortening, pressures to improve productivity to hold down costs and the more stringent EPA and OSHA regulations, formal and continual training needs to be as common place as the end-of-shift press wash-up.

With budget restraints, many well intended training efforts are postponed or eliminated. This should not happen because training does not have to be expensive.

Every printing trade association has invested heavily in designing and offering timely books, workshops, seminars and conventions. Many colleges and universities throughout the land offer graphic arts related curriculum. These are all valuable and should be enthusiastically supported. The examples of training addressed in this article are intended to compliment and supplement these more formal approaches.

The three broad examples of inexpensive training are an in-house printing library, · materials and expertise provided by suppliers, and ¸ plant visits exchanged with other printers.

An in-house library can be set up in a break room or even the cafeteria. It should contain all of the current issues of printing trade journals - last count showed more than 40 - and virtually all of them free. It should also contain the books and manuals that employees were given who attended workshops and seminars. Employees should be encouraged to take out their own free subscriptions to these magazines for home delivery.

Master Products in Montague, Michigan displays an extensive library of trade journals covering their clients' industries. NAPL's studies on success tips of the printing industry's Growth Leaders highlights this in depth knowledge of their clients.

Virtually every printing plant built in the last fifteen years has a dedicated training room with a TV for VCR tape play back or CD ROM playback unit. It is becoming commonplace for suppliers to provide tapes with new equipment purchases. These show safety practices and often preventive maintenance steps. Salesmen will often loan you their demo tapes showing new equipment. Tapes allow employees to view and review educational issues on their own time.

"Recycled Papers", "Solventless Printing", "Soy-based Inks" are but three topics on which suppliers would be glad to come to your plant and give lectures. Some times they have technical experts back at corporate headquarters that will come out if invited far enough in advance. These sessions could often be video-taped (with prior approval) and added to the company's video library. Once your firm gets a reputation for inviting suppliers to come in, the initiative of new or expanded topics will often come from the suppliers themselves. Select customers might also find certain topics to be of interest.

Visits to plants of neighboring printers can often accomplish a great deal in only half a day. Reciprocal visits hosted by the employees themselves can also be very beneficial. Helping organize car load trips to regional printing trade shows has many benefits as well.

One printer felt that their pressroom was becoming too insular and needed to see how other pressrooms operated. They scheduled an across town afternoon visit. The different counterparts seemed to be hitting it off well as they were observed in constant conversation. When queried later as to what they learned, the employees reeled off the salaries and fringe benefits paid to their counter parts but could not recall the brand of blankets or fountain solution used. It is natural for employees to want to know this compensation information and at some point during the visit to get around to that topic. However, it is management's job to prepare the employees for the trip so everyone knows what they are expected to get out of the visit.

To gain the most from outside experts coming in to lecture and visits to other sites requires a good deal of preplanning and extensive follow-up. There should be "No free lunch" attitude left with the employees. If there is going to be a lecture on "Soy-based Inks", prepare a few handouts in advance so that the employees attending have some back ground feel.

Management should emphasize why the topic is of current interest to the firm. Just because particular environmental issues are of concern to management does not mean that the second pressman realizes the same sense of urgency. Before the lecture/visit assure that the employees compile a thorough list of questions on items that they (and you) want answered. It is often wise for the supervisor to visit the neighboring plant in advance or to talk with his counter part extensively on the phone to highlight areas of special interest.

Simply to encourage employees to attend a regional printing trade show is not enough. Each person should be assigned to gather as much information as possible on a particular topic of interest, e.g., prepress static elimination alternatives or material handling aids. If the trip is overnight, meet for a debriefing so new or emphasized assignments can be made for the next day.

Employee annual reviews should include the personal initiative that the employee has taken to remain current in his/her technology, field and career interest.

The world wide web and the Internet cannot be forgotten as a potentially free training resource. However, they have been recognized to be both a boon as a "training aid" and a boondoggle as a "training excuse". In other words if an employee simply wants to surf the web for fun, let them do it on their own time.

However, many suppliers are adding neat tips to their web sites. To take advantage of these there should be a listing of helpful websites posted in the training room with a sentence or two synopsis of what problems the site solves. Employees should be encouraged to add to this list when they come across a particularly good one. Many of these industry suppliers will offer an e-mail heads up when something new has been posted.

The side bar to this article lists a few of the Printing and Allied Industry Associations' Internet addresses:

National Association of Printing Leadership - www.napl.org
American Forest & Paper Association - www.afandpa.org
Binding Industries of America - www.pii.org
Digital Printing & Imaging Association (DPI) - www.dpia.org
Document Management Industries Association - www.dmia.org
Foil Stamping & Embossing Association - www.fsea.org
Graphic Arts Show Company - www.gasc.org
National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers - www.napim.org
NPES - The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing, and Converting Technologies - www.npes.org
Printing Industry Credit Executives - www.pice.com
Research & Engineering Council of the Graphic Arts Industry - www.recouncil.org
Technical Association of the Graphic Arts (TAGA) - www.taga.org

Training opportunities do not have to be expensive and involve a lot of time away from the plant. Top management must make the commitment that continual training is important to and for every employee. A longer term benefit for all concerned will be realized when the initiative of all participants is encouraged and acknowledged. And just like school assignments - no homework and no quizzes makes short shrift of the educational opportunity.

Article prepared by C. Clint Bolte, C. Clint Bolte & Associates, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. For additional information please call 717-263-5768, fax 717-263-8945, or e-mail to clint@clintbolte.com.